Ouch, yes I know, a real howler of a title, yet irresistible. It’s TB testing time on the farm which must bring any British farmer out in a cold sweat, even if the temperatures here are still way in the minus. Peter the vet gave the cows their TB injection and will come back in 3 days to see if any have reacted to the inoculation. A scary time for any farmer, however if you produce raw milk then it’s probably Armageddon. Steve has never had TB on the farm but only 10 miles away, near to Lewes, the disease is endemic. Luckily Longleys farm is flanked by rivers, and having a closed herd means the disease will never come through an introduced cow. But that brings us on to badgers.
Seems badgers are a prickly point. In the South West of England many, many are infected. They move around a lot and infect their own kind as well as cows. Although there is a government programme to cull TB infected cows, the same is not the case for badgers. It’s a real sore point. Both farmer and vet see it as one very sorry state when a government is so unwilling to act and can condemn thousands of cows to useless slaughter every year. The vet told me most other countries can control their TB and it’s not an issue – it’s here in the UK we seem incapable of acting.
What do you think?
