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| Newsletters | January Newsletter 2017 | Home |
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The
Badger Cull
Unlike 2015 badger culling
operations in ten areas of England in 2016 have all achieved their targets
for the number of animals removed according to figures released by DEFRA
last week. Numbers culled range from 217 in Somerset to 3000 in one area of
Dorset. Culls have now taken place in Devon, Cornwall, Gloucestershire and
Herefordshire as well. In two areas the four years of culling have been
completed and the chief Veterinary Officer is pleased with the results. He
adds that they plan now is to maintain badger numbers at this low level in
the intensively culled areas, but there are few details as to how they
intend to do this as presumably badger numbers here will now rise as the
population pressure has been removed. The plan is to have a consultation to
determine the best way to do this.
End of Badger Vaccination There is no mention of badger
vaccination. It sounds as if problems with vaccine supplies have not been
resolved and that this is not now part of the tuberculosis control strategy.
There is no way of knowing if vaccinating badgers had any effect. It was an
expensive exercise and the feeling is that it would have been better to have
used the funds to fully compensate farmers for their lost stock.
Tuberculosis Free Regions This year DEFRA have applied to
get officially TB Free status for the North and East of England. I am not
sure how these things work. I guess that in countries the size of France it
is acceptable to have a different health status in different regions of the
country because it is so big. We are only a small island and our regions do
not have clearly defined boundaries. The TB map shows sixteen holdings
restricted by the disease in the North of England and eighteen in the
Eastern part of the country. The map does not show the numbers of animals
involved or the size of the holdings, but I guess this level of infection
must qualify for disease free status. There are about forty active cases in
Shropshire at the moment. Movements of Cattle I dont know much about cattle
movements, but I do know that a considerable number of calves from the South
West of England and South Wales end up in the North East of the country as
some of them are reared here in Shropshire. You will all know that many of
your store cattle go that way for fattening as you would have met buyers at
our local markets. Should these plans go ahead this trade will increase. I
can see this causing all sorts of problems. It seems wrong that animals in
the east of the country will have a greater value because they are sold from
a TB free region. Anglesey has only four active cases and there are none on
the Isle of Man surely these could be Officially TB free areas as well.
Monitoring Other Species There are other changes in the
control policy. The plan is to make more use of the gamma interferon blood
test in herds that have had a high number of reactors in an effort to make
sure the breakdown has been fully resolved. DEFRA will now have new powers
to deal with TB outbreaks in goats, deer and Camelids and for the first time
there will be compensation agreements for non-bovine animals. There are
small changes to the ibTB online map which will now be updated every two
weeks instead of every month. It is not clear why this cannot be done in
real time. Most farmers will need to sell calves or store cattle after
restrictions are lifted and for the web site to work it would be better if
the site carried up to date information.
Bird Flu 2016 On December 16th the
highly pathogenic strain of bird flu H5N8 turned up at a turkey farm near
Louth in Lincolnshire. Most of the 5,000 turkeys died the rest were humanely
destroyed and so far there hasnt been any more outbreaks. In the past
week the same strain has been found from a peregrine falcon that was found
dead in Dumfries and Galloway and in dead wild widgeon in Leicester,
Somerset and Carmarthenshire. It would seem that this strain of the virus is
particularly lethal to turkeys, geese and ducks. Restrictions on the housing
of domestic fowl will be reviewed at the end of this week. Bird flu in one
form or another comes here with migrating birds every winter. It is a
difficult situation because one part of DEFRA is doing all that it can to
encourage wild life, you can get grants for environmental schemes even if
you are a poultry farm. Another part is involved with the consequences of
the migrating birds bringing disease to our flocks. It is not clear if there
will be housing restrictions on poultry every winter. The rules are that you
can still sell produce as free range as long as you do not have to keep them
in for more than twelve weeks of the year. It would be sad if new producers
made the calculation that it safer to keep birds in throughout the year
because of what is going on at the moment
Cattle with Lice Most cattle are housed now and
winter gives us an opportunity to take a close look at your stock and make
sure there are no external parasites that may affect their growth. There are
four kinds of lice that complete their whole life cycle on cattle. One
biting louse and four different species of sucking lice. All of them cause
itching and hair loss. Cattle with lice spend less time feeding and will not
do as well as they do once they are treated. The pyrethroid pour on products
work well as do all of the injectable or pour on ivomec based drugs. The
latter will destroy all of the sucking lice and 98% of the biting ones.
Cattle
with Psorioptic Mange
Cattle also suffer from three types of mange. Sarcoptic mange is
very rare which surprises me as it is common in foxes now and often seen in
dogs, but somehow they do not seem to transmit it to cattle. Since the start
of the winter in 2007 Psorioptic mange has been a problem on some farms
particularly if they have imported cattle. This mite is the cause of intense
itching along the neck and spine. The skin is thickened here and becomes
flaky as serum oozes through. This is the same species of parasite that is
the cause of sheep scab. Cattle are often close to sheep with scab and
mostly they do not pick up this infection. Just occasionally cattle will
develop it if they are housed next to sheep that have scab so take care
isolate itchy sheep well away from cattle.
Cattle with Chorioptic Mange Chorioptic mange is more common
and affects the skin on the tail head and eventually down the legs and
around the udder. Chorioptic mange tends to be noticeable more towards the
end of the winter and makes cows difficult to milk if it is not treated
promptly. Pour on pyrethroids and the injectables used to treat lice work
well and one treatment will normally suffice. It is important to treat all
of your stock if you come across any of these conditions. If mange is
diagnosed there is a chance that it will recur in subsequent years so repeat
treatments at this time of the year are advised to stop problem later on.
There are continuing concerns about antibiotic resistance in human medicine. In the past forty years only two new antibiotic molecules have been developed and there are concerns that many conditions are no longer treatable as resistance problems arise. Antibiotics are essential but many drug companies have closed their research facilities to find new compounds. Patients can be on cancer drugs for prolonged periods whereas antibiotics are used for only a few weeks so it is difficult for pharmaceutical companies to justify their development costs. There is a tendency for fewer antibiotics to be used on farms. This is only part of the resistance story. Some bacteria are resistant to compounds that they have never been exposed to so it is not just a case of reducing the quantities of antibiotics used.
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