The badger debate really is getting boring now, they should not be protected and need controlling, all species without predators get out of control, and for me, there is enough evidence to at least trial culling, though I accept it may not be THE answer in the long term, it needs to be tried, as there really aren’t any viable alternatives at the moment.
Vaccinating badgers would be futile, and frankly a huge waste of resources & time, as you cannot guarantee to reach a high enough percentage of the population.
The compensation being paid out to farmers for TB infected cattle is millions, and increasing, so the situation needs sorting.
The long term, and best solution is cattle vaccination, but that is some years off as a synthetic vaccine that doesn’t use the live virus is required in order to maintain exports. Current vaccines use a live virus component which tests can’t differentiate from the actual virus. If we were to use that it would kill the export market overnight.
yes badgers are cute and cuddly & nice to see to the general population, and they don’t appear to do any harm, but the truth is their numbers are spiralling out of control & they are the most likely carrier of TB.
It may not be ideal, but I don’t see any better alternative to a trial cull, at least in the short – medium term.
Have lost all respect for (Dr) Brian May by the way, what a twonk.