“I agree completely, this cull will not solve the problem and has been planned to appease farmers who don't want to have to do anything that is inconvenient to them and don't agree with any findings that implicate them in the spread of the disease. So badgers are to be exterminated - trapped and shot in this case - while farmers are free to carry on their own merry way with little thought for the consequences.”

“I cannot believe that Wales is to go down the same route as the Irish Republic.
After slaughtering badgers in Ireland for a number of years, the badger is now almost extinct in some areas, thousands of snares are still being set on a nightly basis.
How much difference has this made to the incidence of bTB?, unfortunately very little, in fact the incidence of bTB has risen beyond that which it was before the killing started.
It is utter madness to ignore the fact that a lot needs to be done about the very inaccurate TB test itself.
In my humble opinion, every cow should be tested before it is moved off the the farm, to be sold on at a market or privately.
This should be compulsory, I am sure it would help a long way in stopping some of the very obvious cattle to cattle transmission.
This is a cattle disease, and the badger is unfortunate to have been singled out as the cause.
We have been killing badgers in England since the mid 70s, in one way or another, no amount of killing has ever solved this problem.
We paid out millions of tax payers money for scientific reports, and what happened when we got them? We refused to accept what the science has told us
It is inherent nonsense to think that killing any more badgers will solve this problem.
We need, as Dr Chris Cheeseman says, a more competent testing program, proper on farm hygiene and security.
Must we kill out our badgers before it becomes painfully obvious we are wrong?
I am not a bunny hugger, but a retired farmer living in a TB hot-spot, I was very lucky never to have had the disease in my herd, however all the neighboring farms did, despite the fact that 4 clans of badgers cross the land here, and we have 2 resident setts.

Why?
I think one contributing factor may have been stocking density, and also the deer fence put up by my boss may have contributed somewhat to this.
The deer population in lowland areas here, is in my opinion out of control, there was a time when we rarely saw a deer, now it is possible to see as many as 30 grazing in the fields where my neighbor keeps his dairy cows.
The dairy cow itself is no longer the robust animal it was when my grandmother was farming, it has been bred as a milking machine, its problems are numerous. The immune systems of today's dairy cows are very poor.
As to the badger, considering the way they live in close confinement, they must have built up a vast immunity to this disease, if not we would indeed be seeing a serious problems in our badger populations.
A recent report on the 11,000 , badgers that were culled here in Devon during the Latest trials, of these 1100 were positive, but only 166 actually had the disease, and were in a condition to pass the disease on.
The badgers here and on neighboring farms were sampled and tested, (culled for testing) and this proved to be negative for bTB.
I am afraid that once the cull starts in Wales it will not be long before the government gives into pressure and the same thing will happen again here in Devon that happened during the 70s and 80s.
I really think it will.
Our remaining badgers are healthy, we all know that here, we had to sacrifice a few to get the results, but how long will this remain the case, when we start stressing them with trapping and snaring.
I just wish the NFU and co, would read the reports, and not be so hysterical about this subject.
Wake up and smell the coffee before its to late.”