http://britishecologicalsociety.org/blog/blog/2010/02/10/new-report-casts-doubt-on-cost-effectiveness-of-badger-cull/ Topical information for researchers, policy advisers and the public who are interested in the interaction between ecology and public policy. Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:06:05 +0100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://britishecologicalsociety.org/blog/blog/2010/02/10/new-report-casts-doubt-on-cost-effectiveness-of-badger-cull/comment-page-1/#comment-104636 John A W Lock Tue, 11 Jan 2011 19:50:18 +0000 http://britishecologicalsociety.org/blog/?p=865#comment-104636 Although to the majority of the public four years may not seem like a very long time before you have to repeat the control process, to the dairy farmer it represents a substantial rebate. After all to avoid perennial problems such as mastitis (which removes more animals than ever bTB does) they have to carry out preventative procedures on a twice-daily basis, at which point once every four years doesn't look so bad. The same situation apples with vermin in grain stores etc: you have to keep on repeating the procedures year after year after year. There's no magic bullet that cleans out rodents or insects forever so it's hard to understand why we should expect to find one with a persistent pathogen like bTB. After all we've been trying to eliminate the human form for decades... Although to the majority of the public four years may not seem like a very long time before you have to repeat the control process, to the dairy farmer it represents a substantial rebate. After all to avoid perennial problems such as mastitis (which removes more animals than ever bTB does) they have to carry out preventative procedures on a twice-daily basis, at which point once every four years doesn’t look so bad. The same situation apples with vermin in grain stores etc: you have to keep on repeating the procedures year after year after year. There’s no magic bullet that cleans out rodents or insects forever so it’s hard to understand why we should expect to find one with a persistent pathogen like bTB. After all we’ve been trying to eliminate the human form for decades…

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