I've been at the CLA Game Fair today - always an interesting event!
I met lots of old friends and some people I wouldn't exactly class as friends but are quite interesting.
We had a small reception on our stand which was well attended - including two Defra Ministers, Mr Paice and Mr Benyon. Our Chief Executive, Mike Clarke spoke about Futurescapes and the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust's relatively new Chairman, Ian Coghill, made an excellent speech which majored on collaboration. Ian would, himself, be a very easy person with whom to collaborate.
I was on a panel which was supposed to discuss whether the government's priority should be fox-hunting, badger culling or bird conservation!It was a discussion about badgers!
Because the Minister Mr Paice was on the panel we learned quite a lot - I think I helped to tease out the information. The government will consult in the autumn on the way forward. This will include a review of the science and an approach which will, it seems, include some culling, some vaccination and some controls on cattle movements. The costs of any culling will largely be met by the farming industry.
I think the RSPB can welcome this approach. This issue is very contentious - that much was clear in the room and each time I mention badgers on this blog. To set out the thinking and the science must be a good idea. I am sure that Mr Paice is keen to see some badger culling go ahead, but at least the government is sticking to its election manifesto pledge to be led by science (it seems) and at least there will be a consultation before a decision. We await the consultation with interest.
A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
Trimbush - I will look at the info on spoligotypes - but I haven't yet. It sounds interesting and important. While I am doing that, perhaps you could explain how cases of bTB crop up at great distances from the 'core' areas. They seem to be clear examples of where transmission is very unlikely to have been from wildlife. And therefore will need to be factored in in any bTB eradication programme.
Sooty - the RSPB recommended that money should go into vaccine research before the Krebs trials started. If we had been heeded then we might have a vaccine now. It was partly the fixation within the farming community on 'proving' that badgers were 'to blame' that distracted attention from vaccines. And it is unfair to say that nothing has been done - what you might mean is that no badgers have been culled but that is because the science apparently suggests that badger culling has limited value.
Gert - you are right to keep an eye on how much public money is spent on bTB - that is a reason for eradicating bTB and a reason for making sure that any solutions to the problem are real ones based on science. But no-one said it was simple!
All - thanks for your comments. I value them. Let's try not to fall out over this - keep the points coming, please.