Badger threat

[Hivemaker.]

Moreover, many more dairy cows are killed each year because of lameness, mastitis or infertility than are killed because of bovine TB. After all, a cow is only kept alive as long as there is money to be made by doing so."

Sounds like mastitis and infertility are a big problem.

 

[beebreeder]

"So we have removed the predators like wolves and bears ect,which means we have to now be the predators..for the likes of starving red dear which now have no other predators in this country apart from man." - Hivemaker

The deer are starving because their natural predators have been removed through culling and hunting by man and now we have another problem as a consequence of that.

Do I kill varroa mites? Yes I do because I see varroa mites as a disease and I protect the honeybees in much the same way as I take antibiotics when I have an infection. We use antibiotics to boost our immune system. In evolutionary terms it is the survival of the fittest and if we didn't use medicines the number of human beings in the world would significantly decrease. In strict evolutionary terms it should be the survival of the fittest but we choose to protect honeybees as a means of conservation. Does this raise another question? Does it mean that by artificially treating the varroa mite we get a resistant varroa mite in time instead of the fittest of honeybees succeeding? A complex issue, the consequences of which should be considered.

So you kill varroa mites because they can kill your bees, but the bigger problem is the virus load that the mites put the bees under, the mite just vectors the virus load, the same way that badgers vector TB so back into perpective you kill mites to lower the viral load, the badger cull is to lower the tb vector.
Have you lived in the country all your life and seen the untold damage that badgers do?

 

[PBee]

Have you lived in the country all your life and seen the untold damage that badgers do?

They do untold damage to worms, leatherjackets, wasps, the odd hedgehog etc and then they tend to go home in a civilised fashion before breakfast.

 

[Neil]

Uneducated, greedy, bloodthirsty lot..... They ask do we know the 'untold damage Badgers do?'......what a joke....farming methods have caused the bovine tb problem and only a change in farming methods will solve it.....a simple skim of the science will tell anyone this.....killing wildlife is cheaper though..... Even though it is incredibly expensive.... If 'people' are so concerned about 'damage' they should change the farming practices then slaughter due to mastitis, BOVINE Tb and other diseases would be reduced. Ignoring the cold hard facts because they do not fit your world view (or wallet) does not change the facts..... Vaccination, better bio security, better standards of cattle welfare and stricter controls in cattle movement are the way to solve the problem.....like it or not those are the facts. And yes I have lived in the country...

 

[rockdoc]

That's got to be the largest diverted OP I've ever seen. I simply mentioned the word cull at the beginning of my OP to avoid opening up that particular debate. As we've gone so far off message it might be an idea to end this thread now before any more heated exchanges take place. For the record, I will be taking my chances with the badgers this winter (there may only be one passing through), so no satellite dishes, wire fences or otherwise. Just like when my father forgot to lock up the chicken coup and lost them all to Mr Fox, I will try and see it as my rent to the countryside if I lose a hive to these delightful creatures.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

better bio security,

A start would be to cancel the so-called 'right to roam' the last swine fever outbreak was probably one of these wooly hatters discarding a sandwich with some suspect supermarket ham in.

(I deleted the rest of the hyper emotive stuff......)
If people didn't demand to pay no more than bugger all for their cheap tesco finest rubberised chcken/beef/pork , New Zealand lamb and butter (another con trike like manuka) and milk and farmers got a decent payment for their produce maybe standars naturally would rise. Believe you me I know a lot of farmers and they all care for their animals - the only problems I've seen are the 'back to the land sell the flat in london and buy a cheap smallholding in woolyback country" types
(......and as you can see replaced it with some better stuff of my own)

 

[Luminos]

Have you lived in the country all your life and seen the untold damage that badgers do?
No...probably because we haven't been told about it

 

[iand]

...farming methods have caused the bovine tb problem and only a change in farming methods will solve it.....

When did farming methods change to cause the problem?