The vast majority of the badgers cruelly snared and killed by the Department of Agriculture and later tested for TB were found to NOT have the disease.
The Department mercilessly snares and kills up to 7,000 badgers every year (under a licence shamefully issued by the Department of Heritage’s National Parks and Wildlife Service division) as part of its failed TB Eradication Scheme.
But a Dail Question from Paul Murphy TD (RISE/Solidarity, Dublin South West) this month has uncovered the fact that up to 80% of badgers killed by the Department and later tested for the bacteria which causes bovine TB have returned negative results.
Last year, post mortems were carried out on 350 of the thousands of badgers who were killed. Just 102 (or 29%) tested positive, meaning 71% of the badgers killed and tested were not carrying the bacteria. In the previous four years, the figures were
2019 (298 tested - 28% positive, 72% negative),
2018 (281 tested - 24% positive, 76% negative),
2017 (180 tested - 23% positive, 77% negative),
2016 (220 tested - 20% positive, 80% negative).
The average over the past five years has been 25% positive and 75% negative. The Minister for Agriculture told Deputy Murphy that the killing of all the snared badgers is cheaper than identifying those who are negative or positive - “resource allocation concentrates on removing badgers (between 5,000 and 7,000 per annum in recent years) rather than the expensive test for evidence of the presence of M bovis”.
The snaring has been previously condemned as “slaughter masquerading as science” and has caused the deaths of an estimated 120,000 badgers since 1984, including more than 60,000 in the past decade
There are renewed calls on the government to end the cruel cull following the recently published results of a 3-year Department-funded study which found that a vaccine “could be a highly effective means of reducing the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) in badger populations.”
https://agriland.ie/farming-news/bcg-vaccination-of-badgers-could-be-highly-effective-in-reducing-tb-incidence/
Previously, in 2015, a major 4-year research project carried out by the Department of Agriculture, National Parks and Wildlife Service and a team from Trinity College Dublin revealed that badgers actually avoid cattle.
Speaking about the findings of the so-called Wicklow N11 Badger Study, a Department of Agriculture Veterinary Inspector told RTE’s "Living the Wildlife" programme: "What showed up was consistently, all the badgers avoided going in to farm yards. If they did go in to a yard, it was more likely to be a horse yard or a disused yard. They all consistently avoided going in to yards on cattle farms. That was a most unexpected finding."
Outlining that the study involved 40 badgers who sent back 31,000 locations via attached GPS-enabled collars, the Inspector went on to say: "Badgers will actively avoid going in to fields where there are cattle. So when they go out on their nightly wanderings and they find there are cattle in a field, they'll divert off somewhere else. And even if that's one of their preferred foraging areas, they'll still decide to avoid it." Watch the Living the Wildlife programme at https://youtu.be/ExBNYCsf7L0
Bernie Barrett of Badger Watch Ireland has described how badgers suffer under the Department’s scheme: "The method of capture is a barbaric wire snare which holds the helpless badger in excruciating pain until it is dispatched by gunshot. That’s provided the animal has not agonisingly strangled itself beforehand. When nursing female badgers are snared and shot, their cubs are left to starve to death underground."
According to the Irish Wildlife Trust: "Badgers can die over extended periods struggling in these hideous devices while their young starve underground. Not only is it barbaric and unethical, recent findings have shown it to be ineffective in the war on bovine TB. Nobody has ever counted badgers accurately in this country and while it has always been assumed that they are common animals, this can no longer be taken for granted."
Watch a video showing a badger being rescued from a Department snare
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAhoGV13uvc
ACTION ALERT
Urge the Minister for Agriculture to show compassion and permanently end the cruel badger snaring operation.
Charlie McConalogue
Minister for Agriculture
Tel: 01 618 3199 or 01 607 2000
Email: minister@agriculture.gov.ie; charlie.mcconalogue@oireachtas.ie
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CharlieMcConalogue
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/@McConalogue
Appeal to the Heritage Minister and the National Parks and Wildlife Service to stop licensing the snaring and killing of thousands of badgers.
Minister Darragh O’Brien (Fianna Fail, Dublin Fingal)
Tel: (01) 618 3802 OR (086) 251 9893
Email: darragh.obrien@oireachtas.ie; minister@housing.gov.ie; natureconservation@housing.gov.ie; WildlifeLicence@housing.gov.ie
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DarraghOBrienTD
Twitter: http://twitter.com/DarraghOBrienTD
Dail Question and Answer
16 September 2021
Paul Murphy TD: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of culled badgers that are tested for TB; the number of badger post-mortems for TB that have been carried out by county in each of the past ten years; and the number of badgers that tested positive and negative, respectively for TB.
Minister Charlie McConalogue: Bovine TB is caused by a bacteria called Mycobacterium bovis (M bovis), with infection endemic in cattle and badgers in Ireland. Removal of badgers has been demonstrated to reduce the risk of spread of M bovis between badgers and cattle in many research studies over many years. This has been proven to occur more readily when prevalence in badgers is greater than 30%. When prevalence is less than 10%, spread occurs only sporadically. The badger removal programme, which compliments the badger vaccination programme, concentrates on reducing badger density where epidemiological investigations demonstrate the spread from badgers to cattle is likely to be the cause of TB breakdowns on Irish farms.
Resource allocation concentrates on removing badgers (between 5,000 and 7,000 per annum in recent years) rather than the expensive test for evidence of the presence of M bovis. Recently the contract pathology services have been asked to provide information on when macroscopic evidence of disease is present in badgers. Whilst this will not give a true level of prevalence it will be a useful proxy to compare infection levels geographically and over time. No data is available from this new programme to date but it is expected to be available at the end of 2021.
Separate to this, some badgers are subject to a more detailed post mortem in Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Regional Veterinary Laboratories as part of specific studies and specific disease situations.
The results of these examinations are shown in the tables below. The data over the last 10 years is not readily available. However, the data for the last 5 years is shown in the following tables:
Table 1: Regional Veterinary Lab Badger Post Mortem Submissions by Year
Year: Total Badgers - Positive / Percentage
2016: 220 - 44 / 20%
2017: 180 - 41 / 23%
2018: 281 - 66 / 24%
2019: 298 - 83 / 28%
2020: 350 - 102 / 29%
Table 2: Regional Veterinary Laboratory Badger Post Mortem Submissions by County 2016-2020
Regional Veterinary Office - Number of Badgers
Cork North RVO - 287
Cavan RVO - 146
Tipperary North RVO - 107
Monaghan RVO - 96
Meath RVO - 93
Sligo RVO - 91
Kerry RVO - 72
Cork West RVO - 64
Kilkenny RVO - 59
Leitrim RVO - 47
Limerick RVO - 43
Galway RVO - 42
Wexford RVO - 40
Donegal RVO - 28
Offaly DVO - 24
Waterford RVO - 24
Longford RVO - 15
Tullamore RVO - 11
Roscommon RVO - 10
Mayo RVO - 9
Clare RVO - 6
Others - 6
Laois RVO - 4
Wicklow East RVO - 4
Kildare RVO - 1