Twitter loves easy black & white issues. “X must be banned”.
Reality can be complex….

“Rescue” mallards doing well. Actually day old chicks found in the village a couple of weeks ago & put on our doorstep by well meaning villager….

Puffins are brilliant swimmers! Using their webbed feet as a rudder, puffins can dive down 60m under water in search of their favourite fish. 🐟
📷 Tracy Robinson

This is true. It applies fairly generally to environmentalists & conservationists. They have a point, often strong, but they view it in total isolation.

70% for me. How well do you know our nearest neighbour…

For those genuinely interested in the science around the #badgercull this is an easy to understand resume of a complex statistical paper…..

The Birch paper that showed a 56% fall in cattle TB in badger cull areas has been much discussed or even dismissed as unwelcome by some.
Good fair summary of its findings here…

rj8a5f.n3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/upl…

TB. The Great Slayer.
I am reminded of the deadly interplay between bovine TB and human TB.
And how Russell's research on tuberculin test starting in the 1890's helped Wisconsin farmers cull symptomless-yet-infected cows from their herds.

A pioneering example of #OneHealth

Irish vets view of TB control.

Most important barriers are badgers, government communication & lack of belief eradication is possible (it isn’t).

sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

The infamous Bullingdon Cats photo. Three of these cats went on to be the Downing Street cat, while the fourth, Lord Tibbles of Wrentham (bottom), was implicated in the Peterhead haddock scandal.

Robust & impressive membership for Wales’ TB advisory group. Suspect there may be policy changes coming.

Summary of badgers vaccinated against TB in England.
No such data seems available for Wales, suspect the number for the last year would be very small indeed.

gov.uk/government/pub….

Updated results on badgers sampled for TB in culled areas continue to look promising for both badgers & cattle….

Avian flu detected in North Carolina dairy herd

Seven states have now reported the virus in dairy herds, with detections at 21 facilities.

ow.ly/PaKJ50RcCyn

Photo: -tarat-/Flickr cc