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Badger cull: Vets criticise Defra for ‘untrue statements’
Vets from the Prion Interest Group said there is ‘no proof whatsoever’ that changes in the incidence of bTB in cattle in the cull zones are linked to badger culling.
CVO urged to examine comments on effectiveness of culling 

Vets have criticised Defra for making ‘insupportable claims’ that the badger cull is working, and have sought a retraction or revision of the statements.

Writing in Vet Record, vets from the Prion Interest Group said there is ‘no proof whatsoever’ that changes in the incidence of bTB in cattle in the cull zones are linked to badger culling.

Last month Defra provided a statement to Radio 4’s Farming Today programme, stating that recent data show initial badger culls in the higher risk area have had ‘a positive impact on disease incidence’.

However, vets said that the APHA report to which this refers states: ‘these data alone cannot demonstrate whether the badger control policy is effective in reducing bovine TB in cattle’. Furthermore, the incidence and prevalence of bTB had been falling in Gloucestershire and Somerset for three years before culling began.

They continued: 'The claimed changes in incidence, even if valid, would be within the fluctuations of normal variation, and as no data was published from matched control areas to mitigate for confounding factors and extant trends, linking any claimed fall in officially tuberculosis free status-withdrawn (OTF-W) incidence to badger culling is entirely unjustified.’                      

Defra responded to the vets’ assertions on Farming Today by saying: ‘Calling our calculation of the rate of new bTB cases “opaque and impossible to confirm independently without raw data” is simply incorrect’. Also last month, farming minister George Eustice stated to parliament in a similar vein: “As well as the headline incidence rate and prevalence, the raw data that underpins these calculations was also published”.

Vets said Defra itself stated in February 2015 that changing to the use of 100 herd-years at risk as a measure for calculating incidence, is that it is ‘not calculable from the published data set because the actual dates herds were tested and the test result (positive or negative) is required to calculate the denominator’.

In addition, although much of the data has been published, ‘key data necessary for the calculation of incidence are absent,’ they added.

Vets concluded by saying: ‘The issuing by Defra of untrue statements which cannot be justified by the data on which they rely, sets an extremely dangerous precedent, since they will undoubtedly be used to justify the continued roll-out of a policy which will result in the suffering and death of many thousands of animals.”

They are calling on the chief veterinary officer to examine the statements and seek immediate and public retraction by Defra, or a revision to reflect what can truly be inferred by examining the data.

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Vets to run marathon for World Animal Protection

News Story 1
 Two recently graduated veterinary surgeons will be running the London Marathon in April to raise money for the charity World Animal Protection.

Alex Bartlett and Maeve O'Neill plan to run the race together if they are given the same start times.

Dr O'Neill said: "You're always limited in what you can do to help animals, so it is nice to raise money for a charity that helps animals around the world."

Dr Bartlett added: "I have never run a marathon before and am excited to run my first one for such a good cause!"

Both Dr Bartlett and Dr O'Neill have fundraising pages online. 

Click here for more...
News Shorts
BSAVA releases new Guide to Procedures

The British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) has published a new edition of its Guide to Procedures for Small Animal Practice.

It has added four new procedures; cystostomy tube placement, endotracheal intubation, point-of-care ultrasound and wet-to-dry dressings.

BSAVA says that it is an essential step-by-step guide to diagnostic and therapeutic procedures performed in practice. The textbook includes new images and illustrations, as well as high-definition videos for use prior to procedures.

Nick Bexfield and Julia Riggs, editors of the new edition, said: "We have built upon the success of the previous editions by responding to the feedback received from the BSAVA readership, and hope this new guide helps to further increase the confidence and accuracy with which these procedures are performed."

Print copies are available in the BSAVA store, with a digital version in the BSAVA library.