As badger culls begin, could one pioneering vet’s bovine TB test end the slaughter?
by Patrick Barkham from Environment | The Guardian on (#352A9)
Research at a secret location in Devon may help eradicate bovine tuberculosis without a single badger being killed, says leading vet
A pretty stone farmhouse sits in a bucolic green valley, surrounded by airy cowsheds. It looks like a timeless west country scene but is actually a pioneering farm, where cutting-edge science is helping to solve the hugely controversial, multimillion-pound problem of bovine tuberculosis (bTB).
As an expanded badger cull gets under way this autumn, in which 33,500 animals will be killed to help stop the spread of the disease, a leading vet, Dick Sibley, believes this Devon farm demonstrates a way to eradicate the disease in cattle - without slaughtering any badgers.
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