Not surprising cows are prone to illness
AFTER reading Justin Kerswell's excellent letter (Culling badgers will not really stop TB, February 21), I also would like to comment on the demonisation of the badger by dairy farmers. Why is it they have to look for a scapegoat?
Taking a good look at the life of a modern cow, I think it not surprising that she is so prone to disease. She has been designed and bred to produce up to 10,000 litres of milk a year, 10 times more than a calf could drink.
To do this she has to be made pregnant every year. After a nine-month pregnancy her calf is allowed to suckle from her for only a day or two. The rest of her milk is reserved for humans.
If the calf is male, he is either shot in the head, or transported to the continent for veal, where his fate is too awful to contemplate. Most male calves are not suitable for meat.
To return to the cow she is forcibly made pregnant again, and has to endure the burden of nurturing the growing calf inside her and producing huge quantities of milk at the same time.
Together with the stress of having her calf taken away from her, she then has a good chance of developing mastitis and is liable to crippling foot and leg disorders.
A quarter of dairy cows are so exhausted by the stress that they are slaughtered after a year or so.
Most manage only three lactations and are killed after only four or five years, although their life expectancy is 21 years or more.
Is it any wonder that these animals have such poor immune systems and contract tuberculosis, which is a disease of poor nutrition and privation?
All the trauma for the cow, plus the prospect of killing our wildlife, is a very high price to pay to produce something that no-one really needs.
Milk is a natural food for infant calves, not for adult humans.
We are the only species to drink milk after we are weaned, and then milk from an unrelated species.
If you stop and think about it, it is quite bizarre.
Joan Jones
Devon Heath, Chudleigh Knighton
2 Comments
by alice, wales
Tuesday, March 01 2011, 12:02PM
“And why are the farming unions farmers and the Minister not pressing for the changes in EU regulations necessary so that cattle can be vaccinated as a matter of urgent priority instead of dragging their feet? The DIVA vaccine will be ready by next year, then there is a period of several years because of these regulations. They should be up in arms about it. All the energy has gone into villifying badgers.”
by Francis Kirkham, Crediton
Tuesday, March 01 2011, 11:29AM
“Research done some years ago showed that the incidence of TB in dairy herds was five times that in beef herds and three times as high as in mixed beef and dairy herds. Other factors positively related to TB incidence included multiple site ownership (implying an increase due to movement between different sites) and cattle housed in winter as opposed to kept outside.
Other research showed that TB incidence was lower under 'conservation-friendly' (i.e. less intensive) farming methods.
Badgers have undoubtedly become a very significant source of infection in recent years - which is unfortunate both for cattle and for the badgers themselves. We have had TB in cattle in this country since at least the beginning of the 20th century, but the first case in badgers in this country wasn't recorded until 1971 (first in Europe was in Austria in 1956).
Cases of TB in cattle have been declining slightly over the last 2-3 years, probably due to tightening up of testing and restrictions on movement without pre-testing.
If a cull goes ahead we must make sure enough information is collected to quantify the benefits of culling (if any) against the backdrop of this apparently declining trend.”