Ireland wastes 70 million on barbarisim

stupidusername

44leto wrote: »

Its a scary terrifying beast that can eat you, keep them down the sticks is what I say.

Ignore me I am just trolling.

But why are farmers reluctant to vaccinate here. I remember this debate during the last TB outbreak. I don't remember the reasons against.

hmm ok.

I would be interested in the reasons they would be reluctant to vacintate, it may be good. Might have something to do with the product (milk/meat) quality.

hooradiation

steddyeddy wrote: »

Are you joking?? How can a badger trapped in a snare aquire food, order take away?

Or, and bear with me because i think this might blow your mind, they are shot.

steddyeddy

hooradiation wrote: »

Or, and bear with me because i think this might blow your mind, they are shot.

No their not the irish wildlife trust had to clean up the mess from the last culling.

The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) is opposed to badger culling and the use of snares. Not only is it barbaric and unethical, recent findings have shown it to be ineffective in the war on bovine TB. Badgers can die over extended periods struggling in these hideous devices while their young starve underground. 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.

hooradiation

steddyeddy wrote: »

No their not the irish wildlife trust had to clean up the mess from the last culling.

Yes they are.
I know this because I've been present when it's being done.

steddyeddy

hooradiation wrote: »

Yes they are.
I know this because I've been present when it's being done.

Maybe a few are but as the irish wildlife trust says many are not. All off them cant be shot in time.

downwithpeace

I thought a gamekeeper or someone would at least check the traps daily and kill any badger found rather then letting the poor thing starve.

steddyeddy

downwithpeace wrote: »

I thought a gamekeeper or someone would at least check the traps daily and kill any badger found rather then letting the poor thing starve.

So did i but the irish wildlife trust states not all are.

SafeSurfer

steddyeddy wrote: »

From the Irish examiner. 70 million has been allocated to disease control this year alone. Tb is the biggest infectious diseases in ireland so it makes sense that their spending a significant amount of that. My agenda is to prevent pointless cruelty and prevent a massive waste of money on a plan based on faulty science.

Glad you are clear on that. The 70 million is not spent on killing badgers. The TB eradication scheme involves cattle testing, vets fees, blood samples, compensation for farmers for destroyed "reactors" etc. The portion of this money devoted to killing badgers would be tiny.
Will you fix your inaccurate and misleading Thread title now?

Run_to_da_hills

saywhatyousee wrote: »

There rodents you get paid by the government for shooting them and mink

Yet you could get six months from the government if you went out baiting them with dogs.

hooradiation

steddyeddy wrote: »

Maybe a few are but as the irish wildlife trust says many are not. All off them cant be shot in time.

Most are, after all it's wildly inefficient to let them starve if nothing else.

It's not beyond the realms of possibility that some are missed, but badgers are creatures of habit , it's how you know where to lay the snares - they follow the same path from the set so it's quite worn, so once you know that laying the snare is trivial so unless you forget where you put it there's not much call for losing it. Also, why run the risk of the badger uprooting the snare?

Then you shoot them in the body from a distance, because they will fucking murder you if you get close.

Yeah, the young ones will starve if there are any (which is why culls are kept to out of breeding season if possible, which is now btw) but if you'd like to root around in a set that may contain another adult badger, be my guest.

steddyeddy

SafeSurfer wrote: »

Glad you are clear on that. The 70 million is not spent on killing badgers. The TB eradication scheme involves cattle testing, vets fees, blood samples, compensation for farmers for destroyed "reactors" etc. The portion of this money devoted to killing badgers would be tiny.
Will you fix your inaccurate and misleading Thread title now?

A staff of seventy five? The cost of this would be tiny? Badger culling is in no way cheap.

steddyeddy

hooradiation wrote: »

Most are, after all it's wildly inefficient to let them starve if nothing else.

It's not beyond the realms of possibility that some are missed, but badgers are creatures of habit , it's how you know where to lay the snares - they follow the same path from the set so it's quite worn, so once you know that laying the snare is trivial so unless you forget where you put it there's not much call for losing it. Also, why run the risk of the badger uprooting the snare?

Then you shoot them in the body from a distance, because they will fucking murder you if you get close.

Yeah, the young ones will starve if there are any (which is why culls are kept to out of breeding season if possible, which is now btw) but if you'd like to root around in a set that may contain another adult badger, be my guest.

Good points all well made but the point of this thread is that culling does not need to be done at all.

Indubitable

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

steddyeddy wrote: »

A staff of seventy five? The cost of this would be tiny? Badger culling is in no way cheap.

I still don't see how a staff of 75 people requires a large portion of the 70 million.

steddyeddy

Indubitable wrote: »

I still don't see how a staff of 75 people requires a large portion of the 70 million.

The cost of the badger cull in the uk is expected to reach 92 million. Its not just laying traps a lot of planning surveying and co-ordination are required. My point is ten euro spent on this would be a waste of money!

SafeSurfer

steddyeddy wrote: »

A staff of seventy five? The cost of this would be tiny? Badger culling is in no way cheap.

Just to point out a further inaccuracy in your opening post, taxpayers do not fund this, it is funded through a statuary levy on milk sales and cattle slaughtered or exported.

mconigol

Deer are probably much worse for spreading disease than badgers...

SafeSurfer

steddyeddy wrote: »

The cost of the badger cull in the uk is expected to reach 92 million. Its not just laying traps a lot of planning surveying and co-ordination are required. My point is ten euro spent on this would be a waste of money!

The UK cull estimates 23,000 to 35,000 will be killed annually. The same report estimates 50,000 are killed on the roads annually.

Why don't you direct your ire against motor vehicles?

steddyeddy

SafeSurfer wrote: »

Just to point out a further inaccuracy in your opening post, taxpayers do not fund this, it is funded through a statuary levy on milk sales and cattle slaughtered or exported.

Certainly some of it as in the uk but the taxpayer pay for a substantial amount and everybody who buys milk is paying for this complete waste of money. Have you got a link to say what proportion of this is being paid for by the levey?

steddyeddy

SafeSurfer wrote: »

The UK cull estimates 23,000 to 35,000 will be killed annually. The same report estimates 50,000 are killed on the roads annually.

Why don't you direct your ire against motor vehicles?

Because theres not an organised badger cull using motor vehicles.

Kess73

It is almost laughable that such effort goes into the culling of badgers due to the potential threat of bovine TB, when there are a hell of a lot of other animals in Ireland that can carry the disease just as easily with many of them being far greater in number than the badger.

Any of the native Mustelids (of which the badger is one) can carry it, Rodents (which the badger is not) can carry it, foxes can carry it, domestic cats can carry it, deer can carry it, and so on.

What is very wrong is that all the culled badgers are not actually checked to see if they had been carrying the disease, so there would be a high probablility that a large number of killed badgers did not have it at all.

Then again this is Ireland, a country that has a pretty poor track record with it's own native species. Re-introduced species like the Red Kite and the White Tailed Sea eagle get poisoned on a regular basis and have idiots trying to claim that they are dangerous species. The Irish way seems to be one of just kill things, usually by some pretty brutal method, rather than to actually try to get information on the animal first.

steddyeddy

Kess73 wrote: »

It is almost laughable that such effort goes into the culling of badgers due to the potential threat of bovine TB, when there are a hell of a lot of other animals in Ireland that can carry the disease just as easily with many of them being far greater in number than the badger.

Any of the native Mustelids (of which the badger is one) can carry it, Rodents (which the badger is not) can carry it, foxes can carry it, domestic cats can carry it, deer can carry it, and so on.

What is very wrong is that all the culled badgers are not actually checked to see if they had been carrying the disease, so there would be a high probablility that a large number of killed badgers did not have it at all.

Then again this is Ireland, a country that has a pretty poor track record with it's own native species. Re-introduced species like the Red Kite and the White Tailed Sea eagle get poisoned on a regular basis and have idiots trying to claim that they are dangerous species. The Irish way seems to be one of just kill things, usually by some pretty brutal method, rather than to actually try to get information on the animal first.

Thanks Kess and that post is why your the mod of the nature forum. Very well said indeed! Ireland has indeed a very poor record with native species as you say. A lot of the justification is that a particular animal ireland takes a dislike to is classified as vermin which isnt a scientific term.

steddyeddy

mconigol wrote: »

Deer are probably much worse for spreading disease than badgers...

As Kess said theres lots of animals worse than badgers for spreading disease. Ill bet we have zero idea how many badgers actually carry tb aswell.

laugh

44leto wrote: »

Otherwise there wouldn't be a tree left in Dublin mountains.

The Dublin mountains exist only in the imagination of Dublin people.

Foghladh

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Yet you could get six months from the government if you went out baiting them with dogs.

Why would you bait them with a dog? Surely a short length of 2 be 4 would be just as handy. Has to be a lot easier than swinging a dog by its tail?

steddyeddy

laugh wrote: »

The Dublin mountains exist only in the imagination of Dublin people.

Ah they do exist now!

overshoot

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

From the article
"since 2000 the number of “reactors” – cattle that have failed the mandatory test for bovine TB – has fallen from 40,000 to 18,500.

The Minister told Independent TD Maureen O’Sullivan that in Britain, which did not cull badgers now but would begin a pilot project in the autumn, the number of reactors had increased from 6,000 in 1999 to 33,000 in 2010."

Looks like it works to me, so good in fact that it is being introduced in Britain.

steddyeddy wrote: »

The cost of the badger cull in the uk is expected to reach 92 million. Its not just laying traps a lot of planning surveying and co-ordination are required. My point is ten euro spent on this would be a waste of money!

right so lets get this right, doing this is a waste of money yet in means we have 22,500 extra cows to sell per year, not to mention not having to dispose of?
i think you(maybe it was someone else) mentioned golden eagles earlier too... seen as they were reintroduced in donegal i think this is appropriate, mink are also been targeted there where a few thousand were released from a farm by tree huggers. these are pillaging the environment, sheep, dogs to name bigger things are been killed but also the many of the eagles main food sources.
oh one more thing they (badgers) are seriously vicious things which is also why they are such a threat even though other animals carry disease. they are far more likely to attack anything and have no problems going after humans either...easily one of the worst things you will come across (if you leave dublin;))

Dr. Manhattan

laugh wrote: »

The Dublin mountains exist only in the imagination of Dublin people.

You're saying there are no mountains in the county of Dublin? Right, thanks for that.

laugh

Dr. Manhattan wrote: »

You're saying there are no mountains in the county of Dublin? Right, thanks for that.

Part of the mountain range known as the Wicklow mountains stretches into counties Carlow, Wexford and Dublin, only in Dublin do they change name.

Dr. Manhattan

laugh wrote: »

Part of the mountain range known as the Wicklow mountains stretches into counties Carlow, Wexford and Dublin, only in Dublin do they change name.

The parts that extend into Dublin are a reasonably distinct group, well deserving of a distinct name. The lack of local naming in other areas is presumably due to the fact that those hills are not as distinct as groups.

galwayrush

Lars1916 wrote: »

What's the natural enemy of the badger? Apart from us humans?

Zombie badgers.

steddyeddy

overshoot wrote: »

right so lets get this right, doing this is a waste of money yet in means we have 22,500 extra cows to sell per year, not to mention not having to dispose of?

We have twice the level of tb as Britian which stopped practising culls previously. Scotland doesnt practice culls yet they have nearly eradicated bovine tb. From the BBC website:

"If you've eradicated virtually all your badgers and you've still got twice the level of bovine TB in your national herd than you have in Britain, where we're not slaughtering our badgers, then clearly Ireland has got it wrong," Trevor Lawson told the BBC News website.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6653691.stm

i think you(maybe it was someone else) mentioned golden eagles earlier too... seen as they were reintroduced in donegal i think this is appropriate, mink are also been targeted there where a few thousand were released from a farm by tree huggers. these are pillaging the environment, sheep, dogs to name bigger things are been killed but also the many of the eagles main food sources.

Makes no difference anyway because Irelands attitude to native wildlife ensure that the eagel will be poisoned anyway! I dont agree with people releasing mink by the way I hope you dont think im affiliated with the group who did that.

oh one more thing they (badgers) are seriously vicious things which is also why they are such a threat even though other animals carry disease. they are far more likely to attack anything and have no problems going after humans either...easily one of the worst things you will come across (if you leave dublin;))

Why do Irish people see every furry creature as a threat that needs to be exterminated? Seriously Irish animals arent that scary when you get down to it. Try going to dublin zoo's petting zoo and see for yourself!

Oh by the way here is a scientific paper which shows that badger culling in britian increased the number of infected cattle!

http://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/682

hooradiation

galwayrush wrote: »

Zombie badgers.

Killer Badgers!

dirtyden

Bambi wrote: »

How about we start culling farmers? They've been spreading fianna failism for decades.

Most farmers are Fine Gael actually

steddyeddy

hooradiation wrote: »

Killer Badgers!

Pound for pound the honey badgers is the most agressive animal in the world! Count yourself lucky we dont have a mustelid like the wolverine!!

skregs

There was no fooking TB until we started letting the blacks in

steddyeddy

dirtyden wrote: »

Most farmers are Fine Gael actually

By the way my thread is not aimed at farmers in general in fact I think this will cost the farmers a lot of wasted money if this goes ahead!

overshoot

steddyeddy wrote: »

Why do Irish people see every furry creature as a threat that needs to be exterminated? Seriously Irish animals arent that scary when you get down to it. Try going to dublin zoo's petting zoo and see for yourself!

Oh by the way here is a scientific paper which shows that badger culling in britian increased the number of infected cattle!

http://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/682

i dont have a problem with irish animals, i particularly enjoy it when i see mice as its a good indicator that there arent rats around:pac:

seriously though, leave the hand fed, vaccinated animals in the zoo out of it and try seeing a wild badger! iv seen what they do to other animals, and iv heard enough stories of them attacking people. they are far less likely to run like from people as other animals like foxes and that is what makes them particularly dodgey. definately not an amimal id like to stumble across. il take a cuddly fox anyday!

also cant help noticing the dates of the anti culling papers you source, 2003 for the one above, bbc link 07 (did i see you reference a 2006 also?), yet in 2010 the tb levels in the uk have risen 550% from 99 and they are about to run their own cull.....as almighy cushion took out of your own article

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

From the article
"since 2000 the number of “reactors” – cattle that have failed the mandatory test for bovine TB – has fallen from 40,000 to 18,500.

The Minister told Independent TD Maureen O’Sullivan that in Britain, which did not cull badgers now but would begin a pilot project in the autumn, the number of reactors had increased from 6,000 in 1999 to 33,000 in 2010."

Looks like it works to me, so good in fact that it is being introduced in Britain.

Min

We had a TB problem in my area.

At the same time there were badgers dying in fields and on the roads, 4 badgers in 2 years died and likely from TB.

The department of Agriculture came out and culled the number of badgers in the area. There are still badgers around but the TB problem that was in the area has cleared up.

Tb in cattle is a costly disease for the taxpayers and it pays to tackle the source of the problem, as the department will look for the source of the disease, in my area it was the badger.

When cattle fail a TB test, the farmer is prevented from selling his cattle on a mart, the department has to pay for the retests until the herd goes clear.
The department has to pay the farmer compensation for the animal that failed the TB test.
If it is winter time, the department pays the farmer an allowance to feed the extra animals - since he/she can't sell cattle on the open market.
If the farmer is restricted for a long time, the department then pays a monthly allowance based on the number of cattle that had to be destroyed.

If the badger is found to be the source of TB in the area, it pays to cull or vaccinate.
Given the number of badgers in my area, a cull was no harm.

Where To

Ummm dunno if anyone has mentioned this but the vaccination of cattle against TB is illegal under European Law;

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31978L0052:EN:HTML


They aren't vaccinating cattle anywhere, they are vaccinating badgers but still at the testing stage.

http://www.bovinetb.info/vaccination.php

http://www.tbfreeengland.co.uk/FAQs/Questions/Why-don%E2%80%99t-we-vaccinate-cattle-/

syklops

Lars1916 wrote: »

What's the natural enemy of the badger? Apart from us humans?

AFAIK, the bear and the wolf are, but both are now extinct, in Ireland at least, cause of the other natural predator us. Or the British

Capt'n Midnight

Badgers get TB from cattle.

Sort out the cattle instead.

Badgers live in sets should be very easy to bait traps with vaccines problem solved.

Change the system of payments for TB infected cattle.

Put the fear of god into those few farmers that knowingly pass on infected cattle. There are a few, one of them nearly brought foot and mouth into the country.


AFAIK Haughey used to have shares in a Danish company that was involved in the TB testing gear. That's how long we've been scapegoating badgers. Oddly enough TB stops at the boarder much lower rates in NI.

steddyeddy

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Badgers get TB from cattle.

Sort out the cattle instead.

Badgers live in sets should be very easy to bait traps with vaccines problem solved.

Change the system of payments for TB infected cattle.

Put the fear of god into those few farmers that knowingly pass on infected cattle. There are a few, one of them nearly brought foot and mouth into the country.


AFAIK Haughey used to have shares in a Danish company that was involved in the TB testing gear. That's how long we've been scapegoating badgers. Oddly enough TB stops at the boarder much lower rates in NI.

And thats the nail in the coffin for the badger tb theory! As you know yourself the badger is one of many vectors for the Mycobacterium bovis.

pbthevet

Herd incidence of tb in the north 9.17% , in the south 5.72%. get your facts right. Reason for lower incidence in south is the culling of badgers in the south.

Culling badgers does not mean shooting them all like some people here would have us believe, it just means lowereing a population of potential vectors of the bacteria that causes tb. Any reactor tb cattle get culled too. We're not picking on the badger, its just one of the neccessary things that have to be done to lower the incidences of the disease in the country. If milk wasnt pasteurised and tb milk was being drunk daily this cull wouldnt even be debated?

vetstu

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Badgers get TB from cattle.

Oddly enough TB stops at the boarder much lower rates in NI.

steddyeddy wrote: »

And thats the nail in the coffin for the badger tb theory!

Would you both get your facts straight before coming on here spouting sh1te.

TB rates are higher in the north due the lack of culling.
In the south high incidence areas have been targeted by the Dept and badgers culled, the rates of TB dropped drastically.
And even if they aren't around, its amazing what 2000 gallons of slurry will do to a set.

steddyeddy

pbthevet wrote: »

Herd incidence of tb in the north 9.17% , in the south 5.72%. get your facts right. Reason for lower incidence in south is the culling of badgers in the south.

Culling badgers does not mean shooting them all like some people here would have us believe, it just means lowereing a population of potential vectors of the bacteria that causes tb. Any reactor tb cattle get culled too. We're not picking on the badger, its just one of the neccessary things that have to be done to lower the incidences of the disease in the country. If milk wasnt pasteurised and tb milk was being drunk daily this cull wouldnt even be debated?

These very figures were disputed by virtually all scietintific papers on the subject. Badgers themselves have lower levels of tb than in the south. The figures were cherry picked as too not take into account. The larger herb sizes in britian.

From the BBC's science website:

It claims the density of badgers in Ireland is now only 10% of that in equivalent habitats in South West England; and yet, in 2006, Ireland slaughtered 9% more cattle with bovine TB than Great Britain - even though the Irish national herd is only 56% the size of Britain's.

In Britain, the government-backed Randomised Badger Culling Trial (also known as the Krebs Trial), which ended in 2003, showed that culling could make the TB problem worse.

I understand how a vector works but your failing to realise that the biggest vector of mycobacteria is the cattle themselves.

Johro

vetstu wrote: »

Would you both get your facts straight before coming on here spouting sh1te.

TB rates are higher in the north due the lack of culling.
In the south high incidence areas have been targeted by the Dept and badgers culled, the rates of TB dropped drastically.
And even if they aren't around, its amazing what 2000 gallons of slurry will do to a set.

Blast them with shite? F#ckin idiotic behaviour.

steddyeddy

vetstu wrote: »

Would you both get your facts straight before coming on here spouting sh1te.

TB rates are higher in the north due the lack of culling.
In the south high incidence areas have been targeted by the Dept and badgers culled, the rates of TB dropped drastically.
And even if they aren't around, its amazing what 2000 gallons of slurry will do to a set.

In Britain, the government-backed Randomised Badger Culling Trial (also known as the Krebs Trial), which ended in 2003, showed that culling could make the TB problem worse.

BBC science to the rescue.

It claims the density of badgers in Ireland is now only 10% of that in equivalent habitats in South West England; and yet, in 2006, Ireland slaughtered 9% more cattle with bovine TB than Great Britain - even though the Irish national herd is only 56% the size of Britain's.

Now as the idea of vectors has been thrown around quite a bit can you tell me what do you think will become the biggest vector of bovine tb when the badger is gone? Ill give you a clue....its in the name!

Ha Ha Its one thing convincing people that badgers are anti christ but its another believing that rubbish yourself. If some idiot if pouring slurry down a set hes likely to busy preventing his cows carrying the infection. Wipe out all the other vectors in an area and the only choice the bacteria will have is to spread amongst cows. Saying that hopefully the type of person who ignores his own cattle spreading infection and pours slurry down a sett is few and far between.

steddyeddy

Sorry I was looking for this one last night!

A scientific paper stating that bovine tb increases following culling.

http://www.pnas.org/content/103/40/14713.short

overshoot

right hopefully this is my last contribution to a lad whose references in predomently 5 year old or more bbc links
(edit- any wierdly placed numers there are the references from the quoted piece bibliography, boards changes their size and i aint fixing them, id say click the link tho the graphs put things fairly clearly)

http://www.bovinetb.info/index.php

NI levels - 9.17%
Gb - 6.87%
ROI - 5.72%

g About 25% of badgers occur in southwest England, but only 10% in Scotland68. The prevalence of bovine TB in Scotland is very low.

so there are 2.5 times the amount of badgers in SW england than all of your precious scotland and look at the enormous levels of tb there, 4-5x our own!

Between 1998 and 2007 the number of reactors to bovine TB fell by 37% in Ireland and increased by 72% in England.

n. Recorded cattle incidences started to rise during the 'interim strategy' which was a badger culling startegy implemented between 1986 and 1998 largely due to the economic costs of the previous strategy.

Gassing of badger setts took place between 1975 and 1982.

The 'clean ring strategy' was introduced in 1982 and involved cage trapping badgers on land occupied by affected cattle herds, then on adjoining land, expanding outwards until no further infected animals were captured.62

In 1986 this approach was replaced by the 'interim strategy' which involved culling badgers only on land occupied by affected cattle herds. The last 'interim' culls were performed in 1998, prior to the start of the RBCT.62

note the huge rise in TB after the culling of badgers was effectively stopped

p. Until recently, out of England, Wales, Northern Ireland25 and the Republic of Ireland, England was the only country which was not looking at reducing badger numbers as part of its program to eradicate bovine TB.

now you may have notice the low levels of Tb in New Zealand guess why they say that is... yep you guessed it one of the three main reasons, wildlife control!

i. In 1998, levels of TB in New Zealand were comparable to those in England. (See one of the above graphs.) Between 1998 and 2008 the percentage of infected herds in New Zealand has dropped every year. In 2008 the proportion of infected herds was less than 13% of what it was in 1998. Click here for an explanation of how this was achieved.

The following is an extract from the Government Veterinary Journal which was published in 2006.
" Wildlife reservoirs of M. bovis constitute a major impediment to the eradication of bovine TB in the New Zealand cattle herd. However, a fundamental difference with the situation in the UK and Ireland is that those reservoirs are non-native species and regarded as introduced pests. Furthermore, agriculture is New Zealand's largest industry, representing 60% of the country's export earnings. All this makes the culling of wildlife (for livestock disease control purposes) a more socially acceptable proposition than it is in the UK."


j. The number of TB-infected herds in New Zealand in November 2011 was at an all-time low

In its annual report, the board says 80 herds are infected with bovine tuberculosis, the lowest number since the TB control programme began. Chief executive William McCook says the main factors in the reduction have been possum control, TB testing and livestock movement restrictions. The aim of the control programme is to eradicate TB from wildlife across 2.5 million hectares of at-risk areas by 2026. Mr McCook says that would reduce the risk to cattle and deer and save on TB testing. 70

last updates -

Last Modified 25 Dec 2011 09:42

in fairness typing that is a poor way to spend christmas

Capt'n Midnight

overshoot wrote: »

so there are 2.5 times the amount of badgers in SW england than all of your precious scotland and look at the enormous levels of tb there, 4-5x our own!

cattle density is also higher

http://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com/content/163/5/159.extract

BOVINE tuberculosis (tb) in badgers (Meles meles) was first diagnosed in Switzerland (Bouvier 1963), a country from which no further reports on bovine tb in wildlife exist in the scientific literature (Wyss and others 2000). Mycobacterium bovis was subsequently isolated from badgers in Gloucestershire (south-west England) in 1971 and in Cork (Ireland) in 1973, both areas with a high incidence of bovine tb in cattle. Since then, the infection in badgers has been found throughout dense badger populations in south-west England, parts of Wales (Krebs 1997) and Ireland (Dolan 1993). By contrast, there have been no published reports of bovine tb in badgers in continental Europe since the first description in Switzerland in the 1960s.

Is the problem that our badgers are different, or maybe it's something else like the way we treat cattle?

Here is a key point badgers are territorial, they don't travel widely.
Having only one report of TB in Switzerland in the last 60 years shows that the infection isn't transmitted effectively from badger to badger. At the worst they act as a static reservoir.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147957112000100

Vaccination of badgers using an M. bovis strain bacille Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine could potentially be an option in the national TB eradication strategy. Wildlife vaccination has been used successfully for other diseases in wildlife species, and may have a role to play in reducing M. bovis transmission at the wildlife–livestock interface. Research to date has provided evidence that BCG is protective in badgers, and a parenteral badger BCG vaccine has been licensed in the UK. [/QU