Adam Quinney claimed he was not going to talk about the science, but then preceded to talk about the science as he understands it. Over dinner the question was asked about cattle herds in hotspot areas that did not have TB. What were they doing differently? Adam Quinney responded that in the Southwest, in fact 80% of commercial size farms had had TB in the past 5 years. Interesting statistic, and it made me realise that it's important to have the numbers and statistics at my fingertips if the debate is going to be accurate. I'll check it tomorrow.
Vaccination was presented as almost an ultimate solution and explained in terms of measles and rinderpest. I'm extremely sceptical about the benefits of vaccination at a population scale - we haven't seen it work in humans so why should we in cattle and badgers? Given that Adam Quinney said that in some areas 50% of badgers are infected, so why don't we see a reduction in infective pressure, if vaccination would be likely to work? Christl cited the evidence of badgers cubs being protected when the adults in a social group are vaccinated. Will have to think about that.
A good question from Stephen Mosley MP: given that vaccination is a way off, what would you do tomorrow to control spread? No one seemed to have an answer.
Ian Boyd, Chief Scientific Advisor to Defra said the solution would be 25 years off. I thought that was pessimistic, after all it's only 8 years since the 2001 FMD epidemic that saw the massive jump in cattle cases. I would think that a good solution would be able to control the disease within 10 years.
On an unrelated note, I was given the pregnancy menu option for dinner: no red wine vinegar on my salad?? That seems unnecessary!!