tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16505569.post1115289548389897260..comments2024-01-05T05:02:20.353+00:00Comments on CRYPTOZOOLOGY ONLINE: Still on the Track: Not Guilty – Bovine TB Epidemic Caused by Cattle, Not BadgersUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16505569.post-35868087547782620372014-07-07T15:16:23.916+01:002014-07-07T15:16:23.916+01:00If in doubt, always read the source material. This...If in doubt, always read the source material. This paper is just one such case, and in the last paragraph before the Methods section, we find the following howler:<br /><br />"[...] Owing to the absence of necessary spatial and population level data on badgers, our model does not explicitly include their role in transmission. The environmental reservoirs play a comparable function, although the contribution of reservoir species and contaminated pasture cannot be separated. The environment is essential in maintaining local infection and may be implicated in up to 80% of all herd breakdowns".<br /><br />And there we have the truth. They didn't model what badgers do, because they hadn't got the information to do so, but they reckon that 80% of herd breakdowns are down to "the environment".<br /><br />In simple English, what they are saying is that four times out of five, something in the farm environment is infecting the cows with zTB. Once infected, cows merrily infect each other (this observation brought to you by the department of No Shit, Sherlock), but the infection source is environmental.<br /><br />This also explains how closed herds get infected, and how llamas and alpacas get infected: the environment. Or to be more precise, the infected wildlife hosts shedding zTB into the environment.<br /><br />Get rid of the infected wildlife reservoir and you get rid of the disease. Simples.Danhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02618328278732100203noreply@blogger.com