Bio security - an effective alternative to badger culling

I have always been puzzled as to how badgers are supposed to infect cattle with bovine tuberculosis (bTB) given that the main method of disease transmission is via exhaled breath. The number of occasions that a cow breaths in breath exhaled by a badger must be very low compared to the number of times that they breath in breath from another cow.

I was therefore very interested to read this letter in The Times (paywall) by Emeritus Professor of Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases Keith Neal (ignore the headline - this reflects the second letter). He says that the disease can also be passed in faeces and urine but:

• cows are unlikely to eat badger faeces
• urine quickly soaks into the ground

making direct disease transmission via these extremely unlikely.

He suspects that badger to cattle transmission may be caused by badgers getting into places where cattle food is stored and urinating on the food. He points out that the best way to stop this transmission id by better bio security (to stop badgers getting into such places) but that this requires expenditure by farmers.

In other areas of the world in which bTB has been reduced, such as Ireland, there has been a emphasis on improving bio security, among other measures.

Can ask.fm be banned? A more realistic way of tackling cyberbullying

The father of Hannah Smith, who committed suicide after cyberbullying, called for the ask.fm website she used to be closed down. That's understandable, however it is probably not possible. ask.fm is based in Latvia and does not appear to have broken any British or Latvian laws. Prime Minister David Cameron has told parents that they should tell their children "not to use these vile websites". I regard myself as being reasonably Internet savvy but not heard of ask.fm until this tragedy. How are parents supposed to know about such sites? How can they be expected to monitor their children's internet access when this may be outside the home on a smart phone?

One solution might be for an organisation to assess sites that allow posting by children and teenagers and give them a safety rating. They could look at things such as:

• whether anonymous posting is allowed
• the ease of reporting abuse
• whether the site is moderated
• number of staff available to investigate reports of abuse.

Such websites should then be encouraged to display the rating in a prominent place. Parents, children and teenagers could then be advised to look for the rating before using a site. Perhaps the NSPCC or Childline could get involved in this.

Schools also have a role to play. They should be advising pupils about the dangers of revealing personal information about themselves and of posting revealing photos of themselves. They should also be prepared to offer support to pupils who are being bullied, both physically and online.