1 / 14

The politics of endemic diseases of cattle

The politics of endemic diseases of cattle. Some research approaches from political science. A very fortunate cow. Bovine TB: policy failure?. Extensive files in National Archives up to 1992 A very difficult issue for ministers and civil servants Referred up to prime minister

ugarte
Download Presentation

The politics of endemic diseases of cattle

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The politics of endemic diseases of cattle Some research approaches from political science

  2. A very fortunate cow

  3. Bovine TB: policy failure? • Extensive files in National Archives up to 1992 • A very difficult issue for ministers and civil servants • Referred up to prime minister • Ministers only saw damage to their political reputations – hostile media

  4. Some policy strategies • External reports, some of which caused even more trouble • Constructions of reality – the rogue badger • Folkington Bowl incident • Resort to stakeholder forums to reconcile divergent interests – inside tent

  5. Current situation • Reactor numbers increasing • Impacting on relationship between farmers and government and development of animal health strategy • Disagreement about evidence base • Policy experiment in Wales • Become a partisan issue

  6. The cultural politics of Brock

  7. Animal welfare issues • Mentioned as important unprompted at maximum by 2 per cent of voters, prompts can push up to 6-7 per cent • Well organised and funded stakeholder groups represent intensity of feeling • Willingness to resort to direct action • Highly emotional

  8. Political diseases model • Which diseases acquire political salience and why? • Varies over time and by country • Model in development and applied to endemic diseases of cattle in UK and Australia • Initial list produced by discussion within team

  9. Five groups of factors • Links with human health • Political factors (5) • Management factors (6) • International effects (3)

  10. Political factors • Level of public/media awareness of disease • Position of key industry stakeholder groups • Position of animal welfare groups • Does controlling the disease involve an animal living in the wild? (NB: ferals) • International animal health reputation

  11. UK-Australia differentiators • Importance of agricultural trade • Pride in Australia’s reputation • Policy innovation – biosecurity • Historic experience of exotic incursions • Awareness of fragility of ecology • Much of this relates to exotics

  12. Bovine Johnes’ disease • Quite extensive programmes in Australia • Inter-state tensions • Concerns about trade impacts • But above all concern about the reported but unproven association between BJD and Crohn’s disease

  13. More work to be done • Weighting of factors, but zoonosis status is important • Running model against different diseases to make comparisons and also between UK and Australia • Further work on stakeholder groups and policy, role of state vets • Thanks to Defra Animal Welfare Team

  14. Some questions • Is there a useful political science contribution to the study of endemic diseases of cattle? • Why are some diseases more politically salient than others? • http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/gld • http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/staff/grant

More Related