I'm at m.bovis 2014 this week - anninternational scientific conference on bovine tuberculosis. The last conference was 5 years ago in Wellington which I was fortunate to go to. This time it's in Cardiff. Here's my thoughts on what's happened so far:
- wow, there are a lot of people here!
- the most interesting speakers for me were Brian Radunz and Paul Livingstone. I know Paul very well, and I've heard his talk before. Both though we're preaching from the same hymn sheet: that governance was the key. The message is very seductive if you are a country struggling with eradication. But let's not carried away. Those solutions were possible became possible for particular reasons, and reflect the socio-economic contexts of those countries. The question is to what extent is any of those experiences relevant for other countries?
- during Paul livingstone's talK there were some people (from AHVLA) commenting on what he was saying. Reflecting on NZs possum control, they said "it's great how he's just cutting through all the PC stuff...it's what we need to do". Actually, the point is that it would be 'un-PC' not to cull possums. Disease control tends to run with national cultural attitudes rather than against them: that's how it comes to 'work'.
More on day 2 tomorrow...
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