A HISTORY OF BOVINE TB c.1965–c.2000 The transcript of a Witness Seminar held by the History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group, Queen Mary University of London, on 13 May 2014 Edited by C Overy and E M Tansey Volume 55 2015 ©The Trustee of the Wellcome Trust, London, 2015 First published by Queen Mary University of London, 2015 The History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group is funded by the Wellcome Trust, which is a registered charity, no. 210183. ISBN 978 1 91019 5055 All volumes are freely available online at www.histmodbiomed.org Please cite as: Overy C, Tansey E M. (eds) (2015) A History of Bovine TB c.1965–c.2000. Wellcome Witnesses to Contemporary Medicine, vol. 55. London: Queen Mary University of London. CONTENTS What is a Witness Seminar? v Acknowledgements E M Tansey and C Overy vii Illustrations and credits ix Abbreviations and Glossary xi Introduction Keir Waddington xv Transcript Edited by C Overy and E M Tansey 1 Appendix 1 Incidents of M. bovis infection in non-bovine domestic animals and wild deer in GB confirmed by laboratory culture, 1997–2011 89 Biographical notes 91 References 101 Index 111 Witness Seminars: Meetings and publications 121 WHAT IS A WITNESS SEMINAR? The Witness Seminar is a specialized form of oral history, where several individuals associated with a particular set of circumstances or events are invited to meet together to discuss, debate, and agree or disagree about their memories. The meeting is recorded, transcribed, and edited for publication. This format was first devised and used by the Wellcome Trust’s History of Twentieth Century Medicine Group in 1993 to address issues associated with the discovery of monoclonal antibodies. We developed this approach after holding a conventional seminar, given by a medical historian, on the discovery of interferon. Many members of the invited audience were scientists or others involved in that work, and the detailed and revealing discussion session afterwards alerted us to the importance of recording ‘communal’ eyewitness testimonies. We learned that the Institute for Contemporary British History held meetings to examine modern political, diplomatic, and economic history, which they called Witness Seminars, and this seemed a suitable title for us to use also. The unexpected success of our first Witness Seminar, as assessed by the willingness of the participants to attend, speak frankly, agree and disagree, and also by many requests for its transcript, encouraged us to develop the Witness Seminar model into a full programme, and since then more than 60 meetings have been held and published on a wide array of biomedical topics.1 These seminars have proved an ideal way to bring together clinicians, scientists, and others interested in contemporary medical history to share their memories. We are not seeking a consensus, but are providing the opportunity to hear an array of voices, many little known, of individuals who were ‘there at the time’ and thus able to question, ratify, or disagree with others’ accounts – a form of open peer-review. The material records of the meeting also create archival sources for present and future use. The History of Twentieth Century Medicine Group became a part of the Wellcome Trust’s Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL in October 2000 and remained so until September 2010. It has been part of the School of History, Queen Mary University of London, since October 2010, as the History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group, which the Wellcome Trust 1 See pages 121–6 for a full list of Witness Seminars held, details of the published volumes, and other related publications. v funds principally under a Strategic Award entitled ‘The Makers of Modern Biomedicine’. The Witness Seminar format continues to be a major part of that programme, although now the subjects are largely focused on areas of strategic importance to the Wellcome Trust, including the neurosciences, clinical genetics, and medical technology.2 Once an appropriate topic has been agreed, usually after discussion with a specialist adviser, suitable participants are identified and invited. As the organization of the seminar progresses and the participants’ list is compiled, a flexible outline plan for the meeting is devised, with assistance from the meeting’s designated chairman/moderator. Each participant is sent an attendance list and a copy of this programme before the meeting. Seminars last for about four hours; occasionally full-day meetings have been held. After each meeting the raw transcript is sent to every participant, each of whom is asked to check his or her own contribution and to provide brief biographical details for an appendix. The editors incorporate participants’ minor corrections and turn the transcript into readable text, with footnotes, appendices, a glossary, and a bibliography. Extensive research and liaison with the participants is conducted to produce the final script, which is then sent to every contributor for approval and to assign copyright to the Wellcome Trust. Copies of the original, and edited, transcripts and additional correspondence generated by the editorial process are all deposited with the records of each meeting in the Wellcome Library, London (archival reference GC/253) and are available for study. For all our volumes, we hope that, even if the precise details of the more technical sections are not clear to the non-specialist, the sense and significance of the events will be understandable to all readers. Our aim is that the volumes inform those with a general interest in the history of modern medicine and medical science; provide historians with new insights, fresh material for study, and further themes for research; and emphasize to the participants that their own working lives are of proper and necessary concern to historians. 2 See our Group’s website at www.histmodbiomed.org vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The subject of a history of bovine TB was suggested by Dr Angela Cassidy, who is a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at King’s College London, where she is working on a history of bovine TB in the UK between 1965 and 1995. We are very grateful to her for her help in the planning of this meeting and for providing material used in the editorial process. We thank Professor Wyn Grant for chairing the occasion and Professor Keir Waddington for his excellent introduction. Our gratitude also goes to Mr Michael Clark, Dr Gordon McGlone, and Mr John Montague for providing images to illustrate the volume, and the Wellcome Library, London, for permission to use photographs taken at the meeting; material is also reproduced under the Open Government Licence. As with all our meetings, we depend a great deal on Wellcome Trust staff to ensure their smooth running: the Audiovisual Department, Catering, Reception, Security, and Wellcome Images. We are also grateful to Mr Akio Morishima for the design and production of this volume; the indexer Ms Liza Furnival; Mrs Sarah Beanland and Ms Fiona Plowman for proofreading; Mrs Debra Gee for transcribing the seminar; Ms Emma Jones for assisting with running the seminar and Mr Adam Wilkinson who assisted in the organization and running of the meeting. Finally, we thank the Wellcome Trust for supporting this programme. Tilli Tansey Caroline Overy School of History, Queen Mary University of London vii ILLUSTRATIONS AND CREDITS* Figure A Professor Keir Waddington xviii Figure 1 Participants at the Witness Seminar 2 Figure 2 Professor Wyn Grant 5 Figure 3 Dr Angela Cassidy 6 Figure 4 Ms Emma Jones and Dr Gareth Davies 7 Figure 5 Mr John Montague and Mr David Williams 8 Figure 6 Mr Keith Meldrum 9 Figure 7 The distribution of badgers in West Penwith. Reproduced from MAFF (1972) Inquiry into bovine tuberculosis in West Cornwall. London: HMSO, Appendix N. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ (accessed 17 June 2015) 10 Figure 8 Mr Michael Clark 11 Figure 9 Entry from Mr Michael Clark’s diary. Provided by and reproduced with permission from Mr Michael Clark 12 Figure 10 Dr Gordon McGlone and Mr John Montague 13 Figure 11 Ms Fiona Stuart 14 * Unless otherwise stated, all photographs were taken by Thomas Farnetti, Wellcome Trust, and reproduced courtesy of the Wellcome Library, London. ix Figure 12 Plan of the high security cattle yard. Image supplied by Angela Cassidy and reproduced from Little T W, Naylor P F, Wilesmith J W. (1982) Veterinary Record, 111: 550–7, 1982, with permission from BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 15 Figure 13 Mr Michael Clark, Professor David Macdonald, and Mr Mark Thomasin-Foster 17 Figure 14 Dr Richard Meyer 19 Figure 15 Mr Mark Thomasin-Foster 21 Figure 16 Mr David Williams 23 Figure 17 Representatives from Wildlife Trusts with Tony Banks MP, lobbying the House of Commons, July 1990. Photographs supplied by Dr Gordon McGlone and reproduced with permission of The Wildlife Trusts 26 Figure 18 Badger being injected with anaesthetic. Photograph provided by and reproduced with permission from Mr John Montague 62 Table 1 Outline Programme for ‘A History of bovine TB c.1965–c.2000’ Witness Seminar 4 Table 2 Number of cattle reacting positively to the tuberculin test in south-west England between 1973 and 1978 27 Table 3 Incidence of bovine TB in cattle in Wales, 2008–2014 33 ABBREVIATIONS AND GLOSSARY1 AHVLA Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency, an executive agency of Defra BCG Bacillus Calmette–Guérin, which is used to manufacture tuberculosis vaccines Biosecurity security from transmission of infectious diseases Bovine tuberculosis an infectious disease in cattle caused by Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) Breakdown detection of exposure to M. bovis infection in a herd (e.g. detection of a bTB reactor or signs of possible bTB at post mortem).