TB vaccine for cattle to replace culling of badgers

INTENSIVE BADGER culling to tackle TB in livestock will be gradually phased out as moves are made to deploy a cattle vaccine for the disease, the Government has announced.

The next phase of the Government’s strategy to tackle bovine tuberculosis in cattle will involve field trials of a cattle vaccine, with work accelerated to deploy it within the next five years.

The Environment Department (Defra) said there are also plans to vaccinate more badgers – which can transmit TB to livestock – against the disease and a “gradual phasing out of intensive culling” of the wild animals.

The move spells the beginning of the end of the policy of intensive badger culling, which farmers have said is necessary to control the disease that devastates the beef and dairy industries.

Despite opposition from wildlife and animal welfare groups, which said culling is inhumane, the cull has been rolled out to 40 areas of England.

The Government said culling has led to reductions of TB in herds in the two areas where it was introduced – Gloucestershire and Somerset.

But it envisages that the current intensive culling policy will begin to be phased out in the next few years, replaced by badger vaccination schemes which would be supported by the Government.

Environment Secretary George Eustice said: “The badger cull has led to a significant reduction in the disease as demonstrated by recent academic research and past studies.

“But no-one wants to continue the cull of this protected species indefinitely so, once the weight of disease in wildlife has been addressed, we will accelerate other elements of our strategy, including improved diagnostics and cattle vaccination to sustain the downward trajectory of the disease.”