T he Wildlife Trusts are delighted to announce that a scheme to vaccinate badgers against bovine tuberculosis ( bTB ) is now underway again , one year after vaccine supplies dried up . In December 2015 , the World Health Organization announced that there was a global shortage of TB vaccine for humans . This meant that The Wildlife Trusts had to suspend their badger vaccination programmes during 2016 . The Trust ’ s pioneering approach to acquiring a vaccine has allowed other vaccination programmes across the country to restart
Now a new supply of vaccine has been obtained by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust following several months negotiating supplies and obtaining permission from the Veterinary Medicines Directorate to import the InterVax TB vaccine .
|
Derbyshire Wildlife Trust Chair and veterinary surgeon , Dr Sue Mayer , who secured the vaccine from a Canadian company has also been training twelve dedicated volunteers in how to use the new vaccine delivery system . Thirty badgers have already been successfully vaccinated , including twelve badger cubs , and the next round of vaccinations is due to start on Thursday 6th July . Vaccine from the same source was used to successfully vaccinate badgers in the Republic of Ireland in 2016 .
Dr Mayer says : “ Derbyshire Wildlife Trust is delighted to be leading the way across the country and vaccinating badgers against TB in 2017 . UNICEF now say all country needs for human TB vaccine can be met so we wanted to start vaccinating badgers as soon as we could . Vaccination is a better solution than culling which research indicates can spread the disease further . It ’ s also cheaper and avoids the indiscriminate killing of healthy animals .”
Derbyshire Wildlife Trust has been carrying out the badger vaccination programme across Derbyshire since 2014 – working
|
with farmers and landowners and showing that a successful programme of badger vaccination can be achieved in partnership with the help of dozens of trained volunteers . DWT ’ s badger vaccination programme has been developed in close partnership with the National Trust , National Farmers Union ( NFU ), Derbyshire ’ s Badger Groups and the Country Land and Business Association ( CLA ).
The Trust ’ s pioneering approach to acquiring a vaccine has allowed other vaccination programmes across the country to restart , including those of Chester Zoo , other badger groups , Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and Berkshire , Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust ( BBOWT ).
Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust have also obtained doses of the InterVax vaccine and will begin vaccinating badgers on a large area on the Nottinghamshire / Leicestershire border imminently . Working with local landowners , they have now surveyed around 60 farms , over an area of more than 50km2 . Traps
|
have been placed out on participating farms with the help of 40 volunteers in order to target badgers from around 20 active setts . Vaccination will continue until Autumn and will build on previous work which began in 2015 to build TB immunity in Nottinghamshire ’ s badgers .
BBOWT ’ s badger vaccination programme is resuming in early July , and will continue through the remainder of the vaccination season , which runs until November . Badgers will be trapped and vaccinated in a 15km2 project area around their nature reserve at Greenham Common in West Berkshire , before the team moves to the nature reserves in west Oxfordshire .
Defra is committed to securing vaccine for badger vaccination programmes in 2018 and Trusts will be discussing this renewed support this summer . The Wildlife Trusts are firmly opposed to the badger cull .
|