Cornish farmers lead badger vaccination project to help eradicate bTB

A paper published in the journal People and Nature reports how over the course of the four-year pilot vaccination programme, the percentage of badgers testing positive for bTB fell from 16% to 0%. 

With larger-scale assessments needed to measure how badger vaccination impacts disease rates in cattle, the team behind the study is calling on the government to support further evaluations of community-led badger vaccination.   

Shared goal 

Professor Rosie Woodroffe, project lead and researcher at ZSL’s Institute of Zoology, said that bovine tuberculosis can “devastate farmers’ livelihoods”, and hundreds of thousands of cattle and badgers have been slaughtered for bTB control in recent years.  

“Everyone wants to see this disease eradicated. Our hope is that this work will help to move bTB control into a place where farmers and wildlife groups can work together towards this shared goal,” she added. 

Initiated and part-funded by Cornish farmers, the team vaccinated badgers across 12 farms in an 11 km2 area while working with Imperial College London to simultaneously gather data to address the farmers’ questions around the practicality and effectiveness of vaccination.  

More badgers were vaccinated per km2 than were caught by nearby culls, with separate counts from camera traps suggesting that 74% of local badgers received the vaccine. 

The researchers said that blood sampling showed that the proportion of badgers with bTB fell even though overall badger numbers remained high, and interviews with the participating landowners indicated their keenness to continue vaccination beyond the original four years. 

‘We need a solution’ 

Keith Truscott, founder of the Mid Cornwall Badger Vaccination Farmers Group and senior author on the report, said: “We need a solution to tackle bovine tuberculosis – as a cattle farmer, I’m living with the constant worry that one of our cows might test positive for the disease, so doing nothing is not an option.

“I sleep better at night knowing that there are people out there working to eradicate the disease through vaccination. I’m proud to be part of this project, and even more so to have instigated it.”   

While most bTB incidents in cattle are caused by transmission between herds, transmission from wild badgers plays a role in the persistence of the disease.  

Badger culls have formed part of the UK government’s bTB policy for many years, although the new government has committed to ending the controversial cull.   

Bovine tuberculosis is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis, and can affect people, as well as cattle, badgers, and many other mammals.  

As part of the government’s commitment to eradicate bTB, cattle that test positive must be slaughtered, with restrictions placed on the remaining members of the herd, greatly impacting farmers’ livelihoods.   

READ MORE: Targeted badger culling will continue in high-risk areas 

READ MORE: New badger vaccination licence rolled out

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