27 May 2021
Responding to public consultation into Godfray report, George Eustice says measures including new cattle vaccine will help eradicate bTB in England by 2038.
Vet Times
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New measures to rid England of bTB by 2038 – including work on a new vaccine for cattle – have been announced by environment secretary George Eustice today (27 May).
A five-year badger vaccination programme in East Sussex has been awarded £2.27 million to enable farmers to deploy vaccinations over an area of 250 sq km.
The results of the trial will help inform the Government on how to deploy future vaccination schemes at scale across England, halting culling of badgers.
The licensing of new intensive badger culls will cease after 2022. Additionally, existing cull licences could be cut short after two years, down from five years, where supported by sufficient scientific evidence, and no option for them to be renewed will exist.
The Government said it will develop a monitoring system to track the badger population and disease levels to help tackle the disease, with the findings being routinely published on GOV.UK.
The Government announced last year bTB cattle vaccination trials in England and Wales had been given the green light, as a result of research by Government scientists. The trials are expected to start in June and, if successful, the project will remain on track to enable the deployment of a cattle bTB vaccine by 2025.
Mr Eustice said: “Bovine TB is one of the most difficult and intractable animal health challenges that the UK faces today, causing considerable trauma for farmers and costing taxpayers more than £100 million every year.”
He added: “The badger cull has led to a significant reduction in the disease, but no one wants to continue the cull of a protected species indefinitely. That is why we are now building on this progress by accelerating other elements of our strategy, including cattle vaccination and improved testing, so that we can eradicate this insidious disease and start to phase out badger culling as soon as possible.”
The Government’s latest announcement follows an eight-week consultation launched in January, which sought the public’s views on a range of proposals in response to an independent review of its 25-year bTB strategy, led by Sir Charles Godfray.
The Government’s response to the Godfray Review outlined the need for a combined approach that includes tighter cattle movement controls, regular testing, and badger and cattle vaccination to eradicate the disease in England by 2038.
Following the consultation, the Government has also announced services to help farmers improve biosecurity standards on farms across England.
A bTB advisory service will offer advice to livestock keepers, while under the plans Defra will also expand its surveillance programme to test cattle for the disease every six months throughout the High Risk Area.
Responding to the announcement, the RSPCA said it welcomed elements in the plan, having called for a multi-targeted approach for some time.
But in a statement, it added: “Monday will see the start of a number of licensed supplementary culls, which could see more than 13,000 badgers killed this year under a scheme which is both inhumane and ineffective.
“We welcome the statement that the licensing of new culls will be stopped after 2022 and could only last two years, but this will still result in the destruction of thousands more badgers. We continue to look forward to the long overdue end to culling and the move towards an effective and humane plan, which will protect both cattle and badgers.”
The Government’s announced plans can be viewed online at GOV.UK.
