BCVA backs badger vaccination report despite bTB target fear

New research into the effectiveness of badger vaccination must not hold up efforts to eradicate bTB in Wales, a veterinary group has warned.

BCVA officials have backed recommendations from a policy paper that called for improvements in monitoring and the involvement of both vets and farmers in developing control measures.

But it said efforts to combat the disease must remain focused on the current 2041 target date for beating it.

Further studies

Ed Simmons, the association’s lead on the disease, said: “It is important that further studies do not slow the bTB eradication plan.

“Studies can allow more targeted and enhanced deployment of badger vaccination as we learn from doing.”

Mr Simmons stressed the association’s support for what he described as the “enhanced deployment of wildlife tools based on evidence”, as well as its willingness to work with researchers and policymakers.

Efforts to combat the disease are also set to be high on the agenda at the group’s annual congress, which is due to take place in Telford next month.

But while it supports moves both to measure the effectiveness of badger vaccination and raise stakeholder confidence, the association remains sceptical over its wider impact on disease levels.

‘Good evidence’

Mr Simmons said: “While there is now good evidence to demonstrate the benefits of BCG vaccination of badgers on disease in badgers, we lack evidence showing the effect of badger vaccination on bTB in cattle.”

That concern is also shared by campaigners against the long-running cull programme in England, who fear the continuing emphasis on badgers could enable further such activities to take place in the future under a different government.

The Progressive Veterinary Association (PVA), which has argued that bTB can be tackled solely through cattle-based measures since its launch four years ago, said the focus on badgers was a “distraction from the real problem”.