20 Dec 2022
Wildlife Trust in Cornwall wants to expand its work, after delivering 800 jabs in past four years.
Allister Webb
Job Title
Officials from Cornwall Wildlife Trust want to expand its work. Inset image © lesniewski / Adobe Stock
Conservationists in Cornwall say they need to do more to combat bTB, despite vaccinating a record number of badgers against the disease in 2022.
Officials from the county’s Wildlife Trust want to expand the work, which they estimate has involved more than 800 jabs delivered during the past four years.
But they said they need greater support from farmers and the wider public to do it, and have launched a Christmas Badger Appeal for both donations and more landowners to get involved.
Cheryl Marriott, the trust’s head of conservation, said the campaign would allow them to deliver more jabs both on their own lands and in other areas.
She said: “It’s vital that we continue vaccinating badgers for the foreseeable future until the cattle vaccine, which is currently being tested, is ready to be rolled out.”
The trust’s plea ends a year dogged by the stalemate over the Government’s controversial policy of culling badgers to curb the spread of the disease.
Defra has consistently defended its approach, insisting it has proved to be effective in reducing infections despite academic claims to the contrary and campaigners’ fears the species faces being wiped out in several areas of England.
Two new areas of Cornwall were among those where culling activity was permitted for the first time in the latest round of licences, which were finally announced in October.
The department has also been accused of scapegoating the species in a new Christmas campaign video from the Badger Trust, which is among many voices demanding an end to the cull policy.
The video – which is available on the charity’s website and YouTube channel, and features the voices of Born Free founder Virginia McKenna and naturalist Steve Backshall – claims setts across England are empty for the first time ever because of the cull.
Executive director Peter Hambly said: “The badger cull is England’s greatest wildlife tragedy happening before our eyes.”
But Defra has also funded a pilot badger vaccination programme in East Sussex, where hundreds of the animals have been given jabs.
Officials told the BCVA Congress in Birmingham in October that a consultation on the potential usage of a long-awaited bTB jab for cattle is expected to begin early in the new year. It is hoped the vaccination could be available for use in 2025.
Rosie Woodroffe – of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), who is leading the Cornwall project – said: “Badgers play a small but important role in the cattle bTB problem, and scientists have predicted that vaccinating them could help to eradicate bTB, when combined with controls aimed at cattle.
“As Government policy pivots away from badger culling and towards badger vaccination, the on-the-ground evidence that we are gathering should help landowners across the country to decide whether to follow the lead of the pioneering farmers working with Cornwall Wildlife Trust and ZSL.”
In Cornwall, the trust said 251 badgers were vaccinated against the disease during the latest season, which runs from May to November, through its work with ZSL and dozens of landowners who have already signed up to take part.
The jabs are currently administered on around 10% of the trust’s nature reserves, plus more than 50 farms and smallholdings, which include more than 30 new locations in the catchment area of the River Cober.
Samples are also taken from each of the vaccinated badgers to monitor infection levels, in the expectation that the jabs reduce case numbers.
Trust farm advisor Stuart Coleman said: “We’ve now got a significant cluster of holdings onboard, and ZSL are getting really good numbers of badgers vaccinated and blood-tested. All the badgers that were caught in the Cober area in the first year tested negative for bTB, which is great news and it means they now should be bTB free for life.
“This demonstrates that moving towards having localised badger populations free of bTB is a genuinely achievable goal.”
One participating dairy farmer, Emma Ead, said she and other producers like her hadn’t even known that vaccination was a possibility until they met the trust.
She said: “For us, this disease is like a nightmare that never ends. Fortunately, the vaccinations appear to be working and we want to continue with them.
“We’re particularly interested in the blood tests results, which will hopefully tell us more about the health of the badgers we have here on site.
“The vaccinations have definitely been a worthwhile investment for our family farm.”
Farmers and landowners who are interested in finding out more about the project should email [email protected]
Appeal donations can be made via www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk/christmasbadgerappeal
