Badgers to get ‘the prod’
A BADGER TB vaccination programme that will start this month at selected locations across the country has been welcomed by Galway IFA – but only as part of an overall strategy aimed at curtailing the role of wildlife in the spread of the disease.
Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed, confirmed on Monday that the vaccination of badgers as ‘an integral part of the bovine TB eradication programme’ would be starting later this month.
However, Galway IFA Chairman, Pat Murphy, said that while the IFA welcomed the vaccination programme, there was also a need for a curtailment of the badger population and especially so where major construction or road programmes impacted on the countryside.
“As sure as night follows day, whenever this type of work starts and the badgers are disturbed, there will be serious problem with TB in the nearby herds,” Pat Murphy told the Farming Tribune.
The BCG vaccine has been developed over the past decade and is now considered ‘fit for use’ – according to Minister Creed the vaccination programme has a role to play in reducing TB infection in cattle.
“Whilst vaccination of badgers is not a 'silver bullet', it is important in that it addresses one of the critical elements within the complex TB eradication challenge.
“This will now allow us move forward in the early part of this year to the development and re-launch, in consultation with stakeholders, of a comprehensive strategy to finally eradicate TB,” said Minister Creed.
Vaccination of badgers will be carried out by staff from the Dept. of Agriculture with the programme starting in the areas which have already been part of the field trials demonstrating the effectiveness of badger vaccination.
“It will roll out incrementally to other parts of the country over time, with vaccination gradually replacing the need to remove badgers,” said the Dept. of Agriculture.
Pat Murphy said that the vaccination was only one part of the jigsaw in terms of dealing with the spread of TB to cattle from the badger population.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.