A groundbreaking study has shown that a large-scale vaccination program could potentially eradicate bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in badgers, offering hope to cattle farmers whose herds have been devastated by the disease.

The study, which produced “really promising” results, suggests that vaccination could be a viable alternative to the controversial mass culling of badgers, which has been widely implemented in England but remains scientifically inconclusive in its effectiveness.

Over the course of four years, researchers vaccinated 265 badgers across 12 farms in Cornwall. The results were striking: the percentage of badgers testing positive for bTB dropped from 16% to zero.

This outcome is being hailed as a major success by the study’s lead researcher, Professor Rosie Woodroffe from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). Woodroffe noted, “It’s the best result you could get from a small study. The results are really promising but we’d want to see it replicated over a larger area.”

The potential of vaccination as a solution to bTB in badgers is significant, given the controversy surrounding the current approach of mass culling.

Since 2013, more than 210,000 badgers have been killed in England in an effort to control the spread of bTB to cattle. Despite more than a decade of culling, there is no scientific consensus on whether this method has effectively reduced bTB in cattle. Several studies have even suggested that culling has had no positive impact, further fuelling the debate.

The badger cull has been a central component of the Conservative government’s strategy to combat bTB in cattle, despite the lack of strong scientific evidence supporting its efficacy. In contrast, the Labour government has pledged to end the cull, although the timeline for this promise remains unclear.

The vaccination project in Cornwall was initiated and partially funded by local farmers, marking the first time a study of this kind has been led by the farming community. This project was unique in its approach, involving the testing of badger blood to directly assess the decline of bTB in the vaccinated population.

The vaccination campaign covered an area of 11 square kilometres (4.3 square miles), with 74% of the local badger population receiving the vaccine.

Woodroffe said: “We showed it could be done, and you could catch enough badgers. Then we looked at if it was effective, and it was. And then we looked at if it was acceptable, and the farmers are absolutely delighted, because they can see a real difference.”

While it is still uncertain whether this pilot program has directly reduced bTB in cattle within the area, the results are encouraging.

It is worth noting that scientists estimate that the primary cause of bTB in cattle is transmission from other cattle, accounting for about 94% of infections. In contrast, only around 6% of infections are believed to be transmitted from badgers to cattle.

The impact of bovine TB on farmers has been severe, with 20,000 cattle slaughtered in the 12 months leading up to September 2023 alone.

Keith Truscott, founder of the Mid Cornwall Badger Vaccination Farmers’ Group and a co-author of 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,” he said.

Given these devastating numbers, landowners involved in the study have expressed a desire to continue the vaccination program beyond its initial four-year span.

Initially, there were concerns that the vaccine might not reach enough badgers or might prove too costly.

However, researchers wrote in the paper: “Our findings show that badger vaccination was practically achievable. The numbers of badgers vaccinated per square kilometre a year were higher than the numbers culled on nearby land, even though vaccination was conducted for only two nights per location while culling operations extended over at least six weeks.”

Prof James Wood, a veterinary epidemiologist at Cambridge University, who was not involved in this study, said: “These results provide very positive, albeit small-scale, findings in relation to the practicability of delivering badger vaccination against bovine TB.”

Dr. Graham Smith, a lead scientist at the Animal and Plant Health Agency, which is part of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, praised the study for demonstrating the feasibility of badger vaccination. Although he was not involved in the research, Smith acknowledged the significance of the findings.

A reduction in TB in cattle “would be a logical consequence of disease reduction in badgers, where they are contributing”, he said.

The project was a collaborative effort involving farmers in Cornwall and researchers from ZSL, Imperial College London, and the Cornwall Wildlife Trust.

These groups are now urging the government to fund additional research into community-led badger vaccination programs, hoping to build on the promising results of this initial study and to further explore vaccination as a long-term solution to bovine TB.

 

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