Trust to vaccinate Shropshire badgers against TB
Badgers on a Shropshire nature reserve are to be vaccinated by Shropshire Wildlife Trust later this year in a bid to stop the spread of Bovine Tuberculosis.
This autumn Badgers on a Trust reserve at Bickley Hall Farm will be cage trapped and injected with BadgerBCG vaccine as part of a five-year programme.
The move comes in response to Defra’s decision to run trial badger culls in Gloucestershire and Somerset.
Shropshire Wildlife Trust said it does not consider culling badgers to be an effective method of tackling bTB and considers that vaccination of badgers against Bovine Tuberculosis, along with improved biosecurity measures to help the long term control of the disease.
‘Vaccination offers a way of tackling the disease without any associated negative impact such as the perturbation effect that is bought about by culling,’ said Helen Trotman, who will be carrying out the vaccinations. This is a complex problem that will not easily be solved but the Trust wants to do something positive and we know vaccination can significantly reduce the disease burden in badgers.’
The Trust is conscious of the impact this disease has on the farming community and the need to put the right measures in place to tackle it. To raise awareness of the difficulties of controlling bTB the Trust will host a forum in May where the latest policy and research will be presented to invited groups.
The Wildlife Trusts are taking the lead in using vaccination to address the problem. Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust was the first voluntary organisation to pay for the deployment of the BadgerBCG vaccine in 2011. In addition, Somerset and Gloucestershire Wildlife Trusts will vaccinate in the trial cull areas.
Shropshire Wildlife Trust will work in partnership with Cheshire Wildlife Trust on the project.
Article Image Credit: Sally Longstaff
