Statement from The Vaccination Team – 20/1/2016

Due to a global shortage of the BCG vaccine, DEFRA announced before Christmas that badger vaccination would be suspended until such time that the production and supply issues were rectified. This news is devastating to us as well as the landowners/farmers participating in the scheme. We have genuinely worked extremely hard these past 3 years to make sure that our programme was a huge success and we remain immensely proud of what we have all achieved.

By incorporating micro-chipping alongside the vaccination during 2015, we have gathered very important data and it was our hope to not only continue with that this year, but to add to the data through bait marking surveys, and possibly, hair trapping collection for analysis. It’s our intention to use this 2016 season ahead to continue the work in our vaccination area, update surveys and survey new sites as planned in combination with vaccination training sessions for our volunteers. It is important to continue with surveys this year so we are ready to commence vaccination once DEFRA give the go-ahead.

Please be assured that as soon as the vaccine becomes available, we will be out there vaccinating badgers against Bovine TB again. The figures for 2015 show there has been a 21% decrease in new cases of TB in Cheshire: 111 as opposed to 140 during 2014. It is believed that badger vaccination, along with other measures, has contributed to that decrease and so, we continue to promote badger vaccination as a viable, affordable option to culling.

We thank you all for your continued support and please don’t hesitate to contact us should you wish to volunteer with badger vaccination or any other aspect of badger protection work: info@wcbg.org.uk

The Vaccination Team