Welsh Badger Vaccination Reaches 5000

WALES, UK - Over 5,000 doses of badger vaccination have been administered to animals inside the Intensive Action Area (IAA) in west Wales over the past four years.
calendar icon 1 September 2015
clock icon 2 minute read

The Welsh government said it was half way through the fourth year of its five-year badger vaccination project in parts of Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion, which forms part of a wider programme of work to eradicate TB from cattle in Wales.

Deputy Minister for Farming and Food, Rebecca Evans said: “Since 2010 we have introduced a number of additional measures in the IAA because it was identified as having some of the highest rates of incidence of TB in Europe.

"We are now half way through 2015’s round of the vaccination project and provisional results indicate we have successfully delivered over 5,000 doses of the vaccine in the IAA across the four years.

“We know that it may take years to properly see the benefits of some of our additional measures in the area, which includes six monthly testing and badger vaccination.

"The project aims to develop a degree of immunity to bovine TB within the badger population and should, in time, reduce the potential for the onward spread of infection to cattle and other badgers in the area.”

The vaccination work is undertaken in cycles and is expected to continue until the end of October. It is expected to be completed in over seven cycles of vaccination) in 2015. Four cycles have been already been completed.

Most of the vaccination cycles last four weeks - the first three weeks involve liaising with the landowner and preparatory work, with vaccination taking place in the final week.

A report comparing levels of bovine TB in herds in the Intensive Action Area (IAA) in west Wales with herds in other parts of Wales has also been published today and is available on the Welsh Government website.

TheCattleSite News Desk

© 2000 - 2024 - Global Ag Media. All Rights Reserved | No part of this site may be reproduced without permission.