Vaccinating Badgers Can Cut Bovine TB By Half – New Research
11 years ago
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13th December, 2012 12h52
New government-backed research has revealed that vaccinating badgers can reduce the level of TB within an infected colony by 54%.
The results, from a four year study by the Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA) and university departments, shoot a massive hole in the government’s policy that claims culling badgers is the only way to stop the disease.
Philip Mansbridge, CEO of wildlife charity Care for the Wild, said:
“This report must be the final nail in the coffin of the plan to cull badgers. Pro-cull supporters claim that the disease can only be stopped if the so-called reservoir of disease within wildlife is reduced – this study shows that vaccination can achieve this.”
The report also shows that unvaccinated young badgers within the same social group as the vaccinated adults showed a reduction in risk to tb of nearly 80% - showing that vaccination has a knock-on positive effect within the sett.
“When the coalition government came to power, there were six proposed projects to investigate badger vaccination. They cut the number down to just one – but alone, this report has knocked their cull policy onto its backside,” said Philip Mansbridge.
“It just proves what we have been saying all along – if you give a humane alternative the same time and attention as you give a policy of slaughter, then you will find a way to beat this disease which everyone can be happy with.”
Care for the Wild is a charity based in Sussex dedicated to the protection of wildlife in the UK and abroad. They are part of The Team Badger, a coalition of animal welfare groups against the cull including the RSPCA and former Queen star Brian May. For more information see
www.careforthewild.com.
BCG Vaccination Reduces Risk of Tuberculosis Infection in Vaccinated Badgers and Unvaccinated Badger Cubs Carter SP, Chambers MA, Rushton SP, Shirley MDF, Schuchert P, et al. (2012) BCG Vaccination Reduces Risk of Tuberculosis Infection in Vaccinated Badgers and Unvaccinated Badger Cubs. PLoS ONE 7(12): e49833. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0049833Quote from exec summary: A more sensitive panel of tests for the detection of infection per se identified a reduction of 54% (Odds ratio = 0.46, 95% CI 0.26–0.88) in the risk of a positive result following vaccination. In addition, we show the risk of unvaccinated badger cubs, but not adults, testing positive to an even more sensitive panel of diagnostic tests decreased significantly as the proportion of vaccinated individuals in their social group increased (Odds ratio = 0.08, 95% CI 0.01–0.76; P = 0.03). When more than a third of their social group had been vaccinated, the risk to unvaccinated cubs was reduced by 79% (Odds ratio = 0.21, 95% CI 0.05–0.81; P = 0.02).More from
