New badger vaccine may be key in eliminating TB

Results from a four-year badger vaccination programme in Cornwall could revolutionise the mission to eradicate bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in the UK. 

Initiated and funded by Cornish farmers, the team vaccinated badgers on 12 farms across an 11km² area. Blood sampling following the vaccinations showed that the proportion of badgers with bTB fell from 16% to zero, even though overall badger numbers remained high. 

Previous plans to expand badger vaccination have been met with scepticism from farming leaders, concerned that vaccination might reach too few badgers, at too high a cost. However, camera data from the study suggested that 74% of local badgers received the vaccine. While most bTB incidents in cattle are caused by transmission between herds, transmission from wild badgers plays a role in the persistence of the disease. 

Badger culls have formed part of the UK government bTB policy for many years, although the new Government has committed to ending the controversial cull. 

Henry Grub, a PhD researcher from Imperial College London, who was involved in the study, said: “This provides the first evidence from a real vaccination trial that badger vaccines can actually reduce, maybe even eradicate, TB in badgers.”