TB vaccine is given cautious welcome as cull phased out

The Government has changed its policy on controlling bovine tuberculosis but a new vaccine has yet to be fully tested.

- Matt Cross

The Government has announced a shift of policy on controlling bovine TB. Its new strategy will place less emphasis on culling badgers and more on vaccinating badgers and cattle.

Defra announced: “The Government envisages that the current intensive culling policy would begin to be phased out in the next few years, gradually replaced by Government-supported badger vaccination and surveillance. Culling would remain an option where epidemiological assessment indicates that it is needed.”

Effectively vaccinating cattle against TB has proved difficult as the current vaccine is not very effective and the tests used cannot differentiate between a cow that has been vaccinated and one which has developed TB.