bTB Badger vaccination meeting (Wales)

06 February 2012

To help our Welsh farmers make informed decisions about all the options available to them to reduce the risks of bTB on their farms a meeting was held at Gelli Aur College Farm in Carmarthenshire where we discuss the theory and actual practice of vaccinating badgers as part of a strategy to reduce the risks of TB infection.

We had two expert speakers Dr Iain Trewby of FERA (Food and Environment Research Agency) which is an executive agency of DEFRA, who talked about the processes of badger vaccination and gave an overview of the badger deployment project of which he is project manager. In addition Andrew Crace-Calvert of EcoCon spoke about the commercial deployment of badger vaccination programmes. Many thanks to Iain and Andrew for their excellent talks and contribution to the lively discussion that followed.

To read notes from the meeting and see the presentation from Dr Iain Trewby and hand-out from Andrew Crace-Calvert please see attachments.

Additionally useful further information on badger vaccination can be found on the FERA website: - see particularly useful summary document Advice for vets about the Badger BCG

Following on from this meeting as soon as we have any news on proposed action by the Welsh Assembly Government including potential grants available to assist with funding of badger vaccination in isolation or collaboration with a cull we will ensure to let our farmers know.