Environment, Food and Rural Affairs CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by The Wildlife Trusts

There are 47 individual Wildlife Trusts covering the whole of the UK and the Isle of Man and Alderney. Together The Wildlife Trusts are the largest UK voluntary organisation dedicated to protecting wildlife and wild places everywhere—on land and at sea. We are supported by more than 800,000 members, 150,000 of which belong to our junior branch—Wildlife Watch.

Summary points

Culling is not a quick fix solution to bTB.

The Wildlife Trusts believe that an effective cattle vaccine, used alongside a badger vaccine, improved biosecurity and cattle testing, represents the best long-term solution to the problem of bovine TB (bTB).

Badger vaccination can be used immediately without the negative effects of perturbation associated with a badger cull.

In order to be effective, badger vaccination needs to be deployed in a strategic manner and needs to be combined with improved cattle testing, movement controls and biosecurity measures.

The Wildlife Trusts are concerned that the resources and political capital currently being spent on delivering a badger cull could be more effectively targeted towards vaccination.

The Wildlife Trusts are the leading NGO with experience of deploying the badger vaccine.

There is desire across a range of sectors for increased partnership working on vaccine deployment.

Introduction

1. The Wildlife Trusts are very conscious of the hardship that bTB causes the farming community and the need to find the right mechanisms to control the disease.

2. There is no quick fix to the problem of bTB. Currently a badger cull is being described as a more immediate solution than vaccination, yet the apparent beneficial effects of culling (between 12 and 16%) were only recorded after nine years.

3. Our involvement with this issue over many years has led us to conclude that a sustained programme of badger and cattle vaccination, alongside improved biosecurity measures, improved testing and controls on cattle movement would be the best means of tackling bTB.

Badger Vaccination

4. In the absence of a deployable cattle vaccine, The Wildlife Trusts believe that the injectable badger vaccine, alongside improved cattle testing and biosecurity measures, can contribute significantly to reducing the spread of bTB. The Food and Environment Research Agency advises that only a proportion of the susceptible population need to benefit from the protective effects of the vaccine in order to reduce the prevalence of infection in the population.1

5. The badger vaccine can be deployed immediately without the negative effects of perturbation that are associated with badger culling. There is significant support for badger vaccine deployment amongst the wildlife conservation and animal welfare charities and the wider public.

6. In the longer term a badger vaccine that can be delivered orally is likely to be a cheaper and more practical way of vaccinating large numbers of badgers in the wild than an injectable vaccine. However, deployment of the current intradermal vaccine should not be delayed on the hope value of an oral product that is not currently available, yet would be based on the same BadgerBCG vaccine.

7. In a clinical field study,2 BCG vaccination of free-living badgers reduced the incidence of positive serological test results by 73.8%. Recently published research also found that when more than a third of their social group had been vaccinated, the risk to unvaccinated cubs was reduced by 79%.3 A reduction in the prevalence and severity of the disease in badgers could reduce the degree of badger to badger, badger to cattle and cattle to badger bTB transmission.

8. In 2011, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust became the first NGO to deploy the badger BCG vaccine. Following the first year of vaccination, the Trust published a report summarising their findings from the vaccination project. The report is attached as annex 1 to this submission and a revised report including the findings of the second year of deployment is currently being produced and will be available in early 2013. In 2012 a number of other Wildlife Trusts began deployment of the badger BGC vaccine including Somerset, Cheshire, Shropshire and Warwickshire.

9. Trusts are primarily deploying the vaccine on their own nature reserves, but where possible they have also been providing advice to other landowners interested in vaccination. Shropshire and Cheshire Wildlife Trusts have developed a partnership with a veterinary practice to promote badger vaccination and have already signed up a number of farms for vaccination programmes this year. In the cases of vaccination on sites other than Wildlife Trust reserves, the landowners are paying for the cost of vaccination. There is clearly an appetite for partnership working on across a range of sectors on this issue.

10. The experience of the Trusts is that there is a demand for advice on badger vaccination, but that many people are unsure of where to access information. One of the key conclusions drawn by Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust in their report was that if the badger vaccine was to be deployed more widely a free advisory service would make deployment easier and potentially cheaper. A farmer who was prepared to use the badger vaccine privately has expressed concern to the Gloucestershire Trust in 2012 that access to badger vaccine fund was not straightforward and that financial support for work undertaken was not provided for many months. Cost and accessibility barriers for farmers and landowners willing to deploy badger vaccine should be addressed if “every tool in the toolbox” is truly to be used.

11. There is also a clear need to for “myth busting” regarding the use of the vaccine. Wildlife Trust demonstration projects and seminars have been helpful in this regard, but clearer information from Government is also needed.

12. The value of the intradermal badger vaccine as an available and accessible disease management tool is frequently devalued. Defra should issue an authoritative statement that gives an objective and uncoloured assessment of BadgerBCG and the current state of research on its efficacy.

13. Whilst The Wildlife Trusts have successfully deployed the badger BCG vaccine on a number of sites and have been able to develop local partnerships, we recognise the limited impact that our deployment of the vaccine will have on the wider problem of bTB. If badger vaccination is to be successful it needs to be deployed strategically in key areas in order to have the biggest possible impact on bTB.

14. With this in mind, The Wildlife Trusts support Defra’s current work on the development of an edge strategy. The strategy would focus on the edges of high bTB incidence areas and aims to prevent further spread by creating a firewall against the disease. Measures being considered as part of the edge strategy include restrictions on cattle movements, improved bio-security measures and badger vaccination.

15. The Wildlife Trusts are keen to work with Defra on this strategy in order to focus our vaccination efforts on the areas where they will have the biggest impact on bTB. We would encourage Defra form a strategic grouping of stakeholders to ensure as wide a deployment of the vaccine as possible in the edge areas.

16. Alongside working with Defra on the edge strategy, The Wildlife Trusts also plan to continue demonstrating vaccine deployment on key sites in order to support our efforts to provide information about the role of the vaccine bTB control.

17. It appears that in comparison to the political capital being put into delivering a badger cull, very little Government effort has been put into badger vaccine deployment.

18. £250,000 a year is available from Defra to support badger vaccination. This is in comparison to the costs of the two delayed pilot culls, which have already exceeded £1m and are likely to total more than £5m if the pilots go ahead. Currently the £250,000 vaccination fund is only available to use in cull areas. The Wildlife Trusts believe that the fund should be increased and made available to support the strategic deployment of the badger vaccine as part of the edge strategy. Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust was not able to access this fund for use on its nature reserves within the proposed cull area because of the high level of confidentiality placed on the location of the cull boundaries. The Trust was not able to identify what of its land lay within the cull zone and did not progress with badger vaccination. This barrier needs to be removed for future culls if they do proceed.

Cattle Vaccine

19. The Wildlife Trusts believe that cattle vaccination is a key part of the long term solution to the problem of bTB. However, we recognise that deployment of a cattle vaccine is not yet possible due to European legislation. Opinions on the likely timescale for the availability of the cattle vaccine seem to vary greatly. We would like to see the Select Committee clearly establish the status of the cattle vaccine and the necessary steps that need to be taken in order for the vaccine be deployable. In this regard we believe it is important that the Committee seeks evidence from the European Commission, European Food Safety Agency and World Organisation for Animal Health (in relation to the DIVA test).

20. As with the badger vaccine, Defra appears to have devoted little effort to progressing a cattle vaccine when compared to a cull. Given the costs associated with a cull that would, at best, deliver a 16% reduction in bTB and the ongoing costs of compensation we believe that more effort should be dedicated to securing the deployment of a cattle vaccine as a matter of the highest urgency.

21. The Wildlife Trusts believe that the Government should be preparing a deployment plan for the cattle vaccine in England. This will shorten the timetable between the approval of the vaccine and deployment. On 10 and 11 December 2012 the Welsh Government held a two day conference with leading cattle vaccination experts to begin looking at the role that cattle vaccination can play in bTB eradication. We would like to see Defra taking similar steps in England.

January 2013