Badger vaccination projects across England axed
24 June 2010 - BBC News
The government has cut a project to vaccinate badgers against bovine TB that
was planned for parts of England this summer. Agriculture Minister James Paice has told MPs that a pilot vaccination
project will now only take place near Stroud, Gloucestershire. Programmes in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, Staffordshire and Devon have
been scrapped. Paice said culling badgers was also being looked at.
The project is due to start in an area near Stroud in July and continue for
five years, over which time DEFRA said an estimated £6m will be saved. A government spokesman said badgers are to be trapped and vaccinated over a
38.6 square miles of cattle farmland near Stroud, and sett surveys will be
carried out in the area near Cheltenham.
Badger culling was ruled out by the previous government.
Paice said: "We've committed to carefully-managed and science-led badger
control as part of a package of measures, and we're looking carefully at badger
vaccination and culling as part of that. It makes sense to review the badger vaccine deployment project to keep our
options open and to ensure best possible use of taxpayers' money. By going ahead with the training in Stroud, we'll maintain capacity to train
lay vaccinators while we consider how best to deploy vaccines as part of a
badger control policy."
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