Dr. Damien Barrett:

As for the research on this, in the context of northern Europe the countries that are affected most by bovine TB are Ireland, Wales and the south-west of England. The market for this, relatively speaking, compared to the market for Covid vaccines is very small. There is probably not the same level of research and development going into this although there is research on it. The other thing about a bacteria is that we should not underestimate it. We are all afraid of viruses like Covid and foot and mouth disease and they are considered to be relatively fast moving pathogens. TB is slow moving but it is tough and it has a couple of different complications that makes it very difficult to deal with it. It persists in the environment for several weeks and months compared to a virus that exists for two weeks.

Some animals that are infected by it may go undetected as the disease advances. The tests we have available for it may not be able to detect it. It is not an insignificant body of work to develop this vaccine. The BCG vaccine that a lot of us may have received as children is 100 years old. Most of the modern vaccines we deal with are either that or a variation of that. TB is a particularly difficult nut to crack. I understand why people may be cynical but we also need to understand that while it costs this sum, it supports the export industry. We would not have those exports if we did not have a programme.