Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leis an Teachta as an ceist tábhachtach seo a árdú. I shall investigate the feasibility of the cage trapping described by Deputy White after delivering my reply.

A considerable amount of research which has been conducted over the years both by my Department and elsewhere has shown that the eradication of bovine TB is not a practicable proposition in the short to medium term because of the reservoir of infection in wildlife, particularly among badgers, which seeds infection into the cattle population. The published results of the four-area project carried out in counties Cork, Monaghan, Donegal and Kilkenny in the late 1990s and the early years of this decade demonstrated that there was a significant reduction in TB levels in cattle following the removal of badgers. In particular, the total number of herd restrictions in the removal areas for the study period was almost 60% lower than the pre-study period.

In view of this research, the bovine TB eradication programme implemented by my Department contains a comprehensive wildlife strategy in order to limit the spread of TB from badgers to cattle. Under this strategy, badgers are captured under licence issued by the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government wherever they are implicated in an outbreak of TB.

Capturing is undertaken only in areas where serious outbreaks of tuberculosis have been identified in cattle herds and where an epidemiological investigation carried out by the Department's veterinary inspectorate has found that badgers are the likely source of infection. In addition, approval to capture a sett is contingent on the total area under capture nationally being maintained below 30% of the agricultural land in the country.

With regard to the animal welfare aspect of badger culling, my Department continually monitors damage and injury to badgers captured under this programme. Badgers are captured using a specifically designed stopped-body restraint by trained farm relief service contractors, who are monitored and supervised by staff of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The restraints used in the capture of badgers are approved under section 34 of the 1976 Wildlife Act and are specifically designed with a 'stop', so as not to tighten beyond a predetermined point. All restraints are monitored daily and any badgers are removed within a maximum of 24 hours of capture. A condition of the licence granted is that restraints are checked before noon the next day. Capturing of badgers is not permitted during the months of January, February and March in new capture areas. Research undertaken by the centre for veterinary epidemiology and risk analysis, CVERA, in UCD has shown that damage or injury to captured badgers is either non-existent or minimal while in the stopped restraint.

The recent programme for Government included a commitment that the Animal Health and Welfare Bill, currently being drafted by my Department, will include provisions relating to the replacement of culling with more humane and effective methods of control. The Deputy will be aware of this, given her close involvement with that negotiation. The preference - and our intention - would be to replace culling with a vaccination programme.

With this in mind, my Department has been collaborating for some years with CVERA in UCD on research into a vaccine to control tuberculosis in badgers and break the link of infection to cattle. Research to date has demonstrated that oral vaccination of badgers in a captive environment with the BCG vaccine generates high levels of protective immunity against challenge with bovine TB. It is now necessary to undertake research to establish whether this protective effect exists in field conditions and my Department, in conjunction with UCD, has commenced work on a three-year field trial in County Kilkenny that is designed to assess the impact of vaccination on badger to badger transmission of tuberculosis in a natural environment. This trial involves vaccinating several hundred badgers over three to four years, with continuous monitoring of the population to assess the impact of the vaccine on the incidence of disease in the vaccinated and non-vaccinated control badger populations.

Success in the field trial will eventually lead to implementation of a vaccination strategy as part of the national TB control programme. However, it will be some years - 2013 at the earliest - before the benefits of a vaccine can be seen and therefore targeted badger removals will continue in the medium term.

My Department is satisfied that the introduction of the badger removal policy has contributed to a reduction in the incidence of TB in recent years. In this regard, it is noteworthy that the incidence rate of new herd breakdowns has fallen significantly between 2000 and 2008. The average number of reactors removed in the five-year period 2002-08 was, at just over 26,000, 26% lower than in the preceding five-year period. In addition, reactor numbers have remained below 30,000 per annum since 2002, the longest period since the 1950s and while a number of factors were involved, it is likely that the enhanced badger removal strategy, which was implemented from 2004, is a factor in this.

In effect, this strategy is a pragmatic response, based on sound science, to a complex problem. In pursuit of our objective, my Department is involved to a research project with UCD on the development of a vaccine for use in badgers that would lead to a reduction in the current high levels of TB infection in that species. It is hoped that this strategy will, in the longer term, reduce the need to cull TB infected badgers as tuberculosis levels fall in both cattle and badgers.

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