Gay Mitchell (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 70: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food her plans to introduce a bovine vaccination programme for tuberculosis; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12006/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Vaccination of bovines for tuberculosis is not allowed in EU member states and accordingly I have no proposals to introduce such vaccination as part of the tuberculosis eradication scheme here. However, my Department is currently seeking to develop a vaccine for badgers. It accepted that the availability of such a vaccine is a prerequisite if eradication of tuberculosis from the cattle population is to be achieved. In view of this, drawing on the latest national and international developments in immunology and molecular biology, a badger vaccine research group based at the department of large animal clinical studies, veterinary college, University College Dublin, in conjunction with colleagues in the department of zoology, University College Cork and Trinity College, Dublin is progressing an ambitious programme to develop a vaccine to protect badgers from tuberculosis.

The objective is to secure an orally delivered preparation of BCG vaccine for use in badgers that will result in lower TB levels in that species. With this in mind, a large scale field trial of BCG in badgers is planned to test the efficacy of the vaccine, as testing carried out to date under experimental conditions have shown encouraging results. However, any vaccine will not be available for wider use in the immediate future and the existing strategy will remain in place for some time.