Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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Question 732: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he has referred to the Krebs report 1997, which counterargues the success rate of badger culling as many that are killed are healthy animals; if he has reviewed any updated research on vaccination programmes provided by the Centre for Veterinary Epidemiology and Risk Analysis in University College Dublin; if any new information regarding a vaccination programme has been provided; if he has considered bovine TB eradication programmes successfully used in other countries such as in TB-free Scotland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41441/11]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department is aware of the conclusions of the Krebs Report, which did acknowledge that badgers are a significant source of tuberculosis infection in cattle. With regard to its conclusion that healthy badgers are also removed under a culling programme, this is unavoidable in a situation where there is no reliable test on live badgers for detecting TB infected badgers and thus culling remains the only method of control currently available. However, my Department does not accept that this in any way undermines the effectiveness of badger culling in reducing the incidence of bovine TB. I also note that in the Regional Red List of Irish mammals, the badger was considered of Least Concern status and unlikely to become extinct in the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, approval to capture a set is contingent on the total area under capture nationally being maintained below 30% of the agricultural land in the country.

I should point out that research has continued both here and in the UK since the publication of the Krebs report on the impact of badger removal on the spread of TB and there is now considerable evidence that confirms that not only are badgers responsible for the spread of bovine TB but that their removal results in a reduction in the incidence of the disease in cattle. In previous replies to questions on this issue, I have referred to the research conducted in Ireland on the impact of the removal of badgers on the incidence of TB in cattle. With regard to the UK, a recent report by the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has concluded in relation to the Randomised Badger Culling Trial that "Overall, from the first cull to five years after the last cull (i.e. up to July 2010) there was a 28% relative reduction in TB confirmed cattle herd incidence in the 100 square kilometres proactively culled areas when compared with the survey-only areas. Confirmed TB herd incidence on the land 2 km outside the culling area was comparable with that in the survey-only areas (9% increase in incidence)."

Regarding vaccination, the intention is to replace badger culling with vaccination when research demonstrates that this is a practicable proposition. My Department has been collaborating for some years with the Centre for Veterinary Epidemiology and Risk Analysis (CVERA) in UCD and indeed with the VLA in Great Britain on research into a vaccine to control tuberculosis in badgers and to 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. As I have indicated previously, field trials are now being undertaken, in Ireland, involving the vaccination by individual oral delivery of several hundred badgers over 3 to 4 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 lead to the implementation of a vaccination strategy as part of the national TB control programme. It is expected that the post-mortem work on the badgers in this trial will commence later this year but that final results on the outcome will not be available for a further 12-months. Use of vaccination beyond scientific trials will require licensing of the vaccine under EU legislation and the data to support the licence application is being generated collaboratively with the VLA.

The position regarding TB in Scotland is that bovine TB levels in that country never reached the levels recorded in Ireland, Northern Ireland or indeed many parts of England or Wales. The precise reasons for this are unknown but the low density of the cattle population in that country is an obvious factor. There is no evidence of a significant level of tuberculosis TB in the badger population and, accordingly, a badger culling programme has not been required there.

In conclusion, in view of the research available to me, I am satisfied that the Bovine TB eradication programme implemented by my Department, including the targeted culling of badgers, has contributed to a reduction in the incidence of TB. Herd incidence has fallen from 7.5% in 2000 to just over 4.1% in 2011. Reactor numbers in 2011 are provisionally estimated at 18,500, the lowest since the commencement of the programme in the 1950s.