Patrick Nulty (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 192: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the position regarding his research on the development of a bait based vaccination against TB for badgers and the related pilot project; his views that this research can lead to an end to badger culling; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11985/12]

Patrick Nulty (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 193: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the cost to the State on an annual basis for each of the past ten years inclusive of the anti TB badger culling programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11986/12]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 192 and 193 together.

The position with regard to the vaccination trials is that the intention of my Department is to replace badger culling with vaccination when research demonstrates that this is a practicable proposition. With this in mind, my Department has been funding research in UCD and collaborating with DEFRA in the UK on research into a vaccine to control tuberculosis in badgers. 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. However, it is necessary to assess the impact of the vaccine on the incidence of disease in both badgers and cattle in field conditions. Accordingly, field trials are being undertaken, 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. The efficient and effective delivery of the vaccine to badgers is an important aspect of the research programme of my Department but no definitive conclusions as to the most appropriate bait or delivery mechanism can be arrived at from the research conducted to date. My Department intends to conduct further research into this issue and will be collaborating very closely with DEFRA on this matter.

If the trials are successful, badger vaccination will be incorporated into the eradication programme. However, it will be some years before the trials are completed and therefore targeted badger removals will continue in the medium term. I am, however, hopeful that the trials will demonstrate that vaccination of badgers can provide an effective alternative to badger culling in the longer-term.

The cost of the culling programme over the past 10 years is set out below (excluding staff costs):

2002 €1.79m

2003 €1.63m

2004 €1.28m

2005 €2.10m

2006 €2.63m

2007 €3.32m

2008 €3.64m

2009 €3.38m

2010 €2.78m

2011 €3.04m

Staff costs relating to personnel involved in the badger culling programme are not maintained separately from overall Department staff costs. However, the costs of staff involved in badger culling in 2011 is estimated at €3m.

The cost of the badger culling programme has to be considered in the context of the savings arising from its implementation. The badger programme has been in place since the mid 1990's and was significantly enhanced in 2004. The incidence of bovine TB in Ireland has declined significantly since 1998 when approximately 45,000 animals were removed as reactors to just 18,503 reactors in 2011, the lowest level last seen since the start of the programme in the 1950's. While it not possible to attribute the decline in the incidence of the disease to any single factor, my Department believes that much of the improvement in the disease situation can be attributed to the badger removal policy. In this context, it is interesting to note that it is estimated that the animal prevalence of TB in NI, where there is no badger removal programme, was, on average, approximately 33% higher than in the South during the ten year period 2002 to 2011. On this basis, I am satisfied that the badger removal programme is highly cost effective.