NEWS that a bovine tuberculosis vaccine for badgers will be available from next year has been greeted with only muted enthusiasm in the Westcountry.
With the disease virtually out of control, causing chaos to cattle herds throughout the region, and with the Government refusing to allow a cull of sick badgers, farmers believe the badger vaccine is "too little, too late".
Melanie Hall, the National Farmers’ Union regional director, said: "While everyone agrees that vaccination is the best long-term solution in an ideal world, Government indifference, shilly-shallying and lack of action over such a long period has allowed this disease to reach epidemic proportions in badgers across large swathes of the South West – to the point where, frankly, at the moment, it would be about as effective as spitting on a forest fire.
"There are major hurdles to overcome in terms of practicality, cost and confidence, too. Our livestock farmers are already going through the mill because of this pernicious and devastating disease, so we have also got to ensure that they are not hit by any trade and legislative barriers that vaccination may throw up.
"Vaccination can’t stop the tidal wave of bovine TB by itself – particularly not in the South West where the disease has us in such a stranglehold.
"When it is ultimately available, and the hurdles surrounding it have been surmounted, it will have to be deployed as part of a multifaceted approach to eradicating bovine TB in both cattle and badgers."
North Cornwall Lib-Dem MP Dan Rogerson, a member of the House of Commons all-party Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) select committee, said: "The Government has finally heeded calls from the farming community to get on with a vaccination programme.
"The news is long overdue. Now Defra must confound its reputation for bungling big projects by deploying the vaccine effectively.
"But Ministers cannot use this programme to dodge the question of badger control. A vaccine will only ever be part of the solution."
In announcing the badger vaccine, Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, was not using all the tools in his arsenal, he added.
A programme of vaccines, regular testing and a pilot cull of badgers, as recommended by the Government’s former chief scientist, Sir David King, and the EFRA select committee, would be far more effective in reducing the rates of bovine TB.
The vaccine is to be used in six hot-spot areas in a five-year campaign.
