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Vaccinating badgers under Ireland’s TB Eradication Programme is projected to cost €4.3m in 2018, according to the Department of Agriculture.
This covers costs related to staff wages, travel, contractors and supplies for the year. Department of Agriculture staff will carry out the vaccinations.
The unit cost of the BCG vaccine is in the region of €30 per vial, which a Department spokesperson has said is sufficient to vaccinate, on average, two badgers.
“Currently, the Department vaccinates roughly 1,000 badgers each year – by 2021 it is expected that this will reach some 6,000 badgers per year.
“Currently, there are vaccination areas in counties Monaghan, Longford, Galway, Tipperary, Cork, Waterford and all of Co Louth.
“Over the period from 2018 to 2021, vaccination will be rolled out to every county and will eventually replace a majority of the current capture/removal program,” the spokesperson said.
The vaccinating of badgers began in January 2018 following field trials in Leinster over the last number of years and years of scientific research by the Department. Ireland’s TB eradication programme includes the removal of badgers under licence in certain circumstances, following epidemiological investigations linking infection in cattle to badgers. The strategy of vaccinating badgers is designed to reduce the spread of transmission from badgers to cattle.
The long-term removal of badgers is not a sustainable or desirable strategy, the Department of Agriculture said previously. The most recent research has also demonstrated that a badger vaccination programme, as operated in the field trial environment, has a similar effect to badger removal with regard to reducing the risk of TB transmission from badgers to cattle.
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