Resources are applied to the Wildlife Programme in two ways; Technical agricultural officers oversee the surveying for badger setts in terms of finding those setts and determining the level of activity at those sites. They also oversee the capturing of badgers by contract staff for both badger culling and vaccination.
Veterinary Inspectors anaesthetise and vaccinate badgers in the vaccination zones. There are currently 41.5 FTE technical DAFM staff dedicated to wildlife duties. There are 134 outsourced contract staff engaged in surveying or capture activity on a full time or part time basis currently. The veterinary vaccination needs are serviced by the Regional Veterinary Office DAFM Veterinary Inspectorate of 133 FTEs as part of their duties.
The numbers relating to the Deputy's question on culling are contained in the table below.
Year
|
Number of badgers culled
|
2021 to date
|
4,036
|
2020
|
4,803
|
2019
|
5,254
|
2018
|
5,589
|
2017
|
5,818
|
2016
|
6,162
|
A recent scientific paper estimated the current badger population at 63,188
DAFM is currently committed to reducing badger culling in favour of badger vaccination which is more sustainable in the long term for both ecological and disease reasons, in line with the Programme for Government commitment Badger culling has been demonstrated to be an effective in reducing the burden of bovine TB on Irish family farms for over 20 years.
This is possible because badger vaccination has been demonstrated to be effective in reducing badger-to-badger TB transmission and not to be inferior to badger culling when introduced to areas with low badger densities and reduced prevalence of TB.
The current policy is to vaccinate badgers to prevent disease outbreaks and to cull badgers where necessary in response to outbreaks in areas where epidemiological investigations have demonstrated the link between badgers and TB breakdowns on cattle farms. Areas where badger culling may previously have taken place are being incorporated into the badger vaccination programme on an ongoing basis but only when any underlying disease spread to cattle from wildlife has been suppressed. This approach is consistent with peer-reviewed scientific modelling studies relating to the UK and Ireland Currently badger vaccination zones cover 19,079 Km2 .