Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 October 2017
63. Deputy Martin Kenny asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will report on the bovine TB eradication, badger vaccine trial which was reported to have taken place in County Kilkenny; and the expected date of the publication of the report of the trial. [41626/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraI can inform the Deputy that the study in question has been completed and the findings were published in January 2017. The findings can be found at: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0168851.
The objective of the trial was primarily to provide information as to the efficacy of an individually delivered oral vaccine in reducing the level of TB infection in the wild badger population. The results demonstrate that oral BCG vaccination confers protection to badgers and could be used to reduce incident rates in tuberculosis-infected populations of badgers.
As I stated in my response to Parliamentary Question No. 7 of 30 November 2016, it is my Department's intention to deploy a full badger vaccination strategy as soon as robust scientific evidence becomes available to demonstrate that such a programme is practicable and will deliver an outcome equivalent to the existing wildlife programme. Given the findings of this study, and the preliminary results of a number of other field trials involving vaccine delivered by injection that are coming to a conclusion and are currently being evaluated, I expect to make an announcement on the roll out of a badger vaccination programme before the end of the year.
