We want to help farmers coexist with badgers, not kill them. We are vaccinating badgers and testing them to see how TB infection falls.
“Of course I’d rather vaccinate badgers, but you need to show me that it works”. So said a representative of the National Farmers’ Union, when debating the controversial issue of badger culling to control bovine tuberculosis (bTB).
You may not realise it, but right now three-quarters of southwest England is covered by badger cull licences. That cup of tea you’re drinking? If you’re in England, chances are the milk came from a farm where badgers are being killed.
bTB is a serious problem for farmers, and eradicating it would benefit everyone. But you can’t eradicate bTB by culling badgers. Not because it’s inhumane and ecologically destructive. Not because it costs taxpayers millions each year. Because it won’t work. As culling forces down badger numbers, the survivors range more widely, spreading bTB from badger to badger, helping the disease to persist. It's like trying to control coronavirus by encouraging people to meet up in the pub.
Vaccination works differently. By protecting individual badgers from infection, it should reduce bTB levels without changing badger numbers. Combined with controls on cattle-to-cattle spread, badger vaccination makes bTB eradication a realistic possibility. Plus, it’s cheaper, more humane, and more wildlife-friendly than culling.
But farmers are understandably sceptical. They live in constant fear of their herds’ next TB test, and they’ve been told for years that culling badgers is the only solution. The government hopes to eventually replace culling with vaccination, but it faces an uphill battle when support for culling is so entrenched.
That’s why the Cornwall Badger Project is “learning-by-doing”. We are vaccinating badgers across two large areas where farmers haven't signed up to cull. But unlike all other vaccination projects, we are also monitoring bTB levels to check how well it's working. Our project is led by (Cornwall-based) research scientists from the Zoological Society of London, licensed to anaesthetise and blood sample badgers, as well as vaccinate them. As we catch badgers for vaccination, we microchip and sample some of them, so we can measure how bTB levels change over time. We also collect samples from badger latrines to compare bTB levels in vaccinated and unvaccinated areas. We always invite farmers to get involved, including helping with the trapping. Gradually, we are normalising vaccination, showing that this approach is practicable as well as useful.
But the Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on our work. We lost part of our 2020 field season due to the lockdown. And, funds we had been informally promised were withdrawn. We know that we can’t expand the project this year. But without your support, we may not even finish the season.
That’s why we’re asking for your help. Anything you can give will help keep our project going. Your money helps us with basics like running our vehicles and baiting our traps. Every day that our trained and licensed coordinator is paid to work mobilises volunteers to help her at no extra cost, and every badger we can afford to trap gives us access to free vaccine through an agreement with government. So every pound you contribute mobilises extra support for your work.
We are running this campaign in the four weeks leading up to the start of the annual cull on 1 Sep 2020. We hope to show that people care enough about alternatives to culling to help fund it.
Others have tried to stop the badger cull through lawsuits and direct action. Yet still the cull has expanded year-on-year, over 100,000 badgers have died, and bTB levels are still unacceptable high. We think that the best solution is to demonstrate that an alternative is available, that it is effective, practicable, and affordable, as well as being kinder to animals and the environment.
Please help us.
Thankyou.
This project successfully funded on 1st September 2020