Badger TB vaccine is 'best solution' (From Western Telegraph)

Farming union supports badger TB vaccine

5:17pm Thursday 23rd September 2010 in Badger cull in North Pembrokeshire

THE best solution to the bovine TB problem is Wales is vaccination of badgers, the Farmers' Union of Wales (FUW) has said.

However, the union’s TB spokesman Brian Walters said a tried and tested method or oral vaccination was ‘many years away’.

He added: “Some of those who oppose a cull say that catching and injecting badgers with a vaccine is the practical way forward, but this option was on the table 30 years ago and was laughed out of the room as being costly, impractical, and ineffective. I can’t see that anything has changed.”

Rural affairs minister Elin Jones says she will consider the use of a vaccine and a working group has been set up to develop a vaccination policy in Wales.

An oral vaccine for badgers will not be available for potential use until 2015 at the earliest.