With an announcement on badger culling in the South-West of England expected any day, Defra has launched its edge vaccination scheme (BEVS). The scheme will see the government funding projects to vaccinate badgers outside of areas with high levels of bovine TB.

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Counties in the edge area encircle the high-risk areas of the South-West and West-Midlands, from Cheshire in the North-west through Oxfordshire and Hampshire in the South. Defra claims that its scheme will create "a buffer zone of healthy badger populations" to curb the spread of bovine TB.

However, scientists who mapped the spread of bovine TB in England between 1996 and 2011 have said their research suggests cattle are primarily behind bTB transmissions, and that the disease is predominantly a wildlife illness, which has spread out into wildlife. They called for disease control measures to focus on cattle. The government maintains that its bTB strategy includes a raft of cattle-based measures.  

Ahead of Defra's announcement, anti-cull wildlife group Humane Society International called on the government to extend the vaccination scheme into high-risk areas. The society demanded again on Tuesday that the scheme be "Extended to offer farmers an effective, humane alternative to shooting badgers."

Under the BEVS scheme, government will provide up to 50 percent of the cost of vaccinations, advice from field experts, free loans of equipment such as traps, and free vaccine supply for groups. Eligible vaccination projects need to be predominantly in the edge area, and cover a minimum area of 15km2.

Government wants to create 'barrier' of healthy badgers

UK Chief Veterinary Officer Nigel Gibbens said on Tuesday, "I would urge groups to take advantage of this vaccination offer and join in with this important effort to halt the disease spreading throughout England. We know vaccination cannot cure badgers already carrying TB, but used in the right areas, it can play a vital role in creating a barrier to the disease's spread."

Mr Gibbens recommended extending culling past the initial six week period last year, after shooters in both zones fell well short of their targets. The chief vet claimed this would have an earlier and greater impact on TB levels. However, ten members of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons wrote to Mr Gibbens to warn him that his recommendations could "place both badgers and cattle in and around the cull zones at greater risk of contracting bovine tuberculosis," as earlier trials suggested longer periods of culling exacerbate the 'perturbation effect.'

The expert vets said the government advisor had brought the profession into disrepute. Cull licensing body Natural England's decision to grant the extensions was taken against the recommendations of its own chief scientific advisor.

On Tuesday, the Humane Society urged Defra to extend its vaccination programme, claiming "vaccination using the injectable BCG vaccine is a viable alternative to unscientific and unjustified badger culling."

The Society has accused Defra and the NFU of using anti-vaccination rhetoric in the run-up to culling, in a bid to garner support for culling, and claimed this may now impact on the uptake of vaccination schemes.

Mark Jones, a vet and director of HSI UK, said the BEVS scheme "Will be too little too late unless ministers pull out all the stops to promote it to the very farmers they and the National Farmers Union have spent years trying to convince that badger vaccination is a waste of time."

Jones added, "Refusing to support vaccination in precisely those areas where bovine TB is most problematic is nonsensical. Farmers in these areas deserve a vaccination scheme or they’re being left high and dry. We know that indiscriminate culling of badgers won't be effective. "

After a legal challenge against the government's decision not to appoint an independent body to oversee the second year of its culls failed last week, shooting is expected to begin imminently in the two zones of Gloucestershire and Somerset.