The National Farmers Union and the Badger Trust have today announced that they agree to work together on an initial project to vaccinate badgers on two farms owned by members of the NFU.

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The surprise news follows debates between Badger Trust and NFU representatives in the run up to the deadline of Defra’s public consultation on its badger control strategy. NFU chief farm policy adviser John Royle and Badger Trust Director Simon Boulter agreed a joint project in which the badgers on two farms owned by NFU members will be vaccinated.

In addition, the Badger Trust has identified five other landowners around the UK wishing to vaccinate badgers and is working independently with them as part of an initial trial project.

Vaccination on all seven farms started last month after surveys were carried out to identify active badger setts and licences have been granted by Natural England. The vaccination project will run until the end of November 2011 and resume in May 2012.

The two said they hope that the two programmes, although small in scale, will help to identify whether the injectable vaccination of badgers is practical and cost effective. On coming to power the coalition closed down five of the six active badger vaccination programs, claiming on program would furnish them with all the information they needed.  

Speaking for the NFU, chief farm policy adviser, John Royle said, “We are pleased that the NFU and the Badger Trust have successfully liaised to facilitate this joint project, sharing equipment and resources as necessary, despite having differing views on the degree to which badgers are implicated in the transmission of bovine Tuberculosis.”

Simon Boulter, Badger Trust spokesperson, said, “We hope that with the use of volunteers to help with the work of surveying, trap-setting and pre-baiting, we can successfully implement an effective badger vaccination programme.”

Farming minister Jim Paice last week promised a decision would be made before Christmas regarding the highly controversial plans to carry out a badger cull in England. Paice said that, if a cull were to go ahead as part of the bovine TB control strategy, the supporting case would need to be "water tight", as it is certain to be challenged in court.