On Wednesday (28th November), Welsh Environment Minister John Griffiths announced that the Welsh Government has now vaccinated over 1400 badgers in the Intensive Action Area.

In March, the Welsh government decided to abandon plans to cull badgers in the Intensive Action Area as part of its bovine TB control policy earlier this year, following a review of the scientific evidence. The government said that "This is the first time that a project to cage trap and vaccinate badgers on such an ambitious scale has been carried out."

Field work to vaccinate badgers began in May and ended in November. Provisional figures from the Welsh government indicate that since May, teams have caught and vaccinated over 1400 badgers in the IAA.  

The environment minister said on Wednesday, "Our vaccination programme has enabled Wales to take quick and decisive action to develop a degree of immunity to TB within the badger population in the IAA.  We believe that this should reduce the risk of TB transmission from badgers to cattle and contribute to the eradication of bovine TB over time."

The Welsh governmnet's Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr Christianne Glossop, is also working on establishing other areas where vaccination may provide benefits. John Griffiths said "options for expanding the vaccination programme and delivering it in other areas are currently being developed."  

He added, "The success of the badger vaccination initiative is dependant on staff being granted access to as much land as possible. I would like to thank farmers and landowners for their ongoing co-operation and encourage other partners and stakeholders to consider how they could work with us to increase the number of badgers we can vaccinate in Wales."

Last month, Defra released information on bovine TB testing conducted in the first six months of the year. The data shows that, although slaughtering and breakdowns have increased since last year, the discoveries have fallen proportionally due to increased testing.

The provisional August 2012 incidence rate was shown to be 5.1percent, compared to 6.6 percent in August 2011.

Although plans to kill badgers as part of trial culls in areas of Gloucestershire and Somerset were postponed in October, the Westminster government maintains that it will resume its culling trials in 2013.

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