As scientific research on TB continues, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has said that “in five to 10 years, it may be possible to vaccinate high-risk cattle and to differentiate those ones from infected cattle”.
Speaking at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture and the Marine, Eoin Ryan, senior superintending veterinary inspector with the department, said there is “good news on that front” as colleagues in the UK are “putting a significant amount of research into this”.
‘It’s not a perfect vaccine’
“Of course, there is a vaccine for TB that we all got when we were kids – the BCG vaccine – it’s been used going back to the early 1920s, and that is the vaccine we use in badgers,” Ryan explained.
“And just like in people, it’s not a perfect vaccine in badgers, but it’s good enough – it provides sufficient protection that it prevents spread through the badger population just like it does with people.
The reason it is not used in cattle is if you vaccinate bovines with BCG, they may test positive to the skin test and you then have the problem that you don’t know whether they were positive because they were vaccinated or because they became infected.
“Of course, if the vaccine isn’t perfect, unfortunately a proportion of vaccinated cattle can still get infected.
“But there is good news on that front – our colleagues in the UK, they’ve developed a possible way of differentiating between vaccinated and infected cattle.
“It’s possible that if these things work out that in five to 10 years, it may be possible to vaccinate high-risk cattle and to differentiate those ones from infected cattle, so we’re working closely with UK colleagues and supporting them on that.”
Badgers
Ryan said that culling badgers, by itself, “is not sustainable ecologically and it’s also not sustainable in disease terms”.
“There was considerable research carried out by the Department of Agriculture and also UCD and many other institutions in Ireland which shows that vaccinating badgers is as effective as culling badgers once you get those severe TB outbreaks under control,” he said.
Since 2018, vaccinating badgers has been part of our strategy. We have a major focus on vaccinating badgers to prevent spill-over into cattle and, where necessary, we still do continue to cull and will continue to cull badgers where a serious outbreak has occurred in cattle, which is linked to that local badger population.
“In 2018, we vaccinated about 1,000 badgers and in 2019, that was over 1,600, while also continuing to carry out culling where necessary.”
Deer
With deer, Ryan said that where there are “local concerns”, the department is “happy to test those deer for free”.
“In 2019, we tested 233 deer submitted to our laboratories. These aren’t random deer, these are deer specifically shot where farmers have a concern in that area that these deer are transmitting TB to cattle,” he explained.
Of the 233 deer, only two tested positive. In 2020, we had 87 deer submitted, and only three were positive.
“But we’re happy to continue with that [testing] because there’s no doubt, deer do get infected, they can get infected with bovine TB and deer that are infected can infect cattle.”