Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has said that trials on a bovine tuberculosis (TB) vaccine are moving to a new phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The minister said that the “main global body of research” on developing such a vaccine is being carried out by Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“To date the biggest issue with a vaccine for cattle has been the availability of a test that is capable of distinguishing between an animal that is truly infected and one that has been vaccinated,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In response to a parliamentary question from Fianna F\u00e1il TD, Jackie Cahill, Minister McConalogue added that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is monitoring the research “very closely”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In previous studies, the vaccine which is the subject of the trails, CattleBCG, has been shown to reduce TB severity in cattle, but requires further field testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A DIVA (differentiating infected from vaccinated animals) skin test has been developed to distinguish between infected and vaccinated animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The minister said it is hoped this test, which still needs validation, will address the issue of false positives caused by BCG (bacille Calmette-Guerin) vaccination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Field trials are underway to evaluate the safety and performance of both this vaccine and the DIVA Test. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Phase 1 assessed this test in unvaccinated cattle, while Phase 2 focused on safety in vaccinated cattle. Phase 3 will expand these tests to more herds,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said that researchers have now moved to Phase 3 which aims to “gather more data on the DIVA test’s specificity and improve its performance”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Minister McConalogue noted that even if the research is successful there are “a significant number of legal and international trade obstacles to be surmounted” before a vaccine could be used as part of our national bovine TB eradication programme<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n