Why Badger Vaccination won’t save the badger

Badger Trust Chief Executive Nigel Palmer: Why Badger Vaccination won’t save the Badger.

Published in the Yorkshire Post, August 2025

For over a decade, badgers have borne the brunt of the government’s failed attempts to control bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in cattle. Nearly 250,000 badgers have been killed under an ineffective policy. Now, the government is offering a new solution: vaccination.

Badger vaccination sounds like a positive shift, framed as an alternative to culling, while still addressing bTB. But this narrative is dangerously misleading. The truth is: badgers are not the problem. Cattle are.

Badger vaccination, using the BCG (Bacille Calmette-Guérin) vaccine, does not address the root cause of bTB: that over 94% of bTB cases in cattle are spread from cow to cow [1]. The rest comes from factors, including poor biosecurity, contaminated slurry, and environmental exposure. Mycobacterium bovis has been found in cows, dogs, cats, humans, deer, badgers, & even earthworms.

Badgers are far more likely to catch bTB from cattle than spread it to them, up to 800 times more likely [2], according to research.

Despite transmission between species being rare & generally indirect, occurring via contaminated environments like slurry or faeces, governments have spent millions culling badgers based on the unlikely scenario that a cow could contract bTB from an infectious badger through indirect, preventable contact.

Meanwhile, efforts to improve cattle testing remain stalled. More accurate & sensitive tests exist but aren’t authorised for routine use in England. Why? This likely means infection rates in cows are significantly higher than recorded. Infected cows are moving between farms, silently spreading the disease.

In Wales, where more robust testing is conducted, 92% of badgers found dead were bTB-free [3]. 

Some studies claimed to show the effects of badger culling on bTB rates in cattle, but they failed to distinguish culling from other measures like improved testing & biosecurity in high-risk areas [4,5].

Badger vaccination shifts the blame away from cattle, but it is impractical & unrealistic as a method of reducing bTB in cattle.

Vaccinating badgers involves weeks of baiting, cage-trapping, & injecting each animal. It is expensive, difficult to roll out, & requires annual boosters [6]. There is no evidence that vaccinating badgers reduces bTB in cattle. If culling hasn’t worked, it stands to reason that vaccination won’t either.

Many farmers share these concerns. Research shows they often view badger vaccination as ineffective in reducing bTB in their herds [7,8].

Labour’s manifesto called culling “ineffective,” yet they have chosen to continue culling badgers, continue the badger blame route with vaccination, which they’ve also delayed, at the expense of an estimated 20,000 badger lives.

The government has launched a badger vaccination study in Cornwall to assess its impact on TB in cattle. £1.3 million of taxpayers’ money is being used “to encourage farmers to participate… & provide greater confidence that vaccination will have a positive effect on their cattle.” The study is not about Bovine TB.

That money could have a greater impact on tackling bTB directly in herds. But since this isn’t a clinical trial, the effect of badger vaccination can’t be separated from cattle measures also being implemented. 

Therefore, we can assert with some confidence that the government is likely to achieve the results it desires.

As the leading advocate for badgers in England and Wales, Badger Trust believes that badger vaccination is a costly & ineffective distraction from addressing the root cause of bTB in cattle.

Badger Trust supports badger welfare. While there is merit in protecting badgers from cattle disease, resources should go to more effective solutions, namely, vaccinating cows.

Improving cattle management is crucial to accurately identify the true extent of bTB in herds, tackle the disease at its source, & prevent transmission to badgers & other wildlife. 

This includes enhanced testing protocols, movement controls, herd health monitoring, stricter biosecurity and cattle vaccination. These changes will take time, but offer the only route to real progress.

Badgers have been a scapegoat. The failed policy of consecutive governments has devastated farming & wildlife alike. 

Until the root causes are addressed in cattle, badger vaccination will be as ineffective as culling.

It’s time to end the Badger Blame Game.

References

[1] Donnelly, C.A. and Nouvellet, P., 2013. The contribution of badgers to confirmed tuberculosis in cattle in high-incidence areas in England. PLOS Currents, 5.

[2] Akhmetova, A., Guerrero, J., McAdam, P., Salvador, L., Crispell, J., Lavery, J., Presho, E., Kao, R., Biek, R., Menzies, F., Trimble, N., Harwood, R., Pepler, P., Oravcova, K., Graham, J., Skuce, R., du Plessis, L., Thompson, S., Wright, L., Byrne, A. and Allen, A. 2023. Genomic epidemiology of Mycobacterium bovis infection in sympatric badger and cattle populations in Northern Ireland. Microbial Genomics, 9(5): mgen001023.

[3] Llywodraeth Cymru Welsh Government, 2021. A Refreshed TB Eradication Programme. Welsh Government Consultation Document. pdf. Available from: https://www.gov.wales/sites/default/files/consultations/2021-11/refreshed-tb-consultation-document.pdf [Date Accessed: 26.06.2023].

[4] Birch, C.P., Bakrania, M., Prosser, A., Brown, D., Withenshaw, S.M., and Downs, S.H., 2024. Difference in differences analysis evaluates the effects of the badger control policy on bovine tuberculosis in England. Scientific Reports, 14(1), p.4849.

[5] Downs, S.H., Prosser, A., Ashton, A., Ashfield, S., Brunton, L.A., Brouwer, A., Upton, P., Robertson, A., Donnelly, C.A., and Parry, J.E., 2019. Assessing effects from four years of industry-led badger culling in England on the incidence of bovine tuberculosis in cattle, 2013–2017. Scientific Reports, 9(1), 1-14.

[6] Macdonald, D., and Newman, C., 2022. The Badgers of Wytham Woods: A Model for Behaviour, Ecology, and Evolution. Oxford University Press, New York, p. 366.

[7] Benton, C.H., Phoenix, J., Smith, F.A., Robertson, A., McDonald, R.A., Wilson, G. and Delahay, R.J., 2020. Badger vaccination in England: Progress, operational effectiveness, and participant motivations. People and Nature, 2(3): 761-775.

[8] Chivers, C.A., Maye, D., Lenormand, T., Enticott, G. and Tomlinson, S., 2022. Exploring farmer attitudes towards the vaccination of badgers against bovine tuberculosis. Technical Report, University of Gloucestershire. Available from: https://sciencesearch.defra.gov.uk/ProjectDetails?ProjectId=20949 [Date Accessed: 04.11.24]