Bovine TB is bad news for nature conservation
Author Tony Whitbread
Chief Executive
Grazing is fundamentally important to wildlife in Sussex. Before humans came along wild grazing animals would have created the equivalent of our grasslands and heathlands, but these days we rely on domestic livestock.
Viable grazing is therefore central to nature conservation, not just on nature reserves but throughout the farmed landscape. Bovine TB in cattle threatens this and in Sussex we have a bovine TB High Risk Area, roughly in the area between Eastbourne and Brighton.
Bovine TB is a complex issue and a whole range of measures are needed to control it, not least careful monitoring and management of cattle movements. It is possible that badgers in this area could pick up the disease and carry it to other areas, so managing the reservoir of the disease in wild animals is beneficial.
The Sussex Wildlife Trust do not support the killing of badgers, and there is an alternative the BadgerBCG injectable vaccine. Badger vaccination involves carefully catching badgers in an area and injecting them with vaccine, using a tried and tested method. This has to be done, for every group of badgers, for at least five years.
The bovine TB High Risk Area in Sussex is isolated. Any control programme must be done alongside a whole raft of other measures. That�s why we�re asking for your help to fund the entire package on our nature reserves in the high risk area. Badger vaccination will be at the forefront of the plan supported by better management of our own livestock. All this is really expensive but has to be done to make a difference.
In the long term other bovine TB control measures may become available such as an oral vaccine for badgers and an effective vaccine that could be licenced for use in cattle. But at present we must make best use of what is available and we believe badger vaccination will make an important contribution.