Badger Vaccination

 The OBG badger vaccination project is run purely by volunteers who give up their time to help Oxfordshire’s badgers. The project started in 2018 and since then has been working with farmers and landowners to trap and vaccinate badgers across the county. Year on year, we’ve steadily increased the land covered and number of badgers vaccinated. 2022 will be our most ambitious yet !

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is a disease of cattle which can be passed to a wide range of other animals including badgers. The science shows that very few badgers have bTB, even fewer are infectious and the likelihood of badgers transmitting bTB to cattle is extremely low. Despite this, we feel that vaccination is worthwhile to help stamp out bTB, help our farming communities and create a healthier badger population.

Vaccination involves humane trapping of adult badgers and cubs overnight, vaccination and release. Vaccinating a badger population over four years builds ‘herd immunity’. The treated badger social groups will develop a high level of resistance to the disease.

Badger BCG vaccination alone is not the solution to bTB, but it does have an immediate effect with no known negative impact. Vaccination is more effective than culling in controlling and minimising reservoirs of disease in badger populations. It is also very cost effective.

We gratefully  acknowledge the grant funding we have received to support our vaccination programme. A big shout out to: The Badger Trust  Clare Hammacott and Vaccination Fund; CAF American Donors and Mr Lumpy.