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Badgers to be vaccinated against TB to stop them giving it to cattle

Michael Creed announced the initiative yesterday.

BADGERS WILL BE spared from departmental culling and will instead be vaccinated in a bid to eradicate tuberculosis in cattle, it has been announced.

Agriculture Minister Michael Creed announced the measure yesterday which he said was an attempt to eradicate tuberculosis (TB) in Irish cattle.

Creed said the move follows years of scientific research funded by his department into the use of BCG vaccine in badgers. This vaccine is designed to reduce the impact of disease in wildlife hosts which transfer it back into the cattle population.

Bovine TB may also infect badgers. There is widespread infection in the badger population in Ireland and Infected badgers can transmit TB back to cattle.

Creed said: “The most recent research findings confirm that vaccination of badgers can play a role in reducing the level of infection in cattle. Whilst vaccination of badgers is not a ‘silver bullet’, it is important in that it addresses one of the critical elements within the complex TB eradication challenge.

“This will now allow us move forward in the early part of this year to the development and re-launch, in consultation with stakeholders, of a comprehensive strategy to finally eradicate TB.”

Vaccination of badgers will be carried out by staff from the Department of Agriculture. The programme will begin in areas which have already been part of the field trials demonstrating the effectiveness of the vaccination.

Creed said he was happy that the new programme “enables Ireland move forward towards eradication of bovine TB in a controlled holistic way, which will serve to protect the badger population whilst also protecting cattle and the livelihoods of farmers”.

Read: Drunk badger steals seven beers, passes out for two days >

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    Mute The kop
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    Oct 22nd 2012, 11:48 AM

    will petrol get cheaper… yes or no??

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    Mute MrKnow
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    Oct 22nd 2012, 2:16 PM

    petrol will never get cheaper.

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    Oct 22nd 2012, 12:58 PM

    One evil meets another

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    Oct 22nd 2012, 1:18 PM

    Aithnionn ciarog…

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    Mute kingstown
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    Oct 22nd 2012, 4:09 PM

    Anyone doing business with Russia needs to be aware that they will get burned. The levels of corruption in Russia would make the Borgias blush. Russia is not a state in the western liberal sense but rather an economy geared towards serving the interests of a few powerful figures such as Putin.

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    Mute Damien Flinter
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    Oct 23rd 2012, 12:54 PM

    Never mind Russia..read a little history of western oil if you want mega-scale imperial corruption.

    There is no shortage of books on the issue.

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    Mute Mick Lennon
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    Oct 22nd 2012, 2:37 PM

    I shot jr

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