More than 20,000 infected cattle are slaughtered each year in England, costing taxpayers £100 million and causing significant distress to farmers. However, a new strategy announced today aims to change this by introducing cattle vaccination against tuberculosis from 2030, while also phasing out the controversial badger cull by 2029.
Gamechanging Vaccination Plans
Cattle will be vaccinated against tuberculosis from 2030 as part of a "gamechanging" strategy to eradicate the disease in England by 2038. In parallel, the last badger culls are expected to end by 2029, with badger vaccination expanded. The strategy was developed by a group of farmers, vets, wildlife experts, and government officials seeking consensus.
John Cross, a livestock farmer and chair of the Bovine TB Partnership, which developed the strategy with over 100 stakeholders, said: "This is the best plan for TB freedom we've ever had. This is about gamechanging interventions like cattle vaccination. The decline in bovine TB has not been rapid enough and we clearly needed a step change in pace."
Focus on Cattle-to-Cattle Transmission
The strategy acknowledges that cattle catch TB from other cattle 15 times more often than from badgers. As a result, the focus is on cattle, including targeted vaccination, improved testing, and reducing the risk of spread between herds via cattle trading. For example, monthly TB risk scores for every cattle herd in England will be published.
Prof James Wood, of the University of Cambridge, said: "Our studies have demonstrated over 15-fold more transmission occurs between cattle than comes from wildlife – that's why the focus has to be on cattle." He noted that work in Ethiopia showed 89% efficacy for cattle vaccination, which he also called a gamechanging intervention for England. The licence application for the vaccine has already been submitted.
Overcoming EU Ban with Diva Test
Cattle vaccination has long been seen as a powerful tool but is banned in the European Union because it can be hard to distinguish between infected and vaccinated animals. Therefore, a "Diva" test that differentiates between infected and vaccinated animals will be rolled out in 2025. Diplomatic work is needed to enable cattle and dairy farmers to continue to export their products. Government officials have been working on getting the vaccination and Diva test accepted by other nations and the World Organisation for Animal Health by 2030.
Dr Ele Brown, a deputy chief veterinary officer at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said: "It is ambitious but achievable."
End of Badger Cull
Mass culling of badgers began in 2013 and has killed about 250,000 animals at a cost of about £60 million. The cull has been highly divisive. The effectiveness of the badger cull is contested. Prof James Wood said it was implemented alongside better biosecurity on farms and better BTB testing. "A [2025] review suggested there was an effect of culling, but it's impossible to know exactly the size of that effect," he said.
Prof Rosie Woodroffe, of the Institute of Zoology, who works with farmers on vaccinating badgers, said: "Badgers are not driving this epidemic. They're not a reservoir of disease but they're also not irrelevant to TB eradication. So the strategy proposes badger vaccination in priority areas." The badger cull is already over across the vast majority of England, with one last licence in Cumbria. The government has pledged to end the cull by 2029.
John Cross added: "If you've got a destination and you've got a real time limit to the journey [to eradication], it's best you don't drive looking in the rear-view mirror. It's got to be about the pathogen, not the politics."
Paul Tompkins, the deputy president of the National Farmers' Union, said: "BTB continues to devastate farming families and their herds. That's why this strategy is so important and we back its goal of building on the progress achieved so far. We now need some real urgency behind its delivery."
