Written question WQ85756

Data in relation to bovine TB in wildlife is published regularly by the Welsh Government.

We have commissioned the collection of badgers found dead since 2014 and the results of the badger-found-dead survey are used to investigate the relationship between bovine TB infection in badgers and cattle. The survey has increased our knowledge of the levels of Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) infection in badgers.

Regular updates are published through our stakeholder groups and reports.

An up to date badger-found-dead survey data set is being drafted and we aim to publish it by December 2022. The earlier dataset is available here. The provisional figures for the last three financial years are as follows:

• 2020-21: 253 dead badgers, 22 positive.

• 2019-20: 351 dead badgers, 28 positive

• 2018-19: 282 dead badgers, 26 positive.

Since 2017, the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) was tasked by the Welsh Government with developing a programme of work to implement proposals to break the transmission cycle between wildlife and cattle through trapping, testing and removing test-positive badgers on persistent breakdown farms.

Since 2018 test-negative badgers have also been vaccinated prior to release. The report on the delivery of badger trap and test operations on chronic TB breakdown farms in Wales is published each year, detailing the findings during operations Bovine TB: badger trapping and testing on chronic TB breakdown farms | GOV.WALES

BCG vaccination is known to reduce the severity of TB infection in individual badgers and transmission within badger populations. However, the effects of badger vaccination on cattle TB incidence has yet to be quantified in Great Britain.

A retrospective herd-level case-control study to evaluate the effects of badger vaccination on bovine TB incidence in cattle in England and Wales is currently being designed by APHA. The study will evaluate effects of badger vaccination from 2010 to 2016 on TB incidence in cattle up to 2017.

Since autumn 2014, the Welsh Government has been promoting the surveillance of TB in wild deer culled by stalkers, given the potential for localised sources of infection in cattle. Training in sampling techniques and the provision of sampling kits has also been made available through the British Association for Shooting and Conservation for 2021-22.

Results indicate a very low prevalence of disease in deer across Wales. However, the majority of positive cases to date were located in the Monmouth area. The genotypes are the same as those found in positive badger-found-dead cases and the home range of positive cattle. APHA is continuing to monitor this situation.