SOMERSET badger cull protestors who favour the vaccination of badgers as an alternative to the cull suffered a blow recently as the Welsh Government were forced to scrap their vaccination programme.

Wales was four years into its five year plan in which it had vaccinated 5,500 badgers, but the World Health Organisation has called on countries to review their BCG usage so countries with the highest TB rates receive priority.

Due to a backlog in production of the BCG vaccine for use in humans globally, SSI, the only company authorised to produce badger BCG, has said it will not be producing the vaccine until further notice.

The badger vaccine uses the same formula as the human vaccine, but one badger dose is the equivalent of ten adult human doses.

The disease is endemic in Wales, as it is in West Somerset and the National Farmers Union has said the news raises serious questions about the validity of Wales' TB eradication policy.

They believe that the cattle farmers who have adhered to a number of cattle movement controls and biosecurity measures at significant costs will be left deeply frustrated by the announcement.

NFU Cymru President, Stephen James said: “ The NFU has always questioned the appropriateness of badger vaccination as a method to deal with bTB in an area of Wales where the disease is endemic in the badger population.

“The NFU has always said that vaccination has a role to play in stopping the spread of bovine TB in areas of the country where disease incidence is low. Vaccination protects against disease but it does not cure a sick animal," he said.

“Vaccination in a TB endemic area of Wales was never going to eradicate this disease and the shortage of BCG vaccine means that Welsh Government can no longer hide behind this fallacy. Government must now step up to the mark and introduce a comprehensive eradication strategy that includes removing the infection from the wildlife population.”

Pauline Kidner of Secret World Wildlife Trust in East Huntspill said the money used to vaccinate badgers should be used to vaccinate cattle and to support farmers experiencing breakdowns.

"We only vaccinate badgers to protect them from infectious cattle, not vice versa. The answer is a better test for cattle which we have but it is not licensed for use at present.

"Now what we want is for the money used to vaccinate badgers, to be used to vaccinate cattle and for supporting farmers experiencing break downs.

"It will be interesting to see if the number of cases of Tb in cattle continues to go down after the badger vaccination trial is suspended because of new cattle strategies that have been enforced.

"The farmers who say the badger cull should be extended in light of this news, do not understand the reason behind the vaccination nor the extensive science that proves culling of badgers as being ineffective.

"The cattle test is looking for anti-bodies test but it is not entirely efficient only 8 out of 10 are correctly diagnosed.

"In early pregnancy and when the cow has been consumed by the disease but not producing antibodies, it will go negative on test and remain in the herd. This silent diseased animal will continue to infect other cattle within the herd."