Derbyshire Wildlife Trust have successfully vaccinated 65 badgers since resuming its campaign.

Last year, the organisation announced that its scheme to vaccinate badgers against bovine tuberculosis (bTB) had restarted, one year after the vaccine supplies dried up.

In December 2015, the World Health Organization announced there was a global shortage of TB vaccines. Following the statement, Wildlife Trusts up and down the UK were forced to stop all vaccination programmes in 2016.

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust are "leading the way" with badger vaccinations across the UK
Derbyshire Wildlife Trust are "leading the way" with badger vaccinations across the UK

A new supply of vaccine had since been obtained by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust following several months of negotiating supplies and obtaining permission from the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, an organisation that protects animal health, public health and the environment, to important the InterVax TV vaccine.

Last year saw over 10,000 badgers culled in just three months as part of the government’s attempt to prevent TB in cattle.

Since resuming its campaign last month, the trust has successfully vaccinated 65 badgers thanks to the amount of volunteers who came forward to play a part in the scheme.

The Trust currently have over 80 volunteers willing to help with badger vaccination and this number continues to increase. With the cull widening across the country, the Wildlife Trusts argue that increasing vaccination of badgers and not shooting them in the answer. The organisation plan to continue vaccinations throughout this summer and into the autumn.

Dr Sue Mayer, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust Chair and veterinary surgeon, secured the vaccine from a Canadian company and has been training 12 dedicated volunteers in how to use the new vaccine delivery system.

She said: "Derbyshire Wildlife Trust is delighted to be leading the way across the country and vaccinating badgers against TB in 2017.

"UNICEF now says all the country needs for the human TB vaccine can be met so we wanted to start vaccinating badgers as soon as we could.

"Vaccination is a better solution than culling, which research indicated can spread the disease further. It’s also cheaper and avoids the indiscriminate killing of health animals."

The Trust’s success in acquiring a vaccine has also allowed other vaccination programmes across the country to restart, including those of Chester Zoo, other badger groups, Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT).

Tim Burch, who is leading Derbyshire Wildlife Trust’s vaccination effort, said: "Derbyshire Wildlife Trust is leading the way in showing vaccination of badgers to be a better solution than shooting badgers in helping deal with bovine TB in cattle.

"It is a lot cheaper to vaccinate badgers and also does not need expensive police operations to implement.

"We will continue to roll out our vaccination programme across Derbyshire and are very keen to hear from landowners interested in vaccinating badgers."

You can find out more about badger vaccinations here .