Alun Davies, Minister for Natural Resources and Food
This was published under the 2011 to 2016 administration of the Welsh Government
In my oral statement on 18 February, I announced that I would publish the report of the second year of the badger vaccination programme in the Intensive Action Area (IAA) before the Easter recess. The report has been published today.
The report shows that in 2013, over 1350 badgers were successfully trapped and vaccinated in the IAA. In 2012 just over 1400 badgers were vaccinated.
The five year vaccination project in the Intensive Action Area (IAA) in West Wales is part of the Welsh Government's wider programme of work to eradicate TB from cattle in Wales.
The vaccination work was carried out between May and November 2013 and over eight separate three week cycles. The first two weeks in each cycle focused on landowner liaison and preparatory work, with vaccination then taking place in the third week.
The success of our badger vaccination project depends on our operatives being granted access to as much land as possible. Participation is voluntary so I am very pleased that in the second year of the project, staff gained access to more land than in the previous year. I would like to thank farmers and landowners for their ongoing co-operation.
We are continuing to monitor the results of vaccination, and of our whole eradication programme, carefully to ensure we are making good progress towards our ultimate goal of eradicating TB from Wales.
Latest TB figures indicate that the level of Bovine TB in Wales has significantly reduced and that new incidents of the disease are down by nearly a quarter on the previous year.