The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is open to exploring bovine tuberculosis (TB) vaccines for cattle, according to senior superintending veterinary inspector at the DAFM, Dr. Damien Barrett.
Dr. Barrett said that colleagues in the UK are developing a vaccine which would enable the differentiation between an immune reaction due to vaccination as opposed to infection.
Safety trials of the vaccine, known as Detecting Infected among Vaccinated Animals (DIVA), have “essentially been completed” and demonstrated that it does “no harm”, he told the Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
However, following a meeting with some of the DAFM’s colleagues in the UK, Dr. Barrett said that “our understanding from that is that [the vaccine] is at least 10 years away from the market”.
In response to a question by Senator Paul Daly about whether the DAFM would be open to TB vaccines for cattle, provided they have received certification, Dr. Barrett said:
“We have very much an open mind to this. If and when it becomes available we will certainly be exploring this and it is certainly something that we would be interested in pursuing.”
The issue about a TB vaccine for bovines, he said, is that if the current vaccines were given to cattle, they would fail the tuberculin test which would have “huge implications” for exports, he said.
Raising potential issues in relation to certification for a product “as TB-free” once vaccinated, he said that support from the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) will be needed.
The vaccine for cattle in the trials in the UK is the same given to humans and is “lifelong”, according to Dr. Barrett who added that “it is certainly lifelong for the badgers”.
This year to date, over 8,000 badgers have been captured for vaccination. If there is a high-risk breakdown in a particular region, culling and vaccination of badgers go on in parallel, Dr. Barrett said.
The spread of TB within species is “far greater” than the spread between species. Thus, the spread between badgers is greater than spread from badgers to cattle, and vice versa, he said.
TB eradication
Almost 5,000 herds have suffered a TB breakdown in the last twelve months in comparison to less than 4,400 in the previous 12-month period, according the DAFM.
There has been a substantial increase in the number of reactors with 27,800 being disclosed in the last twelve months in comparison to 22,837 in the previous twelve months.
The legal requirement in the EU for countries to be considered TB-free is 0.2% of herds, chair of the Scientific Working Group of the TB Forum, Dr. John Griffin said.
The overall cost to the Exchequer of the TB programme year-to-date up until the end of November is €65 million, principal officer of the ERAD Division at the DAFM, Conor O’Mahony said.
EU support for the programme has now ceased primarily because of funding pressures for other emerging diseases across the EU. In 2023 Ireland received €1.6 million in respect of 2022, he said.
This funding gap will have to be addressed by the remaining stakeholders, O’Mahony said at the agriculture committee meeting yesterday (Wednesday, December 13).