Thank you for writing to me about Bovine Tuberculosis and the vaccination of cattle. This is a particularly serious issue for rural communities like ours.
Of course, no one wants to cull badgers for longer than is necessary. There is no single answer to tackling bovine TB, but by deploying a range of policy interventions, we can turn the tide on this terrible disease and achieve the long-term objective of eradicating it by 2038.
Over 36,000 cattle in England and Wales have had to be slaughtered in the last year to tackle the disease, so it is welcome that the UK is leading the way in the development of a cattle vaccine with the aim of rolling it out by 2025. I am assured that world-leading cattle vaccination trials have now begun, marking the latest milestone in the aim to achieve officially TB free status for England by 2038.