Badgers across the county continue to be vaccinated against Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) thanks to Debbie Bailey and Gail Weatherhead who work hard to deliver the program for Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, along with their dedicated team of over 100 volunteers, working with partners like the National Trust. Derbyshire Wildlife Trust have 6 new vaccinators trained taking the total to 15, dedicated, trained badger vaccinators working on the badger vaccination programme now.

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust is now recognised as a national leader in badger vaccination by the Government. This summer national badger vaccination training programmes have taken place at Edale.

Volunteer teams have been out in Derbyshire since May and so far 103 badgers have been successfully vaccinated. This number will continue to rise with more vaccinations planned throughout the summer across Derbyshire. This includes:

• 63 badgers vaccinated in Edale working with the National Trust, North Derbyshire – 4 cubs and 59 adults
• 12 badgers vaccinated in mid Derbyshire by the Mid Derbyshire Badger Group- 5 cubs 7 adults
• 5 cubs in Furness Vale, North Derbyshire
• 23 badgers were vaccinated this week in a section of Lyme Park on the Derbyshire/Cheshire border working with the National Trust

Debbie Bailey, Derbyshire Wildlife Trusts Badger Vaccination Co-ordinator said,

“We owe a huge thank you to all our fantastic volunteers who are up day and night vaccinating badgers. Before dawn breaks they have put in hours of hard work and this is set to continue during the long hot summer as more badgers will be vaccinated across Derbyshire - badger vaccinating is not for the faint hearted!”

Progress is also being made on a national level with badger vaccination. Tim Birch, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust’s Head of Living Landscapes said:

 “Here in Derbyshire we are proving that vaccination of badgers is possible and is effective in the fight against Bovine tuberculosis and as a result we want to see vaccination rolled out across the UK rather than the cull. We have over 100 volunteers helping us deliver our vaccination programme with many more wanting to join and help us which is just amazing. It makes no sense at all for the Government to allow a cull to come to Derbyshire when we are leading the way on badger vaccination. In fact this vaccination programme is partly financed by the Government which makes it even more disastrous if a cull was to come to Derbyshire as this could undo all the great work we have achieved with vaccination. We call on farmers in Derbyshire to contact us and speak to us about getting their badgers vaccinated rather than getting them shot.”

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust developed the badger vaccination programme with a number of partners including the National Trust and the Derbyshire Badger Groups, and has been working with famers and landowners to vaccinate badgers across Derbyshire since 2014.

Vaccinations will continue throughout the summer and autumn and Derbyshire Wildlife Trust is keen to hear from any landowners who would like them to vaccinate badgers on their land. Culling badgers can cause Bovine TB to increase in an area where badgers are shot according to scientific studies in what is known as the perturbation effect - shooting badgers massively disrupts their social structure causing animals to move around the countryside more than they would normally do so . Also vaccinating badgers is receiving strong public support and does not require any police to ensure it takes place compared to the cull. It is far cheaper to vaccinate badgers rather than shoot them.