Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress has been made in relation to a vaccine against bovine tuberculosis.

Developing a vaccine against TB in cattle is one of the Government’s top priorities and will complement the already existing use of BadgerBCG.

Defra aims to have a deployable cattle TB vaccine (CattleBCG) in the next few years. In 2021, world-leading cattle TB vaccination field trials began as a result of a major breakthrough by Government scientists on the development of a new DIVA skin test to Detect Infected among Vaccinated Animals.

The UK is closer to being able to vaccinate cattle than we have ever been before, but there is still a lot of work to do. Final deployment will rely on the success of the ongoing field trials, achieving Marketing Authorisations from the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (for both CattleBCG and the companion DIVA skin test), gaining international recognition for both products, an IT system to record and trace vaccinated cattle, and acceptance of vaccination from across the range of stakeholders.

A Government-industry collaborative working group has been established to co-design initial deployment policy proposals which will inform a public consultation.

Vaccinating cattle against bTB will be a valuable addition to the toolbox but will not replace existing control measures. Maintaining biosecurity measures on farm, avoiding risky movements of cattle and complying with testing protocols remain as important as ever in the fight against bovine TB.