Bovine Tuberculosis: Vaccination

(asked on 29th May 2015) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will publish the most recent update of the tentative timeline for possible use of a vaccine against bovine TB in the EU as set out by the EU Commissioners in January 2013.


Answered by
George Eustice Portrait
George Eustice
This question was answered on 8th June 2015

In the comprehensive TB Strategy we commit to pursuing options to license a cattle vaccine by 2023, or sooner if possible, but the hurdles remain very high. The 10 years indicative timeline set out by the Commission was an indication of the timescale for allowing free movement of vaccinated cattle in the EU. It may be possible for vaccination to be used in the UK before then but we are still some way from that, given the need to develop an effective DIVA test (a TB test to differentiate infected from vaccinated animals) and, if we are successful in that, what would then inevitably be lengthy, wide-scale and expensive field trials.

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