A WILDLIFE trust has become one of the first organisations to vaccinate badgers against bovine tuberculosis.

Farmers and badger supporters across Dorset, one of the worst-affected areas in England, will be watching closely as a vaccination trial funded by the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust aims to demonstrate that vaccines are a viable alternative to culling.

The trial will proceed amid ongoing controversy over dealing with the disease, a particular problem in the south, which led to 35,000 cattle being slaughtered last year and costs millions each year to tackle.

Dorset has been one of the worst-hit areas for bovine TB in the country, with the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) figures showing a 30 per cent increase from 2010.

Jan Rowe, national TB spokesman for the NFU, believes the vaccination programme will fail to provide an effective solution to culling.

“It’s not going to do any harm but it won’t do much good either,” he said.

“For badgers to be completely protected they would need to be vaccinated from a very young age every year for five years.

“Culling is cheaper to deploy and very effective when done properly.”

Simon Cripps, chief executive of the Dorset Wildlife Trust, believes culling would lead to increased movement in badger groups, further spreading disease in areas around the cull.

“To make culling work you need to do it in areas with geographic boundaries, such as motorways and coastline, to prevent infected badgers from going far,” he said.

“Because of this, and the need to carry it out annually, culling is very unlikely to happen in the South West.

“We understand that this is a real problem.

“I’m a farmer myself, but I can’t see culling being an effective solution.”

The vaccination programme began last week and will continue over the next three months.