How injectable and oral BCG vaccination of badgers offers a welfare-aligned alternative to culling for bovine tuberculosis control.
Culling badgers for bTB control raises profound welfare concerns: cage trapping causes acute stress; killing methods must be assessed for humaneness; and the perturbation effect means culling can spread bTB to neighbouring areas by displacing infected individuals. Vaccination programmes, while logistically complex, offer a welfare-aligned path that does not require lethal intervention. Trapping for vaccination still causes short-term stress and minor injury risk, but the duration of distress is brief and animals are released unharmed. The development of effective oral bait delivery would further reduce welfare costs by eliminating the trapping step entirely.