Cornwall Badgers

We are heading back to the office now. Thanks for following this morning’s live tweets! We will do this again on a morning when we are just vaccinating not sampling so you can see the difference. Follow ⁦@cornishbadgers⁩ for regular updates. Goodbye! #badgervaccination

As vaccination is fine under licence it’s important to record exactly who did what, when, to each badger! This project is subject to oversight under three different licences by @naturalengland and the home office #badgervaccination

As well as trapping and vaccinating we are trying a new way to estimate badger numbers using camera traps. If we know how many badgers there are we can estimate what proportion we are vaccinating, helping us evaluate the likely impact on TB #badgervaccination

The vaccine has to stay cold all the time until it is made up to inject so it sits in the vehicle in a 12V fridge. There’s a thermometer with it to make sure it never leaves the safe zone for temperature #badgervaccination

You need a llicence to set badger traps but here the farmers have prebaited the traps to get the badgers used to going in. One farmer came along this morning to see what we caught #badgervaccination

So this morning we have anaesthetised, microchipped, blood sampled, vaccinated and released five badgers. I chose an easy trap round to live tweet! If we were just vaccinating we would have been finished over an hour ago #badgervaccination

All recovered and ready to head home! #badgervaccination

Sleeping it off in the cage. This anaesthetised badger is temporarily marked but also marked permanently with a microchip #badgervaccination

Then adding stock marker spray makes sure we will recognise this vaccinated badger if we catch it again tomorrow #badgervaccination

Clipping the very ends of the fur exposes the pale underfur to make a temporary mark #badgervaccination

Waiting for badger to go to sleep.... wish I could do the same! #badgervaccination

Syringe is labelled to avoid confusion between immobilising drugs and vaccine! #badgervaccination

Drugs ready for badger number 5. If we were just vaccinating we’d be finished long ago but sampling is much slower #badgervaccination

Between an electric fence and a gorse bush? #thanksguys #badgervaccination

It’s pretty common to find a badger asleep in the trap like this one #badgervaccination

Here is @cally_ham making up the vaccine #badgervaccination

Two more badgers at the next sett #badgervaccination

We are careful to disinfect boots and vehicle tyres between farms to avoid spreading contamination. We are trying to help farmers control a disease not spread it ourselves #badger vaccination

Off to the next sett #badgervaccination

Within minutes the badger is coming round from anaesthetic def back in the trap #badgervaccination