The phrase "as grey as a badger" could soon be outdated as many of Ireland's 250,000 badgers may soon be acquiring red hair.
Scientists believe that vaccination of badgers against bovine tuberculosis is necessary to prevent the spread of that disease in cattle. In order to identify badgers that have been vaccinated, a biomarker, which stains the badger's coat red, will be fed with the vaccine, according to a report.
Despite spending well over €1.5 billion attempting to eradicate bovine TB in the last five decades, a reservoir of disease persists in the badger population, which is spread to cattle.
Of the 18,000 badgers examined during 1986-1996, 11.2 per cent had the disease. More recently, detailed necropsy of 1,650 badgers has shown a disease level of 21.2 per cent.
These badgers were removed in trial areas in Cork, Donegal, Kilkenny and Monaghan and the infection levels ranged from 28.5 per cent in Cork to a low of 13.2 per cent in Kilkenny.
The scientists found that by removing badgers from an area, the number of cattle failing the skin test for the disease, dropped dramatically. The number of reactors per 1,000 animal tests, called the APT, dropped from 3.9 to 0.5 in a region in Co Offaly where all the badgers were removed.
Now, according to the latest Department of Agriculture and Food report on current research into the subject, scientists are working on systems of delivering a suitable vaccine to badgers.
However, it was vital, said the report, that researchers know the uptake levels for an oral vaccine to determine the number of animals vaccinated after the delivery.
The badger, the researchers found, readily consumed the markers when they were mixed with peanuts and treacle.