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The results from the Test and Vaccinate or Remove (TVR) badger research project will be published in late 2019, a DAERA spokesperson has said.
The five-year project involved badgers being caught, tested for bovine TB, micro-chipped, vaccinated and released. Badgers that tested positive for TB were culled.
The research took place in a badger population in a 100km² TB hotspot area around Banbridge, Co Down. The wildlife intervention study began in 2014, after being commissioned in 2012 by the then Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill. Badger capturing as part of the project was completed last year.
According to DAERA, the research will help create a “well-informed and evidence-based” TB eradication policy. However, the department insisted that research results would not be published until after all field work was completed.
A spokesperson told the Irish Farmers Journal on Tuesday that the results from the TVR project are still not available.
“The research report from the project will emerge from late 2019 onwards,” the spokesperson added.
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