Successful start to badger vaccination in Cheshire

12 badgers vaccinated
October 2012. Cheshire Wildlife Trust has described its first badger bovine tuberculosis (bTB) vaccination deployment as ‘extremely successful' after a two-day programme was undertaken at its Bickley Hall Farm headquarters.

A total of 19 badgers were captured in ‘live traps' across two separate dawn sessions, with 12 badgers vaccinated with the BCG vaccine and the remaining 7 badgers recorded as ‘re-captures' on the second morning.

The five-year vaccination strategy taken on by the charity will initially focus on Trust-managed sites and will expand to other private land in the area over the next four years.

Speaking after the final badger had been released, Cheshire Wildlife Trust's Richard Gardner said: "We're delighted with the result over the last 48 hours, most importantly with our trapping and re-capture rates.

"The overall total of a dozen individuals treated and the seven re-captures suggests we've hit our target of around 75% of the badger population on this location. This will, of course, be bolstered by a continuing year-on-year vaccination for another four years which, in spring may also include badger cubs too."

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/badger-cheshire.html

Test Vaccine Successfully Protects Monkeys from Nipah Virus

ScienceDaily (Aug. 8, 2012) — Researchers have successfully tested in monkeys a vaccine against Nipah virus, a human pathogen that emerged in 1998 during a large outbreak of infection and disease among pigs and pig farmers in Southeast Asia. This latest advance builds upon earlier work by the scientists, who found that the same vaccine can protect cats from Nipah virus and ferrets and horses from the closely related Hendra virus.

Both viruses have a high fatality rate in humans -- more than 75 percent for Nipah and 60 percent for Hendra. Infections by these viruses target the lungs and brain, and disease outbreaks have occurred regularly in the past decade. Nipah outbreaks have occurred in Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh and India. Hendra outbreaks have remained confined to Australia since its emergence there in horses and humans in 1994. Certain fruit bats, also known as flying foxes, spread the viruses; so far, only Nipah is known to spread from person-to-person.

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120808142154.htm