Guidance

Cage-trap, vaccinate and mark badgers to control bovine TB

Advice for licensed operators on how to cage-trap, vaccinate and mark badgers to control bovine tuberculosis (TB) in England.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and Natural England
• Published: 1 July 2021
• Last updated: 1 May 2025
  Show all updates

  1. 1 May 2025

     Updated the advice on how to Cage-trap, vaccinate and mark badgers to control bovine TB.

  2. 28 March 2024

     Updated the guidance and produced it in an accessible format. Removed the PDF version.

  3. 27 April 2023

     Updated best practice guidance to clarify technical instruction for cage-trapping and marking badgers for bovine TB vaccination under licences CL48 and CL49.

  4. 1 July 2021

     First published.

Applies to England

• Publication for Wales

Documents

How to cage-trap, vaccinate and mark badgers to control bovine TB

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Details

This guide is for licensed operators in England. It tells you the best ways to: 

• cage-trap badgers to enable vaccination (under Licence CL48) 
• mark badgers after vaccinating them (under Licence CL49) 
• take and mark badgers to enable vaccination (under an individual licence)

You must: 

• hold valid licences issued by Defra and Natural England  
• comply with all relevant licence conditions   
• carry out the licensed activities safely and humanely 
• get the landowner’s permission to access their land 
• comply with the conditions in the Veterinary Surgery (Vaccination of Badgers Against Tuberculosis) Order 2010

Visit the UK Government Web Archive for previous versions of this guidance.