Red squirrels ‘to vanish from England’ unless vaccine against squirrelpox funded

Conservationists have condemned the government's refusal to fund a proven vaccine against squirrelpox, warning that it could lead to the local extinction of England's red squirrels.

The Woodland Trust and the Red Squirrel Survival Trust (RSST) had asked the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) for £1.8m to continue their successful vaccination programme against the deadly disease. Trials at RSST’s captive breeding centre in Cumbria have shown that the vaccine is 90% effective at protecting squirrels. But they say that the government has so far refused to commit to providing funding which they estimate will be needed for a long-term vaccination programme. In response to the refusal, the two conservation groups have launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £150,000 to continue the programme at the RSST site.

According to Mike Parker, conservation director at the RSST: “We have a proven vaccine that works, which we know can help save red squirrels, but we are being denied the money to deliver it on the scale that’s needed. If Defra won’t help, we hope that the public will.”

Ian Redmond, a wildlife expert who has been working with red squirrels for more than 30 years, added: “This is a desperate situation. If we don’t vaccinate these animals, they will die, and the red squirrel will effectively become extinct in England.”

Red squirrels are native to the UK, but their numbers have declined dramatically in recent decades due to a combination of factors, including habitat loss, fragmentation and competition from grey squirrels. Grey squirrels were introduced to the UK from North America in the 19th century, and they carry a virus called squirrelpox, which is fatal to red squirrels.

The vaccination programme has been hailed as a major breakthrough in the fight to save the red squirrel. Defra has previously provided funding for the trials, but the conservation groups say that they now need a long-term commitment to ensure that the vaccine can be rolled out more widely.

A Defra spokesperson said that the department is “aware of the importance of red squirrel conservation”, but added that the government has “limited funding available”.

The crowdfunding campaign is being hosted on the website gofundme.com. As of 10am on Monday 23 January 2023, it had raised over £135,000.