2564. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to clarify whether the figure of 39% described as new captures in vaccination areas in 2025 refers only to newly vaccinated animals or to all previously unrecorded badgers, including animals subsequently removed or euthanised; and to provide the number of unique individual badgers, as distinct from capture events, represented by the reported total of 7,625. [56542/26]

The section of the report compiled by my Department where this figure is presented, is in the section which discusses vaccination only. The figure of 39% relates only to newly vaccinated badgers as a percentage of the over all badger capture events in the vaccine area in 2025. The figure of 7,625 in the 2025 report refers to all the badgers that were captured during that year. While each badger caught represents an individual capture event. Some of these badgers may have been previously captured. As stated in the report, 1540 of those badgers were badgers that had been vaccinated previously, and a further 498 badgers were what is classified as a recapture. A recapture is a badger that is captured again within 30 days of being vaccinated.