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RED SQUIRREL VACCINE APPEAL

These two photographs illustrate what happens to a red squirrel when a grey squirrel infects it with the disease, squirrelpox virus (SQPV). Painful lesions develop and spread over its body from the skin around the eyes and nose. As the disease progresses some reds may die from secondary infections contracted through the raw skin but the vast majority, crippled and unable to see, can’t feed themselves and starve to death. It can take a red squirrel up to 3 weeks to die after becoming infected with the SQPV.

Unfortunately, the greys’ already rapid rate of encroachment is increased by a factor of 20 when they are infected with SQPV. The disease has no effect on the greys but it is fatal to the reds and decimates their numbers. It has been estimated that the English red squirrel could be extinct in 10 years.

Because of the threat posed by this disease, the Wildlife Ark Trust, a registered charity, decided it was essential to try and develop a vaccine to protect the red squirrels from the effects of the virus.

WE ARE DELIGHTED THAT ONE EFFECTIVE VACCINE CANDIDATE HAS BEEN DISCOVERED BUT THE VACCINE RESEARCH PROGRAMME NOW NEEDS TO BE COMPLETED.

The importance of the vaccine research project has now also been endorsed at government level internationally by

Denmark’s Nature Agency which stated that the squirrelpox vaccine will be “an important management tool”,

Norway's Ministry of the environment which congratulates the Wildlife Ark Trust on "the discovery of a candidate for an effective squirrelpox virus vaccine"

Austria's Federal Ministry of Health which lends its “moral support to the work of generating an effective vaccine”,

Estonia's Ministry of the Environment which supports this "vital cause"

Poland's General Directorate of Environment Protection.

Spain's Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment which “highly values the current work, and future plans, of the Wildlife Ark Trust for the conservation of the red squirrel”,

the Netherlands’ Director of Nature and Biodiversity wrote “I am in no doubt that it is extremely important to find an effective vaccine to protect the red squirrels against SQPV. I therefore wish you every success in your continuing research”

Ireland's National Park and Wildlife Service whose Dr. Ferdia Marnell stated. "The development of an effective, targeted vaccine that could help protect wild red squirrel populations would be a significant step forward in red squirrel conservation and I commend the work of the Wildlife Ark Trust in this regard."

Dr Craig Shuttleworth, of the Red Squirrel Trust Wales, is considered by many to be the pre-eminent red squirrel expert in the UK and he has gone on record as saying, “Of all the current conservation initiatives, I consider the squirrelpox vaccine research the one most likely to prove to be the saviour of the red squirrels.”

DONATIONS

If you would like to support the Red Squirrel Appeal you can do so in a number of ways:

1:- You can donate by post by sending a cheque

made payable to The Wildlife Ark Trust

to:

The Red Squirrel Appeal
The Wildlife Ark Trust
215 Benfieldside road
Shotley Bridge
Consett
Co. Durham
DH8 0QU

If you would like to make your donation worth 25% more to the Appeal, at no extra cost to yourself, you can send your cheque with a completed Gift Aid form. If you require a Gift Aid form, you can download one here: Gift Aid Form.pdf

2:- You can donate online with your credit or debit card through the Charity Aid Foundation by using the Donate Online Now button above. This method still allows you to use Gift Aid.

If the Red Squirrel Appeal is fortunate enough to exceed its target any surplus monies will be used for the charity’s other red squirrel conservation work. You must pay an amount of income and/or capital gains tax for each year that is at least equal to the amount of tax that the charity will reclaim on your gift for that year.