The impact of BCG strains and repeat vaccinations on immunodiagnostic tests in Eurasian badgers (Meles meles)

Courcier, Emily; Collins, Shane F.; McCormick, Carl; Arnold, Mark; Corbett, David; Ford, Tom; McGeown, Clare F.; Barry, Claire; Kirke, Raymond; Menzies, F. D.

doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.06.081

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 37 publications

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“…In Table I it was shown that a badger that had been vaccinated with BCG Sofia had a 79% lower chance of testing positive for the disease. BCG in badgers has been shown to induce protective immune responses to M. bovis [32]; there are a number of BCG strains, but the Sofia strain is one of only three strains supplied by UNICEF making its performance appear reliable [32]. However, as it was only used in the final two years of the study, there may be some bias due to the passage of time.…”

Section: A Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge Discovery of Bovine Tuberculosis in the Eurasian Badger using Machine Learning Techniques

McBride,

Novakovic,

Marshall

et al. 2022

2022 International Conference on Computational Science and Computational Intelligence (CSCI)

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Bovine tuberculosis (Mycobacterium bovis) is a disease of cattle with severe consequences for agriculture in the British Isles. The Eurasian badger (Meles meles) is implicated in the spread and maintenance of bovine tuberculosis in the cattle population and various measures have been trialed in badgers to control infection. A five-year pilot Test, Vaccinate and Remove investigation (TVR) was carried out in a 100km 2 area of Northern Ireland that tested, vaccinated, and removed infected badgers. This study used machine learning techniques in order to predict whether a badger has bovine tuberculosis using data collected from the TVR study. Several machine learning models -Decision Trees, Random Forests, Logistic Regression, XGBoostwere created and attempted in order to classify the data with the highest accuracy. Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE) was also carried out due to imbalance in the data. The C5.0 decision tree model was chosen as the final model. This model was the most appropriate choice as it achieved a very high AUC score with a value of 0.974 in training and 0. 962 in testing. It also had the benefit of being a white-box model. Almost all of the variables were found to be significant, including the visual diagnostic tests used in the study, thus supporting their importance. The final model gives confidence in current diagnostic tests to accurately identify infected badgers and helps to inform future diagnostic test regimes. This study represents one of the first applications of machine learning in wildlife disease control.

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Section: A Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge Discovery of Bovine Tuberculosis in the Eurasian Badger using Machine Learning Techniques

McBride,

Novakovic,

Marshall

et al. 2022

2022 International Conference on Computational Science and Computational Intelligence (CSCI)

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Farmer‐led badger vaccination in Cornwall: Epidemiological patterns and social perspectives

Woodroffe,

Astley,

Barnecut

et al. 2024

People and Nature

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In the United Kingdom, the management of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) challenges the coexistence of people and wildlife. Control of this cattle disease is hindered by transmission of its causative agent, Mycobacterium bovis, between cattle and badgers Meles meles. Badger culling has formed an element of bTB control policy for decades, but current government policy envisions expanding badger vaccination. Farming leaders are sceptical, citing concerns that badger vaccination would be impractical and potentially ineffective. We report on a 4‐year badger vaccination initiative in an 11 km2 area which, atypically, was initiated by local farmers, delivered by scientists and conservationists, and co‐funded by all three. Participating landholders cited controversies around culling and a desire to support neighbours as their primary reasons for adopting vaccination. The number of badgers vaccinated per km2 (5.6 km−2 in 2019) exceeded the number culled on nearby land (2.9 km−2 in 2019), and the estimated proportion vaccinated (74%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 40%–137%) exceeded the 30% threshold predicted by models to be necessary to control M. bovis. Farmers were content with how vaccination was delivered, and felt that it built trust with wildlife professionals. The percentage of badgers testing positive for M. bovis declined from 16.0% (95% CI 4.5%–36.1%) at the start of vaccination to 0% (95% CI 0%–9.7%) in the final year. With neither replication nor unvaccinated controls, this small‐scale case study does not demonstrate a causal link between badger vaccination and bTB epidemiology, but it does suggest that larger‐scale evaluation of badger vaccination would be warranted. Farmers reported that their enthusiasm for badger vaccination had increased after participating for 4 years. They considered vaccination to have been effective, and good value for money, and wished to continue with it. Synthesis and applications: Although small‐scale, this case study suggests that badger vaccination can be a technically effective and socially acceptable component of bTB control. A wider rollout of badger vaccination is more likely if it is led by the farming community, rather than by conservationists or government, and is combined with scientific monitoring. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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Effects of non-tuberculous mycobacteria on BCG vaccine efficacy: A narrative review

Ghasemi,

Kardan-Yamchi,

Heidary

et al. 2024

Journal of Clinical Tuberculosis and Other Mycobacterial Diseas

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The impact of BCG strains and repeat vaccinations on immunodiagnostic tests in Eurasian badgers (Meles meles)

Cited by 5 publications

References 37 publications

Knowledge Discovery of Bovine Tuberculosis in the Eurasian Badger using Machine Learning Techniques

Knowledge Discovery of Bovine Tuberculosis in the Eurasian Badger using Machine Learning Techniques

Farmer‐led badger vaccination in Cornwall: Epidemiological patterns and social perspectives

Effects of non-tuberculous mycobacteria on BCG vaccine efficacy: A narrative review

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