Tuberculosis in badgers where the bovine tuberculosis epidemic is expanding in cattle in England

Abstract

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is an important animal health and economic problem for the cattle industry and a potential zoonotic threat. Wild badgers (Meles meles) play a role on its epidemiology in some areas of high prevalence in cattle, particularly in the UK and Republic of Ireland and increasingly in parts of mainland Europe. However, little is known about the involvement of badgers in areas on the spatial edge of the cattle epidemic, where increasing prevalence in cattle is seen. Here we report the findings of a study of found-dead (mainly road-killed) badgers in six counties on the edge of the English epidemic of bTB in cattle. The overall prevalence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) infection detected in the study area was 51/610 (8.3%, 95% CI 6.4–11%) with the county-level prevalence ranging from 15 to 4–5%. The MTC spoligotypes of recovered from badgers and cattle varied: in the northern part of the study area spoligotype SB0129 predominated in both cattle and badgers, but elsewhere there was a much wider range of spoligotypes found in badgers than in cattle, in which infection was mostly with the regional cattle spoligotype. The low prevalence of MTC in badgers in much of the study area, and, relative to in cattle, the lower density of sampling, make firm conclusions difficult to draw. However, with the exception of Cheshire (north-west of the study area), little evidence was found to link the expansion of the bTB epidemic in cattle in England to widespread badger infection.

An investigation of Mycobacterium bovis and helminth coinfection in the European badger Meles meles

“…The prevalence of TB within our study population was low in absolute terms (44 of 269 badgers = 16.4%) and compared to a previous study in Ireland (43.2%) ( Corner et al, 2012a ), but relatively high compared to randomly sampled badger populations across the UK (Wales – 7.3% ( Schroeder et al, 2021 ); England – 8.3% ( Swift et al, 2021 )). These differences reflect the reactive nature of the badger trapping which provided both us and Corner et al (2012) with samples, i.e.…”

“…These differences reflect the reactive nature of the badger trapping which provided both us and Corner et al (2012) with samples, i.e. the badgers were targeted in areas which were experiencing TB outbreaks (cf High TB Area East – 18.6% ( Schroeder et al, 2021 ); highest county density – 15% ( Swift et al, 2021 )). The frequency distribution of Strongyloides spp.…”

Lack of detection of SARS-CoV-2 in British wildlife 2020–21 and first description of a stoat (Mustela erminea) Minacovirus

“…The study was designed to detect an incidence rate of 5 % based on our previous studies of alphacoronaviruses in British rodents [55] with a target of 73 samples per species calculated with the online Epitools sample size calculator [56]. For some species including otters and badgers, for which there were ongoing post-mortem studies of found dead (largely road kill) animals [57][58][59][60], this sample size target was readily achieved. This target was also achieved for water voles facilitated by a network of wildlife monitoring and captive breeding for re-introduction [61].…”

Estimated Prevalence of Tuberculosis in Ruminants from Slaughterhouses in Constantine Province (Northeastern Algeria): A 10-Year Retrospective Survey (2011–2020)

“…Furthermore, cows might go through periods of immunosuppression during lactation, leading to an increased susceptibility to infection. Moreover, females are typically more sociable than males and can interact more easily with other animals, raising the risk of disease transmission [ 50 ]. However, Borham et al [ 48 ] and Ullah et al [ 51 ] reported that there was a significantly higher risk for males to develop bTB lesions.…”