Although disease hosts are classically assumed to interact randomly [1], infection is likely to spread across structured and dynamic contact networks [2]. We used social network analyses to investigate contact patterns of group-living European badgers, Meles meles, which are an important wildlife reservoir of bovine tuberculosis (TB). We found that TB test-positive badgers were socially isolate...

losis were two separate and distinct diseases, caused by two different species of the tubercle bacillus, and that if there was any possibility at all of one of them being communicated to the proper hosts of the other, the risks were too slight to justify the taking of precautions against them. Apart from the profoundly interesting nature of the issue thus raised, it involved practical questions...

SETTING Arusha, Tanzania. OBJECTIVE To assess risk factors that might influence TB control in the general population and in livestock-keepers. METHODS Of 242 villages in four districts, 27 were selected randomly. In each village, a general and a livestock-keeping group were selected at random. The households were home-visited and 426 family members were interviewed. RESULTS On average, th...

There has been a national bovine tuberculosis eradication programme in Ireland since 1954. Initial progress was rapid, but has subsequently stalled despite the implementation of each of the accepted elements of disease control. Based on results from the East Offaly and four area projects, there is now conclusive evidence that wildlife (specifically transmission of infection badgers to cattle) a...

Where wildlife disease requires management, culling is frequently considered but not always effective. In the British Isles, control of cattle tuberculosis (TB) is hindered by infection in wild badger (Meles meles) populations. Large-scale badger culling can reduce the incidence of confirmed cattle TB, but these benefits are undermined by culling-induced changes in badger behavior (termed pertu...