In the UK, badgers (Meles meles) are a well-known reservoir of infection, and there has been lively debate about whether badger culling should play a role within the British Government's strategy to control and eventually eradicate tuberculosis (TB) in cattle. The key source of information on the potential for badger culling to reduce cattle TB in high-cattle-TB-incidence areas remains the Rand...

We monitored the ranging of a wild European badger (Meles meles) population over 7 years using GPS tracking collars. Badger range sizes varied seasonally and reached their maximum in June, July and August. We analysed the summer ranging behaviour, using 83 home range estimates from 48 individuals over 6974 collar-nights. We found that while most adult badgers (males and females) remained within...

There are very few international examples of the successful eradication of bovine tuberculosis (TB, caused by infection with Mycobacterium bovis) from a national cattle population. This paper presents a brief overview of the successful TB eradication programme in Australia from 1970, with primary emphasis on lessons of international relevance that were learned from the Australian experience. Th...

Bovine tuberculosis (TB) is a significant threat to the cattle industry in England and Wales. It is widely acknowledged that a combination of measures targeting both cattle and wildlife will be required to eradicate bovine TB or reduce its prevalence until European official freedom status is achieved. Vaccination of cattle and/or badgers could contribute to bovine TB control in Great Britain, a...

Culling badgers to control the transmission of bovine tuberculosis (TB) between this wildlife reservoir and cattle has been widely debated. Industry-led culling began in Somerset and Gloucestershire between August and November 2013 to reduce local badger populations. Industry-led culling is not designed to be a randomized and controlled trial of the impact of culling on cattle incidence. Nevert...

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) causes substantial economic losses to cattle farmers and taxpayers in the British Isles. Disease management in cattle is complicated by the role of the European badger (Meles meles) as a host of the infection. Proactive, non-selective culling of badgers can reduce the incidence of disease in cattle but may also have negative effects in the area surrounding culls that h...

Experiments in the late 19th century sought to define the host specificity of the causative agents of tuberculosis in mammals. Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the human tubercle bacillus, was independently shown by Smith, Koch, and von Behring to be avirulent in cattle. This finding was erroneously used by Koch to argue the converse, namely that Mycobacterium bovis, the agent of bovine tuberculosis...

Bovine tuberculosis destroys livelihoods and is hampering efforts to achieve the End TB Strategy goal of tuberculosis elimination by 2030. Sophie Cousins reports on efforts to stamp out this neglected infectious disease.

Abstract Infections with Mycobacterium microti, a member of the M. tuberculosis complex, have been increasingly reported in humans and domestic free-ranging wild animals. At postmortem examination, infected animals may display histopathologic lesions indistinguishable from those caused by bovis or caprae, potentially leading to misidentification bovine tuberculosis. We report 3 cases microti in...

Determination of seric levels of adenosine deaminase (ADA), an enzyme produced by monocytes/macrophages and lymphocytes, has been used in the diagnosis of human tuberculosis (TB). In the present study, ADA seric activity was evaluated comparatively to the comparative tuberculin test in the diagnosis of bovine tuberculosis. Two hundred fifty-six cattle were classified by origin and by the compar...