Olea-Popelka F J, Phelan J, White P W, McGrath G, Collins J D, O'keeffe J, Duggan M, Collins D M, Kelton D F, Berke O, More S J, Martin S W
Department of Population Medicine, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Clinical Research Building, Guelph, Ont., Canada N1G 2W1.
Prev Vet Med. 2006 Jul 17;75(1-2):34-46. doi: 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2006.01.014. Epub 2006 Feb 20.
The objectives of the study were to quantify the levels of badger exposure for cattle and to test the hypothesis that increased badger exposure does not increase the risk of bovine tuberculosis (BTB) in a herd. Information that became available from the targeted removal of badgers over the study period, and from a badger-removal project in county Kilkenny, during 1996-1999 was used. The specific location of cattle within each farm, and the length of time that cattle spent in each farm field during the grazing season, and in the barnyard during winter, was used to build an exposure coefficient to quantify the amount of badger exposure that cattle encountered either on pasture or in the barn. The study design was a matched case-control study in which the control herds were selected using incidence density sampling. During the 4-year study period, 543 badgers were removed and of these 96 badgers were classified as tuberculosis positive; 96 BTB herd breakdowns occurred. There was a significant association between case herds and having a higher badger sett exposure coefficient during 1996-1998. No significant association between case herds and having a higher exposure coefficient based on the number of badgers, or the number of tuberculous badgers, during September 1997-December 1999 was found.
该研究的目的是量化牛只接触獾的程度，并检验以下假设：增加牛只接触獾的机会不会增加牛群中牛结核病（BTB）的风险。研究使用了在研究期间通过有针对性地捕杀獾以及1996 - 1999年基尔肯尼郡的一个獾捕杀项目所获得的信息。利用每个农场内牛的具体位置，以及牛在放牧季节在每个农田中花费的时间长度，和冬季在谷仓院子里花费的时间长度，构建一个接触系数，以量化牛在牧场或谷仓中接触獾的量。该研究设计为配对病例对照研究，其中对照牛群采用发病密度抽样法选取。在为期4年的研究期间，共捕杀了543只獾，其中96只獾被归类为结核病阳性；发生了96起牛结核病牛群疫情。在1996 - 1998年期间，病例牛群与具有较高的獾穴接触系数之间存在显著关联。在1997年9月至1999年12月期间，未发现病例牛群与基于獾的数量或患结核病獾的数量而具有较高接触系数之间存在显著关联。
