School Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
Royal Veterinary College, London, UK.
Sci Rep. 2018 Dec 6;8(1):17206. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-35652-5.
The role of badgers in the geographic expansion of the bovine tuberculosis (bTB) epidemic in England is unknown: indeed there have been few published studies of bTB in badgers outside of the Southwest of England where the infection is now endemic in cattle. Cheshire is now on the edge of the expanding area of England in which bTB is considered endemic in cattle. Previous studies, over a decade ago when bovine infection was rare in Cheshire, found no or only few infected badgers in the south eastern area of the county. In this study, carried out in 2014, road-killed badgers were collected through a network of local stakeholders (farmers, veterinarians, wildlife groups, government agencies), and Mycobacterium bovis was isolated from 21% (20/94) badger carcasses. Furthermore, there was strong evidence for co-localisation of M. bovis SB0129 (genotype 25) infection in both badgers and cattle herds at a county scale. While these findings suggest that both badgers and cattle are part of the same geographically expanding epidemic, the direction of any cross-species transmission and the drivers of this expansion cannot be determined. The study also demonstrated the utility of using road-killed badgers collected by stakeholders as a means of wildlife TB surveillance.
獾在英格兰牛型结核（bTB）疫情的地理扩张中的作用尚不清楚：实际上，除了西南部以外，獾感染 bTB 的情况在英格兰其他地区鲜有发表的研究。柴郡现在处于英格兰 bTB 被认为在牛中流行的地区的边缘。十多年前，当牛的感染在柴郡还很罕见时，以前的研究在该县东南部发现了很少或没有感染的獾。在这项于 2014 年进行的研究中，通过当地利益相关者（农民、兽医、野生动物组织、政府机构）的网络收集了被车撞死的獾，并从 21%（20/94）的獾尸中分离出了牛分枝杆菌。此外，在全县范围内，有强有力的证据表明 M. bovis SB0129（基因型 25）感染在獾和牛群中存在共同定位。虽然这些发现表明，獾和牛都是同一地理上不断扩大的疫情的一部分，但不能确定任何跨物种传播的方向以及这种扩张的驱动因素。该研究还表明，利用利益相关者收集的被车撞死的獾作为野生动物结核病监测手段是有效的。
