National Wildlife Management Centre, Animal and Plant Health Agency, Woodchester Park, Gloucestershire, GL10 3UJ, UK.
National Wildlife Management Centre, Animal and Plant Health Agency, Woodchester Park, Gloucestershire, GL10 3UJ, UK; Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 9EZ, UK.
Prev Vet Med. 2020 Oct;183:105096. doi: 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2020.105096. Epub 2020 Jul 18.
Vaccination is a useful approach for the control of disease in wildlife populations. However, its effectiveness is dependent in part on delivery to a sufficient proportion of the target population. Measuring the proportions of wild animal populations that have been vaccinated is challenging and so there is a need to develop robust approaches that can contribute to our understanding of the likely efficacy of wildlife vaccination campaigns. We used a modified capture mark recapture technique to estimate vaccine coverage in a wild population of European badgers (Meles meles) vaccinated by live-trapping and injecting with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin as part of a bovine tuberculosis control initiative in Wales, United Kingdom. Our approach used genetic matching of vaccinated animals to a sample of the wider population to estimate the percentage of badgers that had been vaccinated. Individual-specific genetic profiles were obtained using microsatellite genotyping of hair samples, which were collected directly from trapped and vaccinated badgers and non-invasively from the wider population using hair traps deployed at badger burrows (setts). With two nights of trapping at each sett in an annual campaign, an estimated 50 % (95 % confidence interval 40-60 %) of the badger population received at least one dose of vaccine in a single year. Using a simple population model this suggested that the proportion of the population that would have received at least one dose of vaccine over the course of the four year vaccination campaign was between 67 % and 83 %. This is the first attempt, outside of field trials, to quantify the level of vaccine coverage achieved by trapping and injecting badgers, which is currently the only option for delivering BCG vaccine to this species. The results therefore have specific application to bTB control policy and the novel approach may have wider value in wildlife management and research.
疫苗接种是控制野生动物疾病的有效方法。然而，其效果在一定程度上取决于目标人群中足够比例的接种。测量已接种野生动物种群的比例具有挑战性，因此需要开发强大的方法，以帮助我们了解野生动物疫苗接种活动的可能效果。我们使用改良的捕获标记再捕获技术来估计在英国威尔士作为牛结核病控制计划的一部分，通过活陷阱和注射卡介苗疫苗接种的欧洲獾（Meles meles）野生种群的疫苗覆盖率。我们的方法使用已接种动物与更广泛人群样本的基因匹配来估计接种獾的百分比。通过对直接从被捕猎和接种的獾以及通过在獾洞穴（定居点）部署的毛发陷阱从更广泛的人群中收集的毛发样本进行微卫星基因分型来获得个体特异性的遗传特征。在年度活动中，每个定居点进行两个晚上的诱捕，估计有 50%（95%置信区间为 40-60%）的獾种群在一年内至少接受了一剂疫苗。使用简单的种群模型，这表明在四年疫苗接种活动期间，至少接受一剂疫苗的人口比例在 67%至 83%之间。这是首次尝试在现场试验之外量化通过诱捕和注射獾实现的疫苗覆盖率水平，这是目前向该物种提供卡介苗疫苗的唯一选择。因此，结果对 bTB 控制政策具有特定的应用，并且新方法在野生动物管理和研究中可能具有更广泛的价值。
