Simulating the next steps in badger control for bovine tuberculosis in England

PLoS One. 2021 Mar 18;16(3):e0248426. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0248426. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Industry-led culling of badgers has occurred in England to reduce the incidence of bovine tuberculosis in cattle for a number of years. Badger vaccination is also possible, and a move away from culling was "highly desirable" in a recent report to the UK government. Here we used an established simulation model to examine badger control option in a post-cull environment in England. These options included no control, various intermittent culling, badger vaccination and use of a vaccine combined with fertility control. The initial simulated cull led to a dramatic reduction in the number of infected badgers present, which increased slowly if there was no further badger management. All three approaches led to a further reduction in the number of infected badgers, with little to choose between the strategies. We do note that of the management strategies only vaccination on its own leads to a recovery of the badger population, but also an increase in the number of badgers that need to be vaccinated. We conclude that vaccination post-cull, appears to be particularly effective, compared to vaccination when the host population is at carrying capacity.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animal Culling / methods*
  • Animal Culling / statistics & numerical data
  • Animals
  • Cattle
  • Computer Simulation
  • Disease Reservoirs / veterinary*
  • England
  • Incidence
  • Models, Statistical
  • Mustelidae / microbiology*
  • Mycobacterium bovis / immunology
  • Mycobacterium bovis / isolation & purification
  • Mycobacterium bovis / pathogenicity
  • Population Control / methods
  • Population Control / statistics & numerical data
  • Tuberculosis, Bovine / prevention & control*
  • Tuberculosis, Bovine / transmission
  • Vaccination / methods*
  • Vaccination / statistics & numerical data

Grants and funding

This work was funded by Defra (Department for Environment and Rural Affairs) as a request to investigate the topic. They played no role in study design, analysis or drafting the paper.