Protective immunity in free-living badgers

Protective immunity

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) caused by infection with Mycobacterium bovis poses a threat to cattle herds in Ireland and the UK. Evidence is emerging that badgers are an important wildlife resevoir of M. bovis infection and are associated with transmission of infection to cattle. 

Vaccination of badgers with Mycobactrium bovis Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) has been shown to protect badgers against tubercuoslis in experimental trials. In a recent publication in the journal Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, Professor Eamonn Gormley, UCD School of Veterinary Medicine and colleagues at the UCD Centre for Veterinary Epidemiology and Risk Analysis (CVERA), the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory, Kildare, describe a 3-year BCG vaccine field study where badgers were treated orally with BCG or a placebo.

At the end of the study 275 badgers were removed from the trial area and subjected to detailed post-mortem examination and culture for M. bovis. The group of captured badgers included 83 which had been captured for the first time, representing a non-treated proportion of the population. Results from the study are consistent with an indirect protective effect in the non-vaccinated badgers leading to a high level of population immunity. The data suggest that BCG vaccination of badgers could be a highly effective means of reducing the incidence of tuberculosis in badger populations.

Read the full article here.