Of Badgers, Bacteria, and Bed Sheets

Abstract

Amid continuing controversy over the culling of Britain's badgers to prevent them transmitting tubercle bacilli to cattle, there is new evidence that badgers carry the agent of another human disease. Presented during the Society for Applied Microbiology's recent conference in Brighton, data from Lauren Perrin with other researchers at the University of Salford and elsewhere indicated that the animals are a competent reservoir host for Borrelia burgdorferi, the agent of Lyme borreliosis. As this condition is currently emerging rapidly in the United Kingdon, the finding is both important and disquieting. It comes from a two-year study to determine the prevalence and diversity of B. burgdorferi infecting badgers, ticks feeding on them, and questing ticks. Results from a survey in Woodchester Park, Gloucestershire, included a 6% prevalence of B. afzelii in ear biopsies from badgers and a 5% prevalence of infection in questing Ixodes ricinus nymphs.