Abstract
In order to better understand the spatial spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in Wales, an All Wales Badgers Found Dead (AWBFD) survey was carried out from 2014–2016. For Wales, as a whole, there was a significant decrease (p < 0.001) in prevalence of bTB in badgers since a similar survey was carried out in 2005–2006, with a drop from 13.3% to 7.3%. The highest prevalence was observed for the High TB Area East (18.6%), which shares its border with England, and differed significantly (p < 0.001) from the High TB Area West (7.4%). The lowest proportion of carcases diagnosed with the disease (0.7%) was in the Low TB Area, followed by the two Intermediate TB Areas of Wales (2.7%). The M. bovis isolates from badgers tended to be similar to the genotypes of cattle in the same area, except in the Low TB Area. The direction of any cross species transmission and the drivers for this cannot be determined from this study. The spatial variations described here support the need for regionally adapted surveillance and control measures for bovine tuberculosis in Wales.
Highlights
This approach incorporates previous work by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) on the concept of Spatial Units
This study has used the collection of road-killed badgers as a means of wildlife surveillance for bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in Wales
M. bovis was isolated from 7% of badger carcasses and there was evidence for co-localisation of infection with cattle herd prevalence (Fig. 4) showing a strong association with badger prevalence estimate at Spatial Unit level (Fig. 1) while M. bovis genotypes in badgers mostly occurred in the ‘home-range’ of the locally predominant strain of M. bovis in cattle (Fig. 3)
Summary
This approach incorporates previous work by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) on the concept of Spatial Units. The All Wales Badger Found Dead (AWBFD) Survey commenced in 2014 It is the largest passive surveillance programme of bTB in wildlife in Wales to date and followed several previous studies, including the 2015–2016 Intensive Action Area (IAA) Badger Found Dead r eport[8] and the 2005–2006 Badger Found Dead s urvey[3]. This latter survey found that the prevalence of M. bovis in badgers varied between 0 and 26 percent and was associated with the incidence of confirmed bTB in cattle herds in the same area. It aimed to determine if there were changes in prevalence compared with the results from the previous found dead badger survey conducted between October 2005 and May 2 0063
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