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Published on: September 5, 2017
The prevalence, distribution and severity of detectable pathological lesions in badgers naturally infected with
H E Jenkins1, W I Morrison, D R Cox
1Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK. h.jenkins@imperial.ac.uk
Abstract:
The Randomized Badger Culling Trial (RBCT) began in 1998 to determine the impact of badger culling in controlling bovine tuberculosis in cattle. A total of 1166 badgers (14% of total) proactively culled during the RBCT were found to be tuberculous, offering a unique opportunity to study the pathology caused by Mycobacterium bovis in a large sample of badgers. Of these, 39% of adults (approximately 6% of all adults culled) had visible lesions (detectable at necropsy) of bovine tuberculosis; cubs had a lower prevalence of infection (9%) but a higher percentage of tuberculous cubs (55.5%) had visible lesions. Only approximately 1% of adult badgers had extensive, severe pathology. Tuberculous badgers with recorded bite wounds (approximately 5%) had a higher prevalence of visible lesions and a different distribution of lesions, suggesting transmission via bite wounds. However, the predominance of lesions in the respiratory tract indicates that most transmission occurs by the respiratory route.
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