{"id":91,"date":"2016-03-29T09:41:20","date_gmt":"2016-03-29T16:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/badgered\/?p=91"},"modified":"2016-03-29T09:48:28","modified_gmt":"2016-03-29T16:48:28","slug":"badger-to-cattle-transmission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/badgered\/2016\/03\/29\/badger-to-cattle-transmission\/","title":{"rendered":"Badger to Cattle Transmission"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure style=\"width: 279px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mammal.org.uk\/sites\/default\/files\/badgtb.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"279\" height=\"325\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A cow&#8217;s curiosity brings it closer to a badger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>While cattle are the main animals to be infected with bTB, various scientific reports such as by Krebs (1997) suggest that Eurasian badgers (<em>Meles meles<\/em>) act as a wildlife reservoir and can transmit bTB to cattle.<\/p>\n<p>Badger infection rate is estimated to be ~4-6% (RSPCA), and badger to cattle transmission may account for 5.7% of the total bTB infections in Great Britain cattle. The rest of the cattle infections are thought to derive from cattle-to-cattle transmission (McDonald, 2014).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_92\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-92\" style=\"width: 261px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-92 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/badgered\/files\/2016\/03\/Pie-chart.jpg\" alt=\"Pie chart\" width=\"261\" height=\"285\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-92\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Percentage of bTB transmission source to cattle, according to McDonald (2014)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In order for badger to cattle transmission, certain criteria must\u00a0be met:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>susceptible cattle<\/li>\n<li>badgers must be excreting bacteria such that cattle can encounter it<\/li>\n<li>cattle must encounter min. infectious dose of bacteria (5 bacilli through aerosols)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While transmission is thought to occur through aerosols, feces, or urine, the exact mechanism of transmission from badger to cattle is unknown and controversial (Lodge and Matus, 2014).<\/p>\n<p>Potential\u00a0transmission mechanisms include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Contaminated pasture (urine\/feces from badger encountered by cattle)\n<ul>\n<li>Unlikely since cattle avoid contaminated feed (Benham and Broom, 1991)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Badger visits to cattle housing while foraging for food\n<ul>\n<li>Enhanced transmission with low ventilation housing<\/li>\n<li>Badgers would tend to visit cattle feed stores -&gt; possible contamination<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Direct contact with cattle\n<ul>\n<li>When bTB in late, terminal stage, badger behaviour changes (more active and less fearful of cattle)<\/li>\n<li>Cattle very curious<\/li>\n<li>When combined&#8230; increased contact between badgers and cattle<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/www.publications.parliament.uk\/pa\/cm200708\/cmselect\/cmenvfru\/1178\/117801.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"559\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While cattle are the main animals to be infected with bTB, various scientific reports such as by Krebs (1997) suggest that Eurasian badgers (Meles meles) act as a wildlife reservoir and can transmit bTB to cattle. Badger infection rate is estimated to be ~4-6% (RSPCA), and badger to cattle transmission may account for 5.7% of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/badgered\/2016\/03\/29\/badger-to-cattle-transmission\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Badger to Cattle Transmission<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35036,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1599456],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bovine-tuberculosis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/badgered\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/badgered\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/badgered\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/badgered\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35036"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/badgered\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/badgered\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/badgered\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions\/97"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/badgered\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/badgered\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/badgered\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}