July 2, 2014

bovine TB – a model of spread and control

Bovine tuberculosis costs the UK about £100 million per year, and despite efforts to control it (including regular testing of cattle herds, slaughter of positive-testing cattle, imposition of movement restrictions following a failed test, vaccination of cattle, and badger culling) it remains a major agricultural problem, complicated by the facts that environmental reservoirs exist and that cattle are moved regularly between farms and to be sold at market.

A new paper published in Nature uses models to separate out the different factors contributing to the bovine TB problem, to establish the routes of transmission of different outbreaks, and to predict which of the factors would be best to address in attempt to more effectively control the spread and incidence of this disease.

The study authors came to the SMC to talk about their approach, their model and their findings, and what the implications might be for future control of bovine TB in UK farms.

Speakers:

Prof Matt Keeling, Professor of Populations and Disease, University of Warwick

Dr Ellen Brooks-Pollock, EPSRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Cambridge