#bovinetb

The first meeting of a bovine TB expert group took place earlier this month. We (Defra) have set up the working group to help prepare a biosecurity action plan which will focus on actions that farmers and others in the livestock industry can take to better reduce the risk of bovine TB infecting and spreading within cattle herds.  The group is made up of representatives from the farming industry – both organisations and individuals, as well as others, including representatives from the veterinary profession, livestock auctioneers, government, and experts on various aspects of bovine TB, including wildlife ecology.  The group aims to finalise the action plan in autumn 2014, after which we will focus on working with industry to take forward the agreed work.

A workshop on biosecurity which ran in May showed that there is a lot of interest in this subject and the first meeting of the biosecurity working group in July built on that.  It was clear from the participants’ energy and expertise that there is a real appetite to work with us to help decide what the priorities should be.  As this is such an important element of our overall strategy for tackling TB, we need to help farmers and others work out what will have the biggest impact in terms of reducing their risk of a TB breakdown and, for those unfortunate enough to have had experience of the disease, how to regain disease freedom quickly and hopefully stay free thereafter.

The badger cull in Somerset has come to an end. Environment Secretary Owen Paterson updated Parliament today on the outcome of the three week extension period granted by Natural England.

You can read about the statement to Parliament on the Gov.uk website

There’s been some confusion in the media lately as to what the term “perturbation” actually means when we talk about the pilot badger culls in Somerset and Gloucestershire. So here’s a simplified look at the facts.

In this context “perturbation” is a term given to changes in the behaviour of badgers when badger populations are culled. Almost all the evidence for perturbation in badgers comes from the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT) that took place between 1998 and 2005. The aim of this trial was to see if culling badgers reduced bovine TB in cattle, a disease that is devastating our farming industry.

The RBCT found that while TB outbreaks in cattle declined inside the proactive badger cull areas, an increase was seen in the surrounding 2 kilometre area. The reason for this increase is thought to be due to the ‘perturbation’ of the badgers. The scientists found that although there was a reduction in badger numbers within the cull area, the remaining badgers roamed over a wider area and more badgers had TB. It is thought that this may lead to more contact between badgers and cattle and increasing the likelihood of badgers spreading disease to cattle, although this is unproven. Therefore the perturbation of badgers is thought to lead to the increase in TB in cattle surrounding culled areas, which is called the “perturbation effect”.

However, it’s a common misconception that perturbation leads to badgers ‘fleeing’ the cull zone. Indeed, perturbation probably has more to do with badgers from outside taking advantage of abandoned territory within the cull area than badgers leaving the cull area.

The increased disease observed in the RBCT in cattle herds adjacent to areas where culling was carried out was short lived. The perturbation effects in the surrounding area were seen to disappear within 18 months after the end of culling, whereas the overall beneficial effects of reduced levels of TB can still be seen today.

Culling beyond the initial six week licence in both Gloucestershire and Somerset has caused some concern that the longer the culling, the worse perturbation will become.

Between January and May 2013,15,250 cattle were compulsorily slaughtered in Great Britain due to bovine TB, new figures published by Defra reveal. In England alone,12,125 cattle were slaughtered due to the disease.

Farming minister David Heath said:

“These figures are further proof  of why it is so important that we stop TB from spreading across the country. Every month thousands of cattle are slaughtered because of this disease at huge cost to our beef and dairy industries.

“We must do all we can to get on top of this infectious disease. This is why we are introducing tough new measures to halt the spread, helping us move towards our goal of eradicating TB within 25 years.”

The figures also showed that 5,902 herds in Great Britain were under TB restrictions at the end of the month, including 404 new incidents of the disease in May.

Other figures from the stats show:

In May 2013 3,244 cattle were slaughtered in Great Britain due to bovine TB.

The number of new herds affected by bovine TB during the period 1 January to 31 May 2013 was 2,246.

The number of TB-free herds tested during the period 1 January to 31 May 2013 was 35,337.

Earlier this year Defra set out plans to rid England of the disease within 25 years, using every tool at our disposal to combat bovine TB.

The strategy, which Defra is currently seeking comments on during a 12 week consultation period, sets out action in areas such as disease surveillance, pre- and post-movement cattle testing, removal of cattle exposed to bTB, tracing the potential source of infection and wildlife controls including culling and vaccination trials.

It also focuses on the development of new techniques such as badger and cattle vaccines and new diagnostic tests that could one day offer new ways of tackling the disease.

This week Defra introduced tough new measures to stop the spread of bovine TB, including more targeted support for badger vaccination and new rules on testing in areas at the frontier of the disease, known as the ‘edge’ area. The aim of the new measures in the edge area is halt the spread of bovine TB across England, and to protect areas of the country those are free of the disease.

Background

The latest statistics on bovine TB can be found on the gov.uk website here

Further information about the new measures introduced for the edge area can be found here

County specific statistics are available within the regional datasets. Each county is represented by a separate tab along the bottom of the spreadsheet

More information about the TB Eradication Strategy for England, including a video of Environment Secretary owen Paterson outlining the key elements, can be found here

On Friday the AHVLA Chief Scientist Glyn Hewinson gave an update to journalists about the progress being made into the research and development of vaccines against bovine TB for badgers and cattle.

Glyn spoke about the recent correspondence Defra and the AHVLA have had with the EU Commission about the timeline for licensing a vaccination for cattle that can then be used on a commercial basis. The EU Commission have set out a number of things that need to be done before a cattle vaccination can be used, including conducting field trials of the vaccine, and proving that the test we have to tell the difference between an infected cow and and one that has been vaccinated, is effective and reliable enough. the EU Commission have set a 10 yr timetable to complete the necessary work.

Glyn said:

"With cattle vaccines one of the most important new moves, I think, has been the engagement of Great Britain with the EU Commission to look at how we might start to try and introduce cattle vaccination as an option to TB control. "Very recently the EU Commission has mandated the European Food Standards Agency to come up with the requirements that they think they would require from a cattle field vaccine field trial in order to allow cattle vaccination in the UK, and the UK will be working very closely with both to take their recommendations and turn them into robust field trials that will help to inform Europe on whether cattle vaccination can be used as a control measure." On badger vaccinations, Glyn explained that an injectable vaccination is currently available and being used by groups in England and Wales, although the vaccine is not 100% effective, and it is both difficult and costly to use on a wide scale.

He said:

"You have to trap badgers, and its estimated that it costs between £2,000 to £4,000 per square kilometre.

"Oral delivery of vaccines would overcome this necessity to trap badgers, but it requires developing effective baits so that enough badgers take up the vaccine, and formulations that allow BCG to work when it's eaten."

Prof Hewinson said he was keen for more people to volunteer to get involved in helping out with the research, for which there is funding. "One of the big evidence gaps we have in TB control is how vaccinating badgers will affect TB in cattle," he said.

"One of the things we're very keen on is to encourage people to make use of Defra's funding pool for training lay vaccinators to go out and vaccinate badgers so that we can generate data to see what effect vaccinating badgers might have on cattle TB."

Asked about the oral badger vaccine, Glyn explained that more research was needed before a vaccine can be put forward for licensing.

He said:

Michael Seals, the chairman of the Animal Health and Welfare board for England, has hosted a series of events across the country to inform farmers about the new proposals to eradicate bovineTB from England within 25 years.

This week a workshop was hosted for farmers in Cumbria, which is currently deemed an area of low risk for bovineTB, menaing the imperative is to keep the disease out of the area through strict cattle movement controls and good on farm bio security.

A report from ITV Borders about the meeting can be seen at the link above.

Defra produced a consultation earlier this month which is open for comments from farmers, livestock keepers and other people interested in the management of this disease.

The National Wildlife Management Centre, Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA), have submitted this blog post about the Farm Assessment Toolkit project, which is using surveillance cameras to help farmers improve biosecurity on thier farms and reduce the risk of infection spreading between badgers and cattle...

Recent research has shown that badger visits to farm buildings are widespread and common, but that some farms are more prone to badger visits than others.

As part of a two year study to better understand the reasons behind this, earlier this year AHVLA continued installation of infrared surveillance cameras at over 75 volunteer farms across the South West of England. Over a four week period the cameras count the number of badger visits to buildings, enabling the agency to develop a method to assess the risk of badger visits to any given farm, as well as to feed back to the individual farmers involved.

  “Ultimately, the study will help farmers consider whether to install biosecurity measures for their farms,” said Ian Vernon of the AHVLA Wildlife Team.

“We had a fantastic take-up from our volunteer farms and we’ve spent the last few months installing cameras - the final ones will be going up in August. We’re also starting to conduct individual surveys to understand badger activity near the farm buildings and to record details of farming practices and landscape features.

“There’s still a lot of work to do collating and analysing data to feed into our risk assessment methodology to refine the findings of last year’s surveillance, but we’ve made good progress and we’re starting to see images come back from the cameras installed this year. Some examples are included in this blog entry.”

  AHVLA is now writing to those farms to tell them how many nights badgers visited buildings, and to which areas, over the four week period. This will enable them to consider whether additional measures might help protect areas susceptible to wildlife visits, such as feed stores. For example, they might consider installing secure gates or electric fencing, and securing feed bags and bins.