Click on the date below to read John's blogs from the conference.
Tuesday 17 June | Wednesday 18 June | Thursday 19 June
Thursday 19 June
Understanding exactly how, when and where badgers and cattle come into contact and better knowledge of how disease spreads were two of the areas discussed on the final day of the conference.
Rowland Kao talked about whole genome sequencing to develop forensic understanding of disease outbreaks. His research looked at developing a mathematical programme that traces the mutations of pathogens that can be used to plot the spread of disease within and between species. Spatial clustering is being maintained at a very local level which indicates that infection is largely ecologically based.
Teresa MacWhite spoke about a study of GPS radio collared badgers in Co Wicklow in the Republic of Ireland which demonstrated that Irish badgers avoided foraging in paddocks when cattle were present. This indicates that direct contact at pasture is avoided but indirect contact ?is almost certain as on one study farm with beef cattle badgers visited cattle grazing areas on 87 nights out of 91. This shows the scale of the problem faced in trying to keep badgers and cattle separate so there is no direct or indirect contact.
The study also found that Irish badgers avoided farmyards. This indicates that biosecurity measures in this context could be better targeted at fencing off badger setts and latrines, which we know can be extremely difficult to do.
Fiona Rogers, from AHVLA, then talked about the practicalities of collecting blood samples from live badgers which has the potential to target interventions in diseased populations, like the TVR approach being trialled in Northern Ireland.
A restraining cage has been developed which enables the collection of a capillary blood sample safely from the badger’s foot without anaesthetic. They used the Brok TB stat pak test, although further work is now being done on developing new tests as this test is no longer available commercially. The project raised a number of interesting questions, including whether it would be feasible to microchip the badger while in the restraining cage.
The VI International M bovis Conference has covered a vast number of areas over the past four days, highlighting work that is being done around the globe to tackle bovine TB. It has shown some of the difficulties we face in getting on top of this disease but also some of the work that is being done that could help us achieve our goal of being TB free.
Wednesday 18 June
The social and economic impacts of bTB are hugely important to farmers who are dealing with the disease so I was interested to attend a session today led by Professor Richard Bennett which looked at economic and social science studies that have been done relating to the disease.
The session highlighted four areas – impacts on farm business; impacts on the health and welfare of farmers, workers and farming families; public concern; and policy analysis and debate.
Prof Bennett highlighted a 2004 study of 150 breakdown herds which showed the cost of a breakdown ranged from £250 to £104,000. The average cost to a dairy farmer was £18,500 and to a beef farmer was £11,500 and the longer term impacts included no investment in businesses and some farmers stopping keeping cattle completely.
He also mentioned a FCN study from 2009 which involved 69 farms that had had TB breakdowns and looked at the impact of bovine TB on farming families and the stress and anxiety the disease caused for those people having to deal with it.
The issue of public concern was also raised and Prof Bennett said the public takes the issue of TB in cattle seriously but don’t want, or are not keen to see, large scale badger culling. He also mentioned the 2012 YouGov poll which showed 29% of people supported badger culling to control TB, 34% were opposed and 22% didn’t know or care.
One of the other sessions saw Ifan Lloyd and Sally Williams talking about the Cymorth TB pilot project in Wales. This was a six-month pilot project, which ran from October 2013 to April 2014, involving local vets working closely with farmers to offer support and advice on trading, biosecurity and testing
The project was borne out of the recognition that vets have local knowledge, as well as an overview of the health of herds that have breakdowns, and provided a practical tool to support farmers, helped empower and motivate vets, and promoted collaboration between the farmer, his vet and the Government.
The number and variety of sessions at the conference reinforce just how complex a disease bovine TB is and how many different strands there are in its control and eradication. It also shows the amount of research and work that is being done to try and tackle it.
Tuesday 17 June
The VI International M.bovis conference being hosted in Cardiff this week brings together leading international experts on bovine TB (bTB) to look at the wide-ranging themes and issues associated with control of the disease around the world.
After a first day that focused largely on human TB but also included a useful recap of New Zealand’s experiences in trying to control and eradicate the disease, day two began with Defra Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Ian Boyd talking about the use of evidence in policy making and its relevance to the management of bTB in the UK.
While acknowledging that we could be seeing a levelling off of incidence of the disease, Prof Boyd made the point that cattle controls will only take us so far and if we don’t control badgers we won’t control and eradicate bTB in England. He said the UK has the biggest bTB problem in Europe and we have a responsibility to contain it.
He highlighted the policy challenge - to provide effective disease control that is proportionate to the joint objectives of maintaining both a viable cattle industry and a healthy badger population. He made the point that the national herd is reducing by 90,000 cattle year? and that by 2035 it is projected that we could have almost 50 per cent fewer cattle. Meanwhile, the badger population has increased by between 70 per cent and 110 per cent since the last population survey in 1996.
His speech touched on many areas – the need to be clear about the quality of evidence; the dangers of scientists becoming too politicised in the debate and becoming part of the problem. He also highlighted the big decision facing the Government – whether to invest in a cattle vaccine, pointing out that it was likely to be hugely expensive and that the current BCG vaccine is not very good.
He also highlighted the need to understand the risks posed by bTB at an individual farm level. Risk based trading and pre movement testing have role to play, but the different risks require different types of intervention.
At the end of his speech, Prof Boyd was asked by a delegate what advice he would have given Ministers in the 1970s. His reply? Don’t pass the Badgers Act because we now have an uncontrolled disease in wildlife.
All in all, there was plenty of food for thought as we continue to try and find a way to deal with this disease in England.
There was a definite international flavour to many of the talks on day two of the conference, with the TB situation in various countries under the spotlight.
Among the speakers was Simon More from University College Dublin who spoke about understanding and managing bTB risk from the Irish perspective.
He told the conference that three key herd level risk factors had been identified in Ireland – herd size, location and herd history (the breakdown severity and incidence in neighbouring herds). Residual or undisclosed infection was thought to be part of the problem so inconclusive reactors are no longer allowed to move off farm unless they’re going for slaughter.
He spoke about trials that were carried out in East Offaly and then in four different areas of the country (the Four Area Trial) which provided conclusive evidence of the link between badgers and bovine TB. There was no evidence of any adverse impact on incidence of TB in either cattle or badgers as a result of the current TB control policy in Ireland and while there had been some reorganisation of the badger population there had been a decrease in TB prevalence during the Four Area Trial.
Earlier, Alexandre Fediaevsky spoke about bovine TB from the French perspective.
France has three areas with a TB problem that produce around 75 per cent of the cases in the country, with badgers and boars recognised as part of the problem. Like the UK there is a focus on farm biosecurity and surveillance testing, including pre-movement testing. Wildlife controls are regulated and aim to reduce population density.
It’s interesting to hear how other countries are affected by TB, what steps they’ve taken to try and get on top of the problem, how successful they’ve been, and what lessons we can learn in this country.
- For more information about the VI International M.bovis Conference click here.