http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-02/bpl-hbc021207.php Press Release: >Public release date: 12-Feb-2007 > >Contact: Becky Allen >[log in to unmask] >44-012-235-70016 >Blackwell Publishing Ltd. >How badger culling creates conditions for spread of bovine TB > >A stable social structure may help control the spread of bovine >tuberculosis (TB) among badgers, ecologists have found. The findings >-- published online in the British Ecological Society's Journal of >Animal Ecology -- have important implications for the role of badger >culling as part of the strategy to control bovine TB in the UK. > >According to the authors from the Central Science Laboratory and the >Instituto de Investigacion en Recursos Cinegatico in Spain: "The >evidence suggests that movement of individuals between groups may be >instrumental in driving disease dynamics at the population level, and >adds further support to the contention that the social disruption of >badger populations, for example by culling, is likely to promote >disease spread." > >Data for the study came from an undisturbed high-density badger >population in the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire, that has been >intensively studied by ecologists for more than 15 years. The authors >analysed almost 9,000 trapping records involving 1,859 different >badgers between 1990 and 2004. Each time a badger was trapped it was >sexed, weighed and samples of blood, sputum, urine and faeces were >taken before it was released. They found that TB rates were lowest >when there was the least movement of individual badgers between >groups. > >There have been few experimental studies of the incidence of >infectious disease in socially-structured wildlife populations, and >this study shows that such information is crucial to understanding >how population structure affects the spread of disease. > >The results also have major implications for future policy to control >bovine TB in the UK. According to the authors: "Past badger culling >policies have been accompanied by an inexorable rise in the incidence >of TB in cattle. Indeed, it has become apparent that the various >strategies may actually have been a contributory factor to the >increase in disease through perturbation. The results presented in >this paper lend weight to this argument." > >"The development of successful strategies for the control of TB in >badgers and transmission to cattle will require serious consideration >of the likely impact of any interventions on badger social >organization," the authors say. Sukie (not a vet) Current FHL address: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth People can join there or can send a blank mail to the automated joining address: [log in to unmask] and then follow the directions. (The second is recommended for those having problems with Yahoogroups web settings, and afterward send a blank mail from your subscribed address to [log in to unmask] to get the digest instead of individual mails. ) Recommended ferret health links: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/ http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml [Posted in FML 5517]