Impact of localized badger culling on tuberculosis incidence in British cattle

Christl A. Donnelly (), Rosie Woodroffe, D. R. Cox, John Bourne, George Gettinby, Andrea M. Le Fevre, John P. McInerney and W. Ivan Morrison
Additional contact information
Christl A. Donnelly: Food & Rural Affairs
Rosie Woodroffe: Food & Rural Affairs
D. R. Cox: Food & Rural Affairs
John Bourne: Food & Rural Affairs
George Gettinby: Food & Rural Affairs
Andrea M. Le Fevre: Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London
John P. McInerney: Food & Rural Affairs
W. Ivan Morrison: Food & Rural Affairs

Nature, 2003, vol. 426, issue 6968, 834-837

Abstract: Abstract Pathogens that are transmitted between wildlife, livestock and humans present major challenges for the protection of human and animal health, the economic sustainability of agriculture, and the conservation of wildlife. Mycobacterium bovis, the aetiological agent of bovine tuberculosis (TB), is one such pathogen. The incidence of TB in cattle has increased substantially in parts of Great Britain in the past two decades, adversely affecting the livelihoods of cattle farmers and potentially increasing the risks of human exposure. The control of bovine TB in Great Britain is complicated by the involvement of wildlife, particularly badgers (Meles meles), which appear to sustain endemic infection and can transmit TB to cattle1. Between 1975 and 1997 over 20,000 badgers were culled as part of British TB control policy, generating conflict between conservation and farming interest groups2. Here we present results from a large-scale field trial3,4,5 that indicate that localized badger culling not only fails to control but also seems to increase TB incidence in cattle.

Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature02192 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:426:y:2003:i:6968:d:10.1038_nature02192

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature02192

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().