MAFF to spend extra £1m on TB research

16 June 2000




MAFF to spend extra £1m on TB research

Theres more research going

on into TB than just the

Krebs trial. Emma Penny

finds out what will cost

MAFF a further £4m a year

MOST cattle producers are aware of the culling trial implemented after the Krebs report, but theres more research than that being done into TB.

The research has only recently begun and has been directed by recommendations in the Krebs report. Most are three to five-year projects, so first results are expected within the next two to three years, although some long-term projects may take up to 15 years to complete.

A key objective behind MAFFs policy is that research must be geared towards understanding the causes of TB incidence in herds. It also wants to evaluate the effectiveness of current strategies – and improve them – to reduce herd incidents.

Current spending on TB research – excluding the culling trial – is £4m, but this will rise to £5m when new research starts, says MAFFs Fiona Stuart, who is responsible for managing research on statutory and exotic diseases.

"There is more emphasis being placed on TB. In a time of falling research budgets this is a measure of the priority it is being given."

Within the research programme, developing a vaccine is top priority, with research funding of £1.4m a year – about 30% of the total budget.

"The BCG vaccine given to humans is the only vaccine available against TB. We cant use it in cattle because of EU legislation and because it sensitises animals to the tuberculin test, so any vaccinated stock would test positive for TB.

"Work at the Institute of Animal Health and Vet Lab Agency is examining other vaccine candidates as well as looking at cattles immune response to TB."

This has produced results, and vaccine candidates are currently being researched, with some trials on cattle beginning recently. However, Ms Stuart warns that even if an effective vaccine is found, it will take years to gain approval.

Tackling the problem of vaccinated cattle testing positive for TB is also important, but Ms Stuart admits its a tall order to produce a test which can distinguish between vaccinated, unvaccinated and TB infected animals. "This is long-term work. There will be no quick fix," she says.

However, while most work is concentrating on a cattle vaccine, one project is also continuing to develop a vaccine for badgers.

"If badgers are shown to be important in TB transmission, one potential method of control would be to vaccinate them to prevent them excreting the organism, so stopping transmission to cattle.

"Obviously there are problems with this approach, including how any vaccine would be trialled in experiments and the field, as well as ensuring as many badgers as possible are vaccinated."

Besides developing vaccines, another key part of the research is diagnosis and detection of M bovis – the organism responsible for TB in cattle. This includes assessing accuracy of the current tuberculin test, developing and testing a blood test for TB detection, as well as looking at DNA testing as a way of detecting TB in animals and the environment, says Ms Stuart.

"The key requirement is that tests are robust, must work well and be easily reproduced. We are already learning more about the usefulness of blood testing, but developing and trialling the DNA test will take three to five years."

Work is also progressing on mapping the M bovis genome, partly funded by the Wellcome Trust, and Ms Stuart expects researchers to be able to build on results from next year.

Control strategies are being researched, with much of the work being carried out by the husbandry panel (Livestock, June 9). However, a new project on the economic effects of bovine TB and its control on farms and the agriculture industry is out for contract.

Further work is being done on developing computer models to help predict how wildlife might spread the disease. Badger ecology and population density are also being studied, and will provide essential information if control or vaccination are adopted.

"Research is also looking at the effect of disturbance or control on badger populations – for instance, will disturbance affect their social set up and movements? We are also studying other wildlife such as deer, foxes and other mammals to se whether they have a role in TB transmission."

Transmission routes are being studied and MAFF hopes that molecular typing might help identify where infection originates. "We are looking to see whether there are different strains of M bovis according to whether its in wildlife or cattle – if there are, we should be able to trace infection."

How infection enters and affects cattle is another key area, with scientists hoping to discover how M bovis behaves in animals.

TBRESEARCH

&#8226 Funding increasing to £5m/year.

&#8226 Most long-term research.


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