Positive and negative effects of widespread badger culling on tuberculosis in cattle
Positive and negative effects of widespread badger culling on tuberculosis in cattle
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DOI：
10.1038/nature04454
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发表时间：
2006-02-16
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Morrison, WI
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Donnelly, CA;Woodroffe, R;Morrison, WI
在野生动物种群中持续感染的地方，人和牲畜的疾病可能很难控制。三十年来，欧洲獾(Meles Meles)一直被英国政府扑杀，以限制牛结核病(TB)的病原体牛分枝杆菌向牛的传播[1]。尽管做出了这些努力，但牛的结核病发病率一直在上升，再次成为英国养牛业的主要担忧。最近，獾的扑杀引起了争议，因为实验研究得出了截然不同的结论(尽管使用了不同的方案)，被扑杀的地区显示牛的结核病发病率显著降低(2，3)或增加(4，5)。这使制定以科学为基础的管理政策的努力变得混乱。在这里，我们使用来自大规模随机现场实验的数据来帮助解决这些明显的差异。我们表明，正如在本实验中进行的那样，扑杀降低了被扑杀地区的牛结核病发病率，但增加了邻近地区的发病率。这些发现与以前的研究(2-5)在生物学上是一致的，但将给政策制定带来挑战。
Human and livestock diseases can be difficult to control where infection persists in wildlife populations. For three decades, European badgers (Meles meles) have been culled by the British government in a series of attempts to limit the spread of Mycobacterium bovis, the causative agent of bovine tuberculosis (TB), to cattle(1). Despite these efforts, the incidence of TB in cattle has risen consistently, re-emerging as a primary concern for Britain's cattle industry. Recently, badger culling has attracted controversy because experimental studies have reached contrasting conclusions ( albeit using different protocols), with culled areas showing either markedly reduced(2,3) or increased(4,5) incidence of TB in cattle. This has confused attempts to develop a science-based management policy. Here we use data from a large-scale, randomized field experiment to help resolve these apparent differences. We show that, as carried out in this experiment, culling reduces cattle TB incidence in the areas that are culled, but increases incidence in adjoining areas. These findings are biologically consistent with previous studies(2-5) but will present challenges for policy development.