Effects of culling on badger meles meles spatial organization: implications for the control of bovine tuberculosis
Effects of culling on badger meles meles spatial organization: implications for the control of bovine tuberculosis
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扑杀对獾獾空间组织的影响：对控制牛结核病的影响
DOI：
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发表时间：
2005
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
W. Morrison
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
R. Woodroffe;C. Donnelly;D. Cox;F. J. Bourne;C. Cheeseman;R. Delahay;G. Gettinby;J. McInerney;W. Morrison
1.在过去的二十年里，英国牛的牛结核病(TB)发病率显著上升。未能控制牛的这种疾病与欧洲獾持续存在感染宿主有关，欧洲獾是国家保护物种。虽然多年来，獾扑杀一直是英国结核病控制政策的一个组成部分，但最近的一项大规模随机野外试验发现，在进行局部獾扑杀的地区，牛的结核病发病率并不低于附近没有进行实验性扑杀的地区。事实上，分析表明，在被扑杀的地区，牛的发病率更高。2.为解释这种模式而提出的一个假设是，局部扑杀扰乱了獾的领地行为，潜在地增加了牛与受感染的獾之间的接触率。这项研究通过调查13个不同扑杀水平的研究区域的獾活动和空间组织来评估这一假说。通过在獾窝中喂食有颜色标记的诱饵，并测量取回有颜色标记粪便的地理区域，绘制了獾的栖息地。3.在捕杀区域，獾的栖息地范围一直较大。此外，在没有受到扑杀的地区，家园范围的大小随着扑杀区域边界的接近而增加。家园范围之间的重叠模式也受到剔除的影响。4.合成与应用。这项研究表明，扑杀獾深刻地改变了它们的空间组织和种群密度。这些变化有可能影响牛和獾之间的接触率，无论是在发生扑杀的地方还是在毗邻的土地上。这些结果可能有助于解释为什么当地的獾扑杀似乎未能控制牛的结核病，在确定獾扑杀在未来的控制策略中应该发挥什么作用(如果有的话)时，应该考虑到这一点。
1. The incidence of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in British cattle has risen markedly over the last two decades. Failure to control the disease in cattle has been linked to the persistence of a reservoir of infection in European badgers Meles meles, a nationally protected species. Although badger culling has formed a component of British TB control policy for many years, a recent large-scale randomized field experiment found that TB incidence in cattle was no lower in areas subject to localized badger culling than in nearby areas where no experimental culls occurred. Indeed, analyses indicated that cattle incidence was higher in culled areas. 2. One hypothesis advanced to explain this pattern is that localized culling disrupted badgers' territorial behaviour, potentially increasing the rate of contact between cattle and infected badgers. This study evaluated this hypothesis by investigating badger activity and spatial organization in 13 study areas subjected to different levels of culling. Badger home ranges were mapped by feeding colour-marked baits at badger dens and measuring the geographical area in which colour-marked faeces were retrieved. 3. Badger home ranges were consistently larger in culling areas. Moreover, in areas not subjected to culling, home range sizes increased with proximity to the culling area boundary. Patterns of overlap between home ranges were also influenced by culling. 4. Synthesis and applications. This study demonstrates that culling badgers profoundly alters their spatial organization as well as their population density. These changes have the potential to influence contact rates between cattle and badgers, both where culls occur and on adjoining land. These results may help to explain why localized badger culling appears to have failed to control cattle TB, and should be taken into account in determining what role, if any, badger culling should play in future control strategies.