Analysis of data from a long-term UK study of bovine TB has confirmed that transmission of bovine TB occurs between badgers and cattle, leading scientists to conclude that TB controls should target both species.

The research by UCD and University of Edinburgh scientists was done at Woodchester Park, an area of southwest England that has been used for detailed badger studies since the 1970s.

The site has a high density of badgers within a cattle TB hotspot area. Badgers have been routinely trapped and sampled for bovine TB.

The work showed that transmission within each species happened more often than transmission between species

Using samples from 116 badgers, scientists compared the genomes from bovine TB infection against samples taken from 189 reactor cattle.

The work also looked at where animals were located, when they were infected and whether they could have been in contact.

The work showed that transmission within each species happened more often than transmission between species. But the results also suggested that transmission occurs much more frequently (roughly 10 times more often) from badgers to cattle, than from cattle to badgers.

The results “suggest that there has been a long history of within- and between-species transmission in the Woodchester Park area, and an important role for badgers in disease persistence” the study authors noted.

“The authors are right to conclude that TB cannot, therefore, be eradicated just by managing badgers, or just by managing cattle,” noted Prof Rosie Woodroffe, Senior Research Fellow, Zoological Society of London (ZSL).