Im not sure where to start here, so bare with me... OK, first up lets deal with the sciency bit, the confirmation of the rumour which were circulating on Twitter yesterday... I linked this document to my page (lionaid.org/download/WGS-bTB-Badgers-and-cattle-Ireland-2012.pdf), which it turns out Defra were aware of over a year before culling commenced, but conveniently ignored. So, lots of long words... What do they mean? Basically, molecular epidemiology is a branch of medical science that focuses on the contribution of potential genetic and environmental risk factors, identified at the molecular level, to the etiology (cause or origin), distribution and prevention of disease within families and across populations... So this investigation focussed on identifying the genetic strains of Bovine TB bacteria in both cattle and badgers where a breakdown occurred. Scientists are now able to differentiate among strains of the bacteria using Whole Genome Sequencing (the complete chromosomal DNA sequence of the bacteria can be identified/mapped) which allows them to determine the origin and route of outbreaks at the level of individual herds of cattle in neighbouring farms. From this they were able to conclude that: - interspecies transmission is far from being proven a major cause of persistent outbreaks, suggesting that inter-herd transmission is a persistent factor despite existing bTB controls and tracking of individual cattle... - repeated outbreaks within the same herd mostly involved reintroduction from neighbouring herds, environmental persistence or latent (anergic) infections... - strain persistence among cattle sampled years apart further substantiate the possibility of latent infections, environmental persistence, inter-herd transmission of bTB
Posted on: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 11:07:55 +0000