Perturbing implications of wildlife ecology for disease control.
Britain's Randomised Badger Culling Trial provides robust evidence of the role badgers have in transmission of Mycobacterium bovis to cattle. Culling badgers perturbed their social structure, and brought positive and negative effects for bovine tuberculosis incidence in cattle, leading to the conclusion that culling could not make a meaningful contribution to disease control. The RBCT highlights the complexities of disease transmission in social animals and the importance of host ecology for controlling wildlife diseases.
McDonald
Robbie A
RA
Central Science Laboratory, Sand Hutton, York, UK, YO41 1LZ. r.mcdonald@csl.gov.uk
Delahay
Richard J
RJ
Carter
Stephen P
SP
Smith
Graham C
GC
Cheeseman
Chris L
CL
D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D017753:Ecosystem; D045969:Mustelidae / Q000382:microbiology / Q000523:psychology*; D009163:Mycobacterium bovis; D011155:Population Control; D012919:Social Behavior; D014380:Tuberculosis, Bovine / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission; D006113:United Kingdom