title: Herd-level risk factors of bovine tuberculosis in England and Wales after the 2001 foot-and-mouth disease epidemic.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We present the results of a 2005 case-control study of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) breakdowns in English and Welsh herds. The herd management, farming practices, and environmental factors of 401 matched pairs of case and control herds were investigated to provide a picture of herd-level risk factors in areas of varying bTB incidence.
  
  
  METHODS
  A global conditional logistic regression model, with region-specific variants, was used to compare case herds that had experienced a confirmed bTB breakdown to contemporaneous control herds matched on region, herd type, herd size, and parish testing interval.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Contacts with cattle from contiguous herds and sourcing cattle from herds with a recent history of bTB were associated with an increased risk in both the global and regional analyses. Operating a farm over several premises, providing cattle feed inside the housing, and the presence of badgers were also identified as significantly associated with an increased bTB risk.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Steps taken to minimize cattle contacts with neighboring herds and altering trading practices could have the potential to reduce the size of the bTB epidemic. In principle, limiting the interactions between cattle and wildlife may also be useful; however this study did not highlight any specific measures to implement.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, MRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK. tom.johnston@egu.york.ac.uk
authors.forename: W T
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Johnston
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vial
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gettinby
authors.forename: F J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Bourne
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Clifton-Hadley
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Crea
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Donnelly
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: McInerney
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: W I
authors.initials: WI
authors.lastname: Morrison
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Woodroffe
mesh_terms: D000822:Animal Husbandry / Q000379:methods*; D000818:Animals; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002417:Cattle; D003625:Data Collection; D004197:Disease Reservoirs; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D058872:Epidemics / Q000662:veterinary; D005260:Female; D005536:Foot-and-Mouth Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015994:Incidence; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D045969:Mustelidae / Q000382:microbiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D014380:Tuberculosis, Bovine / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D014852:Wales / Q000453:epidemiology