Bovine TB: Ecology research
Ecology is the scientific study of relationships between organisms and their environment. It is concerned with the life histories, distribution, and behaviour of individual species as well as the structure and function of natural systems at the level of populations, communities, and ecosystems. The term was coined in 1866 by the darwinist German biologist Ernst Haeckel from the Greek oikos meaning "house" and logos meaning "science".
How does Defra decide on what research to fund?
Research is funded in order to provide evidence based policies for control of bovine TB (bTB). The Independent Scientific Group (ISG) on Cattle TB provides advice to the department on future research requirements. Other advice is sought from specialists within Defra, from other stakeholders and independent experts. The ecology projects fall under a steering group where invited experts and members of the ISG give advice to Defra on the ongoing objectives of the work and help decide if a change of direction is needed.
Research projects
Most of the projects in this scientific area concern badgers and a number of projects have been concerned with estimating population density. The results of early work showed that using remotely sensed land cover data as a variable to predict farm level badger sett density was not satisfactory and that fieldwork estimates were more accurate. However, this approach was taken further in SE3031 to include a greater number of predictor variables e.g. soil and disturbance levels as there is a need to identify badger setts quickly and over large areas for which fieldwork would not be feasible. Although improvements were made, the high resolution estimates of sett density that were hoped for were not possible. Other methods of population estimation have been trialled at the research station Woodchester Park and reported in SE3107. One of these methods has been taken further and is currently undergoing a larger trial in an area of the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT).
Other ecology projects have looked at aspects of the perturbation phenomenon (SE3108) and at how widespread Mycobacterium bovis is in British wildlife (SE3010, SE3009). As a result of SE3010 which suggested that several species of deer warranted further investigation, the Department has since put in place research to try to quantify the TB risk to cattle that these species may pose.
Back to Research & Development.
Page last modified:
July 7, 2008