Bovine TB: Pathogenesis research
The pathogenesis part of the programme concentrates on looking at how the disease is manifested in badgers and cattle as individuals. When the work was initiated it was unclear what the pattern and course of disease from the start of infection is within each species, and how it varies.
How does Defra decide on what research to fund?
Research is funded in order to provide evidence based policies for control of 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 and from other stakeholders and independent experts. The pathogenesis projects fall under a steering group where members of the ISG and other invited experts give advice to Defra on the ongoing objectives of the work and help decide if a change of direction is needed
Research projects
In cattle this work has involved the extensive post mortem of infected animals and compared them pathologically and immunologically with uninfected animals. The cattle may have been experimentally infected using different doses and routes of infection to model the pathology seen during natural infection. Much work has also been conducted on naturally infected cattle and this work is ongoing. The immune response to infection has also been extensively studied. Here the response of infected animals is compared with uninfected in order to see if correlates of disease status or protection can be found, and to look at how vaccination with various vaccine candidates affects the immune response. The effect that skin testing has on the immune response has also been investigated. Much of the pathogenesis work has also been undertaken through collaboration with researchers in Northern Ireland. A recent final report in the area of pathogenesis is SE3015 and more will be available shortly.
The pathogenesis of bTB in naturally diseased badgers has also largely been studied in the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT) and will be reported elsewhere. Work on developing and validating diagnostic tests is also underway using this information.
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Page last modified:
July 7, 2008