Successive use of shared space by badgers and cattle: implications for Mycobacterium bovis transmission

• Published in: Journal of zoology (1987) Vol. 314; no. 2; pp. 132 - 142
• Main Authors: Woodroffe, R., Donnelly, C. A., Chapman, K., Ham, C., Moyes, K., Stratton, N. G., Cartwright, S. J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-06-2021
• Subjects: Bacteria; badger; Badgers; bovine tuberculosis; Cattle; Contamination; disease ecology; Disease transmission; Group size; Infectious diseases; Meles meles; Mycobacterium bovis; Pathogens; Saliva; Species; Survival; Tracking; Tuberculosis; wildlife health; United Kingdom > UK
• ISSN: 0952-8369; 1469-7998
• DOI: 10.1111/jzo.12863

Managing infectious disease demands understanding pathogen transmission. In Britain, transmission of Mycobacterium bovis from badgers (Meles meles) to cattle hinders the control of bovine tuberculosis (TB), but the mechanism of such transmission is uncertain. As badgers and cattle seldom interact directly, transmission might occur in their shared environment through contact with contamination such as faeces, urine and saliva. We used concurrent GPS collar tracking of badgers and cattle at four sites in Cornwall, southwest Britain, to test whether each species used locations previously occupied by the other species, within the survival time of M. bovis bacteria. Although analyses of the same data set showed that badgers avoided cattle, we found no evidence that this avoidance persisted over time: neither GPS‐collared badgers nor cattle avoided space which had been occupied by the other species in the preceding 36 h. Defining a contact event as an animal being located <5 m from space occupied by the other species within the previous 36 h, we estimated that a herd of 176 cattle (mean herd size in our study areas) would contact badgers at least 6.0 times during an average 24‐h period. Similarly, we estimated that a social group of 3.5 badgers (mean group size in our study areas) would contact cattle at least 0.76 times during an average night. Such frequent successive use of the same shared space, within the survival time of M. bovis bacteria, could potentially facilitate M. bovis transmission via the environment.
To help evaluate the possibility for transmission of Mycobacterium bovis (which causes bovine tuberculosis) through the environment, we used GPS collar tracking to measure successive use of space shared by badgers and cattle. At least six times a day on average, cattle herds used space occupied by badgers within the previous 36 h, with neither species avoiding space previously used by the other. Such frequent indirect contact is consistent with the hypothesis that M. bovis could be transmitted between species through their shared environment.