Protection of Eurasian badgers ( Meles meles ) from tuberculosis after intra-muscular vaccination with different doses of BCG

• Published in: Vaccine Vol. 29; no. 21; pp. 3782 - 3790
• Main Authors: Lesellier, Sandrine, Palmer, Si, Gowtage-Sequiera, Sonya, Ashford, Roland, Dalley, Deanna, Davé, Dipesh, Weyer, Ute, Salguero, F. Javier, Nunez, Alejandro, Crawshaw, Timothy, Corner, Leigh A.L, Hewinson, R. Glyn, Chambers, Mark A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 12-05-2011; Elsevier; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: adults; Allergy and Immunology; Animals; Applied microbiology; badgers; Baits; BCG Vaccine - administration & dosage; Biological and medical sciences; bovine tuberculosis; Cattle; cell-mediated immunity; control methods; Disease; Disease control; Disease Reservoirs - microbiology; disease severity; excretion; Experiments; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; herds; Histology; humans; Immune response; Immunity, Cellular; Immunology; Infections; Injections, Intramuscular - veterinary; interferon-gamma; Interferon-gamma - blood; Interferon-gamma - immunology; Male; Meles meles; Microbiology; Mustelidae - microbiology; Mycobacterium bovis; Mycobacterium bovis - immunology; Mycobacterium bovis - isolation & purification; Mycobacterium bovis BCG; Pathology; Tuberculosis; Tuberculosis - immunology; Tuberculosis - pathology; Tuberculosis - prevention & control; Tuberculosis - veterinary; Vaccination; Vaccination - veterinary; Vaccines; Vaccines, antisera, therapeutical immunoglobulins and monoclonal antibodies (general aspects); virulence; Wildlife; Wildlife conservation; Irish Republic; Great Britain; Pathology; Tuberculosis; Immunology; Wildlife; Vaccination; Fissipedia; Carnivora; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Meles meles; BCG; Wild animal
• ISSN: 0264-410X; 1873-2518
• DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2011.03.028

Abstract Mycobacterium bovis infection is widespread in Eurasian badger ( Meles meles ) populations in Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland where they act as a wildlife reservoir of infection for cattle. Removal of infected badgers can significantly reduce the incidence of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in local cattle herds. However, control measures based on culling of native wildlife are contentious and may even be detrimental to disease control. Vaccinating badgers with bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) has been shown to be efficacious against experimentally induced TB of badgers when administered subcutaneously and orally. Vaccination may be an alternative or complementary strategy to other disease control measures. As the subcutaneous route is impractical for vaccinating wild badgers and an oral vaccine bait formulation is currently unavailable, we evaluated the intramuscular (IM) route of BCG administration. It has been demonstrated that the IM route is safe in badgers. IM administration has the practical advantage of being relatively easy to perform on trapped wild badgers without recourse to chemical immobilisation. We report the evaluation of the efficacy of IM administration of BCG Danish strain 1331 at two different doses: the dose prescribed for adult humans (2–8 × 105 colony forming units) and a 10-fold higher dose. Vaccination generated a dose-dependent cell-mediated immune response characterised by the production of interferon-γ (IFNγ) and protection against endobronchial challenge with virulent M. bovis . Protection, expressed in terms of a significant reduction in the severity of disease, the number of tissues containing acid-fast bacilli, and reduced bacterial excretion was statistically significant with the higher dose only.