The intractable challenge of evaluating cattle vaccination as a control for bovine tuberculosis

Vaccination of cattle against bovine Tuberculosis (bTB) has been a long-term policy objective for countries where disease continues to persist despite costly test-and-slaughter programs. The potential use of vaccination within the European Union has been linked to a need for field evaluation of any prospective vaccine and the impact of vaccination on the rate of transmission of bTB. We calculate that estimation of the direct protection of BCG could be achieved with 100 herds, but over 500 herds would be necessary to demonstrate an economic benefit for farmers whose costs are dominated by testing and associated herd restrictions. However, the low and variable attack rate in GB herds means field trials are unlikely to be able to discern any impact of vaccination on transmission. In contrast, experimental natural transmission studies could provide robust evaluation of both the efficacy and mode of action of vaccination using as few as 200 animals

MonkeyMyshkin/BCGCrossover: BCG vaccination of cattle reduces transmission of bovine tuberculosis, improving the prospect of elimination

<p>Supplementary data and code for the manuscript:</p> <p>"BCG vaccination of cattle reduces transmission of bovine tuberculosis, improving the prospect of elimination" by Abebe Fromsa, Katriina Willgert, Sreenidhi Srinivasan, Getnet Mekonnen, Wegene Bedada, Balako Gumi, Matios Lakew, Biniam Tadesse, Berecha Bayissa, Asegedech Sirak, Musse Gima, Solomon Gebre, Tesfaye Rufael, Maroudam Veerasami, H. Martin Vordermeier, Douwe Bakker, Stefan Berg, Gobena Ameni, Nick Juleff, Mart C.M. de Jong, James Wood, Andrew Conlan & Vivek Kapur with the ETHICOBOTS and ABTBC consortia.</p&gt

MonkeyMyshkin/BCGCrossover: BCG vaccination of cattle reduces transmission of bovine tuberculosis, improving the prospect of elimination

<p>Supplementary data and code for the manuscript:</p> <p>"BCG vaccination of cattle reduces transmission of bovine tuberculosis, improving the prospect of elimination" by Abebe Fromsa, Katriina Willgert, Sreenidhi Srinivasan, Getnet Mekonnen, Wegene Bedada, Balako Gumi, Matios Lakew, Biniam Tadesse, Berecha Bayissa, Asegedech Sirak, Musse Gima, Solomon Gebre, Tesfaye Rufael, Maroudam Veerasami, H. Martin Vordermeier, Douwe Bakker, Stefan Berg, Gobena Ameni, Nick Juleff, Mart C.M. de Jong, James Wood, Andrew Conlan & Vivek Kapur with the ETHICOBOTS and ABTBC consortia.</p&gt

MonkeyMyshkin/BCGCrossover: Cattle vaccination limits the transmission of bovine tuberculosis, improving the prospects for elimination

<p>Supplementary data and code for the manuscript:</p> <p>"BCG vaccination of cattle reduces transmission of bovine tuberculosis, improving the prospect of elimination" by Abebe Fromsa, Katriina Willgert, Sreenidhi Srinivasan, Getnet Mekonnen, Wegene Bedada, Balako Gumi, Matios Lakew, Biniam Tadesse, Berecha Bayissa, Asegedech Sirak, Musse Gima, Solomon Gebre, Tesfaye Rufael, Maroudam Veerasami, H. Martin Vordermeier, Douwe Bakker, Stefan Berg, Gobena Ameni, Nick Juleff, Mart C.M. de Jong, James Wood, Andrew Conlan & Vivek Kapur with the ETHICOBOTS and ABTBC consortia.</p&gt