Summary of trappability estimates from studies of the European badger from Britain gathered from published sources.

<p>Density: badgers km⁻².</p>*<p>Trappability was derived from the numbers of badgers trapped as a percentage of the minimum number alive per social group.</p

Percentage of unmarked badgers caught in a sequence of capture sessions in the Kilkenny study area.

<p>Solid line represents all badgers trapped; dashed line represents adult badgers only.</p

Results from a logistic mixed model with random effects of the probability of a badger being trapped in the Kilkenny study area during the study period.

*<p>Wald test of Zone A = Zone B: p = 0.96; referent Zone C.</p>∧<p>Wald test of Season (autumn/winter) x Zone A = Season (autumn/winter) x Zone B: p = 0.63.</p>$<p>Overall the model explained the variation in the dataset in comparison with a null model to a statistically significant extent (Wald χ² (df: 7) = 24.3; p = 0.001), while the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test indicated no statistically significant lack of fit (Pearson χ² (df: 4) = 7.39; p = 0.117).</p

Badger numbers estimated using a multiplicative model of active main setts within the study area and estimates of badger social group sizes.

<p>Badger numbers estimated using a multiplicative model of active main setts within the study area and estimates of badger social group sizes.</p

Badger population size and trappability estimates.

<p><b>A.</b> Estimated badger population size for each full session (1–5) within the Kilkenny study area during the study period. Solid-line is the closed-subpopulation derived population estimate, the dotted line is the minimum number alive (MNA) population estimate, and the dashed line is the number of badgers trapped per session. <b>B.</b> The solid line is the estimated trappability using the closed-subpopulation model during each session with associated exact 95% confidence interval. Dotted line represents the MNA-derived trappability.</p

Map of the study area in Co. Kilkenny.

<p>The area is divided into three zones, A, B and C. The ‘reference area’ from the Four Area Project <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0050807#pone.0050807-Griffin1" target="_blank">[12]</a> is shaded. Dots represent all known setts (both active and inactive) within the trial area. Black dots are main setts; hollow dots are non-main setts.</p

Matrix of capture percentages for sessions one to five within the Kilkenny study area.

<p>n is the number of badgers captured per session. Values in the upper right of the matrix represent the percentage of badgers that were recaptures from a previous session (<i>i</i>−1). The lower left of the matrix represents the percentage of badgers captured during session <i>i</i> that went on to be caught during session <i>i</i>+1.</p

Oral Vaccination of Free-Living Badgers (<i>Meles meles</i>) with Bacille Calmette Guérin (BCG) Vaccine Confers Protection against Tuberculosis

<div><p>A field trial was conducted to investigate the impact of oral vaccination of free-living badgers against natural-transmitted <i>Mycobacterium bovis</i> infection. For a period of three years badgers were captured over seven sweeps in three zones and assigned for oral vaccination with a lipid-encapsulated BCG vaccine (Liporale-BCG) or with placebo. Badgers enrolled in Zone A were administered placebo while all badgers enrolled in Zone C were vaccinated with BCG. Badgers enrolled in the middle area, Zone B, were randomly assigned 50:50 for treatment with vaccine or placebo. Treatment in each zone remained blinded until the end of the study period. The outcome of interest was incident cases of tuberculosis measured as time to seroconversion events using the BrockTB Stat-Pak lateral flow serology test, supplemented with post-mortem examination. Among the vaccinated badgers that seroconverted, the median time to seroconversion (413 days) was significantly longer (p = 0.04) when compared with non-vaccinated animals (230 days). Survival analysis (modelling time to seroconversion) revealed that there was a significant difference in the rate of seroconversion between vaccinated and non-vaccinated badgers in Zones A and C throughout the trial period (p = 0.015). For badgers enrolled during sweeps 1–2 the Vaccine Efficacy (VE) determined from hazard rate ratios was 36% (95% CI: -62%– 75%). For badgers enrolled in these zones during sweeps 3–6, the VE was 84% (95% CI: 29%– 97%). This indicated that VE increased with the level of vaccine coverage. Post-mortem examination of badgers at the end of the trial also revealed a significant difference in the proportion of animals presenting with <i>M</i>. <i>bovis</i> culture confirmed lesions in vaccinated Zone C (9%) compared with non-vaccinated Zone A (26%). These results demonstrate that oral BCG vaccination confers protection to badgers and could be used to reduce incident rates in tuberculosis-infected populations of badgers.</p></div

Kaplan-Meier survival curves (time to seroconversion) for non-vaccinated and vaccinated badgers during the whole period of study.

<p>Kaplan-Meier survival curves (time to seroconversion) for non-vaccinated and vaccinated badgers during the whole period of study.</p

Kaplan-Meier survival curves (time to seroconversion) for non-vaccinated and vaccinated badgers enrolled in sweeps 1–2 (A) and in sweeps 3–6 (B).

<p>Kaplan-Meier survival curves (time to seroconversion) for non-vaccinated and vaccinated badgers enrolled in sweeps 1–2 (A) and in sweeps 3–6 (B).</p