Damian Maye and Rhiannon Naylor contributed to a paper which has been accepted for publication by Preventive Veterinary Medicine.
The paper stems from research, contracted by Defra and the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency in 2012, to undertake an exploration of factors that influence the expansion of the area affected by endemic bTB.
The CCRI worked with Cardiff University, Exeter University, UWE and the Royal Agricultural University on this interdisciplinary study. The published paper draws on findings from a farmer survey and combines it with epidemiological findings on farm characteristics to investigate the drivers of bTB spread in areas of emerging endemicity.
A case–control study was used to collect information a range of farm management strategies, farm characteristics and biosecurity measures, in addition to evaluating farmer attitudes and perceptions.
Farm characteristics such as herd size, purchasing at a cattle markets, local incidence, a history of inconclusive reactors, fragmentation and concurrent disease were identified as risk factors. The results also suggest that efforts to advise farmers on bTB preventive measures need to focus on farmers without bTB and that alternative methods of engaging with farmers who have recently had a breakdown may need to be developed.
The paper is currently in press, but can be accessed online. It is not available as ‘open access’, but more information can be found on the Science Direct website.
The full reference of the paper is:
Broughan, J.M., Maye, D., Carmody, P., Brunton, L.A., Ashton, A., Wint, W., Alexander, N., Naylor, R., Ward, K., Goodchild, A.V., Hinchliffe, S., Eglin, R.D., Upton, P., Nicholson, R. and Enticott, G. (2016 in press) Farm characteristics and farmer perceptions associated with bovine tuberculosis incidents in areas of emerging endemic spread. Preventive Veterinary Medicine. ISSN 01675877 (In Press) doi:10.1016/j.prevetmed.2016.05.007
