The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is offering funding for research on the role of badgers in the spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB).
As part of the department’s 2024 Policy and Strategic Studies Research Call (PSSRC) there are three possible research projects related to bTB listed under the animal health and welfare theme.
The PSSRC seeks to engage experienced researchers in the development of high-quality research proposals linked to key strategic policy objectives for the agri-food, forest and bio-based sector.
Researchers must submit their applications by midday on Thursday, June 6, 2024, with the successful proposals expected to start by the end of the year.
Badgers
DAFM said that bovine TB remains “a significant priority challenge to agriculture in Ireland”, despite a eradication programme being in place for many decades.
It said that there are three main sources of bTB infection: wildlife, the purchase of infected cattle and residual infection.
The department is offering a budget of up to €250,000 for researchers to carry out a two-year study of badger movement and use of habitat “to unravel their role in the spread of bovine tuberculosis in Ireland”.
While the role of badgers in the epidemiology of bTB is well established, there are significant knowledge gaps in how badgers interact with themselves and with cattle, and the implications of this in the spread of the disease.
European badgers are the most significant wildlife reservoirs of bovine TB in Ireland.
Culling of badgers in high bTB incidence area began in 2004, in recent years this has evolved into a vaccination programme for the animals.
The overall objective of this project will be to understand what drives badgers movement in Ireland’s ecosystems, and how it affects bTB spread between badgers and between badgers and cattle.
The research will include examining the uses that badgers make of farm environments which provide opportunities for environmental transmission of bTB to cattle.
DAFM
The department is also offering up to €250,000 for another two-year research project to simulate badger population dynamics and changes to bTB risk in a multi-host management system.
The research will examine how badger population density and structure would vary under different approaches to wildlife control such as culling, vaccination or indeed no management.
DAFM said that traditional field studies to examine this area would need to be large scale, long term and would be expensive.
However, simulation methods provide an alternative means to understand the new baseline and test interventions.
The final project related to bovine TB proposed under the 2024 PSSRC would examine the link between the nutritional and metabolic status of dairy cows and outbreaks of the disease.
Impaired immune function (immunodeficiency) can increase susceptibility to infection; thereby increasing risk of bTB herd “breakdowns”.
DAFM said that a potential new means of reducing bTB incidence in Ireland relates to the improvement of animal’s immune status.
The department said that all of these studies would directly contribute the Bovine TB Eradication Strategy 2021 – 2030 and help the work of the TB forum.