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Despite increasing surveillance, outbreaks of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in the UK have steadily increased over the past two decades, with the disease now costing an estimated £100 million per annum in test and slaughter costs, and compensation payments.
Research by Professor Wood and Drs McKinley and Conlan has determined that successful control efforts will depend upon within-herd surveillance and also on reducing reintroduction from external sources; these results have directly altered the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' (Defra) new (July 2013) bovine TB strategy for England, which directly cites Dr Conlan's research when justifying changes in proposed regulations. On publication this research prompted questions during bovine Tuberculosis debates in both Westminster and the Scottish Parliament by Andrew George (MP, St. Ives) and Helen Eadie (MSP, Cowdenbeath) respectively. The work has also received national and specialist media coverage raising public awareness and understanding of bTB control in cattle.
Impact: Policy and public engagement: Formulation of the UK government's badger culling policy for the control of bovine tuberculosis that is currently being implemented. The underpinning research also had wider impact in terms of generating significant public debate and enhancing public engagement.
Significance: DEFRA has estimated the cost of TB control in England at £1 billion over the next 10 years without taking further action, and the cost of TB breakdown on a farm at £34,000
Beneficiaries: Livestock Industry (Cattle farms), Consumers, environment.
Attribution: Work performed by Professor Morrison (University of Edinburgh, UoE)
Reach: The immediate reach is the UK.
The parasite Neospora caninum is the leading cause of abortion in cattle in the UK, resulting in around 6,000 abortions per year; and a $1.3b pa international problem. There are no effective drugs or vaccines to control neosporosis. University of Liverpool (UoL) research on the development of diagnostic tests, understanding the pathogenesis, epidemiology and transmission of N. caninum has made an important contribution to developing best practise herd health schemes, now offered by the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) and by a commercial company `myhealthyherd', to eradicate N. caninum infection from a herd. This has enabled cattle farmers to improve their businesses by reducing abortion rates and other costs associated with neosporosis.
The bovine tuberculosis (TB) research programme led by Professor Donnelly at Imperial College has been informing policymakers for over a decade. Professor Donnelly played a leading role in the design, oversight, analysis and interpretation of the £50 million Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT, 1998-2006), overseeing a bovine-TB research team at Imperial since 2001. The RBCT compared two candidate culling policies (large-scale culling repeated annually and one-off small-scale culls near farms affected by bovine TB) with areas in which no badger culling took place. Informed by RBCT results (in which widespread culling decreased cattle incidence inside the culling area but increased it on neighbouring farms), the Secretary of State Hilary Benn ruled out badger culling as a control measure in July 2008. However, the coalition government took a different view and in December 2011 announced that farmers could apply for licences to undertake farmer-led (and farmer-funded) badger culling to control TB in cattle. Several of the government's licensing requirements for badger culls in England were based on many of the team's results. In contrast, having proposed in 2010 a large government-led cull, the Welsh government chose in March 2012 to vaccinate, rather than cull, badgers informed by the same set of results.
A University of Glasgow bovine tuberculosis (bTB) surveillance model was fundamental to new Scottish Government policy on bTB testing. Implemented on 1st January 2012, the policy change used the Glasgow model to indicate which cattle herds can be exempt from routine testing while still maintaining Scotland's Officially bTB Free status. In 2012 this translated to exemption of more than 30% of Scottish herds from routine testing, with an associated government saving of £150,000. The revised policy also provided savings to the Scottish farming industry in the region of £100,000 (2012) and limited the risks of bTB testing to farmers, veterinarians and cattle. The rapid success of the ground-breaking Scottish research-led bTB policy development has been highlighted by the Civil Service as best practice and has been presented to numerous policy audiences including the European Commission, providing the opportunity to transform industry practices and livestock surveillance policy across the UK and beyond.
Impact: Economics, policy, animal and human health: In 2006, SoS (a Public Private Partnership-PPP) was established involving: University of Edinburgh, a pharmaceutical company, a charity, and the Govt. of Uganda to control sleeping sickness by eliminating Trypanasome carriage in cattle. The prevalence of trypanosomiasis has been reduced by 75% and sleeping sickness cases have fallen year on year since the PPP was established and Uganda has received a cost benefit between US$125 and $400M
Beneficiaries: The Ugandan population, Ugandan Cattle population.
Significance: Sleeping sickness, which is difficult to diagnose and treat in humans, is often fatal. Ten million Ugandans are at risk from sleeping sickness. SoS established a veterinary network in Uganda producing
Attribution: Professor Welburn (University of Edinburgh, UoE) founded SoS and developed essential diagnostic techniques.
Reach: SoS provides a model for the elimination of the disease across sub Saharan Africa in an economically sustainable fashion - with over 22 million people at risk.
The use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for their pain-relieving properties in cattle medicine has lagged behind that of other species (e.g. companion animals) where analgesic use is now routine. University of Nottingham (UoN) research exploring the attitudes of vets and farmers to the use of NSAIDs in cattle, and subsequent marketing by Boehringer Ingelheim, a multinational pharmaceutical company, has led to a substantial increase in analgesic use. UoN research increased sales for Boehringer Ingelheim and almost doubled the UK market value of NSAIDs for use in cattle. With administration of up to 2 million additional doses per year, the research had clear benefits for animal welfare.
Impact: Economic / animal health and welfare: Established health schemes to control Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) on Scottish farms and subsequently underpinned the rationale for cost-effective control strategies that have been adopted in health schemes around the UK. The farm-level savings to the industry from future eradication are estimated by Scottish Government to be £50- £80m.
Significance: BVD is a major endemic disease of cattle in Scotland costing the dairy industry about £38M per year and an additional £11M to consumers.
Beneficiaries: Farmers, cattle, animal health authorities.
Attribution: Professors Gunn and Stott (SRUC).
Reach: The associated health schemes began in Scotland (HI Health) and now operate throughout Britain (UK CHeCS (Cattle Health Certification Standards) Health Scheme). The research underpins BVD control schemes in Ireland and other EU Member States resulting in an avoided output loss of between €500 to €4,000 per dairy farm per year.
The University of Nottingham (UoN) led research that resulted in the design, evaluation and national implementation of a new approach to mastitis control on British dairy farms; the `DairyCo Mastitis Control Plan'. The programme, which commenced in 2009, was implemented on farms holding 10-15% of all British dairy cows. The uptake of the scheme is continually increasing and has generated savings to the British dairy industry to the order of £5-10M per annum.
Interdisciplinary research at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) has provided core evidence on which global efforts are based in order to eradicate one of the most economically damaging diseases of the cattle industry. The research findings have helped steer national programmes to eradicate Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) across Europe, South Asia and Australasia, reducing economic losses. Professor Joe Brownlie has additionally led pilot programmes in the UK, providing data for a national scheme, campaigned widely to highlight the issue and secured farming industry awareness and support through media exposure.