TB vaccine could help livestock as well

With the recent announcement of the roll-out of tuberculosis (TB) vaccine trials, a group of researchers from the University of Cambridge and Penn State University conducted a study on the effect the vaccine could have on cattle.

In the early stages of the research the team said their study showed that the vaccination reduced the severity of bovine TB in infected cattle and cut its spread in dairy cattle by 89%. Bovine TB is an extremely infectious disease that can result in economic setbacks on farms around the world. The team said this first-of-its-kind study showed the effect of the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine on cattle.

“BCG-vaccinated cattle infected with TB are substantially less infectious to other cattle. This remarkable indirect effect of the vaccine beyond its direct protective effect has not been measured before,” wrote the team in the paper published on ScienceDaily.

The research was conducted in Ethiopia and the team said they examined the ability of the BCG vaccine to directly protect cattle that receive it, as well as to indirectly protect both vaccinated and unvaccinated cattle by reducing

TB transmission. Vaccinated and unvaccinated animals were put into enclosures with naturally infected animals, in a crossover design, meaning they received more than one treatment, performed over two years.

Associate professor of Epidemiology at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine and one of the authors of the study, Andrew Conlan, said: “Our study found that BCG vaccination reduces TB transmission in cattle by almost 90%.” –