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Bovine tuberculosis in “Eurasian” badgers (Meles meles) in France

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Abstract

In France, several surveillance programmes have been carried out to monitor the presence of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in badgers in regions where cattle or wildlife show high bTB prevalence (Seine-Maritime, Côte d’Or, Dordogne/Charente). Diagnostic methods include post-mortem examination, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and/or microbiological culture. The frequency of visible lesions was significantly higher in Dordogne/Charente (14/283, 4.9 %) than in Côte d’Or (19/1146, 1.7 %) and Seine-Maritime (2/160, 1.25 %) (Fisher’s exact test, p < 0.001). Lesions were mainly located in cephalic and thoracic lymph nodes with one badger showing generalised tuberculosis. Near infected cattle farms or pastures, Mycobacterium bovis was detected using the culture method in roughly 1 % (1/103) of the badgers sampled in Seine-Maritime and in 5.6 % (49/878) of the badgers sampled in Côte d’Or. In Dordogne/Charente, the prevalence determined by PCR was 13.3 % (29/218). M. bovis was not found in badgers trapped in areas where there are no infected cattle. Spoligotyping and multiple locus variable number tandem repeat analysis showed that all M. bovis strains isolated from badgers were of the same genotype as those isolated from cattle in the vicinity, demonstrating an epidemiological link between both species. These are the first cases of bTB in badgers reported in France. Further surveys and research are needed to investigate the role badgers play in the epidemiology of bTB.

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Notes

  1. French administrative division; roughly equivalent to a county

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Directorate General for Food of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries for funding these surveys, the local state veterinary services in Côte d’Or, Dordogne and Seine-Maritime and the National Game Hunting and Wildlife Agency for managing the surveillance programmes. We would like to thank the technicians from the Côte d’Or laboratory, Edouard Réveillaud and the technicians from the Dordogne laboratory, and the technicians from the Seine-Maritime laboratory. We are grateful to all the trappers and hunters without whom the surveys could not have taken place. The authors thank Gregory Payne for his help in improving our manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wildlife diseases unit, Research department, National Game Hunting and Wildlife Agency (ONCFS), Gières, France

    Ariane Payne & Jean Hars

  2. CNRS, UMR 5558 Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, Lyon University, Villeurbanne, France

    Ariane Payne & Emmanuelle Gilot-Fromont

  3. French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES), Maisons-Alfort, France

    Maria Laura Boschiroli

  4. Epidemiology Unit epiMAI, Alfort National Veterinary School (ENVA), Maisons-Alfort, France

    Barbara Dufour

  5. Laboratoire Départemental de la Côte d’Or, Dijon, France

    Eric Gueneau

  6. Laboratoire Départemental d’Analyse et de Recherche de Dordogne, Coulounieix-Chamiers, France

    Jean Louis Moyen

  7. Laboratoire Agro-Vétérinaire Départemental de Seine Maritime, Rouen cedex 1, France

    Thomas Rambaud

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  1. Ariane Payne
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  2. Maria Laura Boschiroli
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  3. Eric Gueneau
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  6. Barbara Dufour
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  7. Emmanuelle Gilot-Fromont
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  8. Jean Hars
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Laura Boschiroli.

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Communicated by C. Gortazar

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Payne, A., Boschiroli, M.L., Gueneau, E. et al. Bovine tuberculosis in “Eurasian” badgers (Meles meles) in France. Eur J Wildl Res 59, 331–339 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-012-0678-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-012-0678-3

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