Table 2 County level demography and TB status of badger carcasses submitted during the study period (1st April 2021–30th April 2023), and data on the number of active herds per county and their breakdown status (1st April 2021–30th April 2023).

From: Tuberculosis in found dead badgers at the edge of the expanding bovine tuberculosis epidemic

  

County

Oxfordshire

East Sussex

Buckinghamshire

Hampshire

Berkshire

Badgersa

Carcasses submitted

138

128

99

107

49

Carcasses sampledb

108

(78.2%)

103 (80.4%)

85

(85.9%)

88

(82.2%)

44

(89.8%)

Carcass density (per km2)

0.0415

0.0575

0.0454

0.0239

0.0349

Male (%)

46.4

51.4

48.9

55.1

57.8

Female (%)

54.6

48.6

51.1

44.9

42.2

Adults (%)

88.0

96.1

97.6

94.3

95.5

Juveniles (%)

12.0

3.9

2.4

5.7

4.5

M. bovis positive

14 (13.0%)

5 (4.9%)

4 (4.7%)

1 (1.1%)

4 (9.1%)

M. bovis positive (per km2)

0.00537

0.00279

0.00213

0.00027

0.00317

Cattlec

Mean active herds (range)

526

(509–545)

590

(584–603)

475

(467–494)

837

(820–857)

211

(208–215)

Mean active herd density (per km2)

0.202

0.329

0.253

0.228

0.167

Number of herds with breakdownd

110

41

53

42

31

Percentage of herds with breakdown

20.9

6.9

11.2

5.0

14.7

Density of breakdowns (per km2)

0.0422

0.0229

0.0283

0.0114

0.0246

  1. aNote that unsampled carcasses were excluded from the analyses. bOne badger was excluded from these analyses as the spatial data indicated it was located significantly beyond the study boundary. cData is given at the herd level and analyses conducted using the mean number of active herds during the study period. dEstimated as the number of herds that were non-OTF during the study period; repeat breakdowns are not included.
Back to article page