Date: October 4, 2018
Source: Morris Animal Foundation
What do
cattle, European badgers, and gut bacteria have in common? They are all central
players in a complex web surrounding a disease that affects multiple species,
often with devastating results -- tuberculosis. Now, new research funded by
Morris Animal Foundation is shedding light on how one player, gut bacteria, may
help protect both badgers and cattle from this common, pervasive and deadly
illness.
A major
outbreak of bovine tuberculosis is significantly impacting agriculture in the
United Kingdom. Badgers are known carriers of Mycobacterium bovis (the bacteria
that causes tuberculosis in cattle) and are suspected to be a source of disease
spread. The use of the human tuberculosis vaccine, Bacillus Calmette-Guerin, in
badgers was considered to be a humane and long-term solution to reduce TB
spillover from badgers but was falling short on effectiveness.
Dr. Jorge
Gutierrez, University of Surrey researcher and lead author of the paper, wanted
to know why and wondered if both the reason for this shortfall and its solution
could be found in the gut bacteria of badgers.
The team,
along with collaborators at the UK's Animal and Plant Health Agency, found gut
bacteria from badgers may be decreasing the effectiveness of the BCG vaccine,
but at the same time may be killing off M. bovis. It's a bad news/good
news scenario that may help improve tuberculosis prevention. The team's findings
recently were published in BMC Microbiology.
Some
natural gut bacteria produce substances that can kill off their competitors or
make the gut a hostile place for them. Dr. Gutierrez wondered if this might be
going on in the badger gut too. His team isolated several types of natural gut
bacteria, specifically lactic acid bacteria, from the feces of badgers. They
found some of these bacteria kill off the BCG vaccine, which could reduce its
effectiveness in this species. But with this finding, there is good news, too.
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