Roadmap for development of disease control strategies for bTB

What are we trying to achieve and why? What is the problem we are trying to solve?

Establishing how animals interact with others that might facilitate disease spread.

What are the scientific and technological challenges (knowledge gaps needing to be addressed)?

Challenge to compute the cattle movement network from animal-level relational databases.
Several territories have established the ecological home range, population size, and disease status of key wildlife hosts.

What approaches could/should be taken to address the research question?

• Establishing the structure of the dairy and beef industries and movements within components.
• Establish stability of movement networks and key nodes; identify the most connected herds and premises.
• Simulate TB transmission on established network models; compare model fit to field data.
• Establish the movement patterns of wildlife (bait marking, collars, cameras etc.) and their contact with livestock.
• Simulation modelling supported by molecular epidemiology.

What else needs to be done before we can solve this need?

Host demographics, both wildlife and livestock, and structure of the livestock industry.

Existing knowledge including successes and failures

Most competent authorities are required to curate animal-level cattle location, identification, pedigree, test, and movement histories, integrated with land parcel mapping.