Bovine tuberculosis (bTB)

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB)

Bovine tuberculosis is a chronic bacterial disease of cattle that can affect other species of mammals, caused by Mycobacterium bovis, a bacterium in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex of the family Mycobacteriaceae. It is a significant zoonosis that can spread to humans by inhaling aerosols or from drinking unpasteurized milk. Bovine tuberculosis is still common in less developed countries, and causes economic losses from livestock deaths, chronic disease and trade restrictions. Effective bovine TB vaccines are not currently available for cattle.

The Roadmap for the Development of candidate vaccines can be seen on this website by clicking the link to the right (or go directly to the Roadmaps page). The roadmap is planned to be reviewed at a workshop to be held alongside the  International Conference on Mycobacterium bovis, in Galway, which has been postponed from 2020 to 7-10 June 2021.

The Global Research Alliance for Bovine Tuberculosis (GRAbTB) was started under the STAR-IDAZ project, to facilitate research cooperation and technical exchange on bovine tuberculosis (bTB). GRAbTB currently has 15 partners from Asia, Australasia, the Americas and Europe, and is looking to expand their network. The Strategic Goals of GRAbTB are to: Identify research opportunities and facilitate collaborations within the Alliance; Conduct strategic and multi-disciplinary research to better understand bovine TB; Develop new and improved tools to control bovine TB; Serve as a communication and technology sharing gateway for the global bovine TB research community and stakeholders; and Promote collaboration with the human TB research community.

For more information on GRAbTB see: GRAbTB

The current state of bovine TB research is covered in the Annual state-of-the art report on animal health research on IRC priorities.