zTB in cat genotyped to vaccinated badgers.

 

We knew from previous papers  that vaccinating badgers with BCG at 10x the human required strength, was a daft idea, having covered it many times in the past. But today's news from the respected  Wiley Library  sheds a whole new light on the indiscriminate jabbing of wild badgers, of uncertain health status, by well meaning but stupid people.

The Abstract from the paper is below, in full.

"A 7‐year‐old male neutered domestic shorthair outdoor cat was referred for chronic left forelimb lameness, which had been treated with intra‐articular injections of triamcinolone acetonide. A soft tissue swelling around the elbow joint, extending from the distal humerus to the proximal ulna, was surgically explored and biopsy samples obtained. Mycobacterium bovis was cultured from samples from the soft tissue and bone. 

The mycobacteria from the media were killed and the DNA extracted and tested on a multiplex real‐time PCR for the absence of specific genes and the presence of mycobacterial genus markers. The PCR revealed bacillus Calmette‐Guérin Danish Strain 1331; this was also isolated from the prescapular lymph node, muscle and bone, obtained at post mortem examination. 

Badgers had been vaccinated with the bacillus Calmette‐Guérin vaccine SSI (Statens Serum Institute) in the area where the cat lived, in the spring and autumn of the previous year. 

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first report of infection with M. bovis bacillus Calmette‐Guérin Danish Strain 1331 in a domestic cat, potentially associated with annual vaccination of badgers in the proximity of the cat's home."

Many of the current fluffy ideas for agriculture, originate in the heart of the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation, a group inhabited by the Prime minister's latest bed mate,  Carrie Symons, his father Stanley Johnson, the Goldsmith brothers, Zac and Ben, one of which was shoehorned into Defra, to join Minister Theresa Villiers. 

Please look at wish number 22. 

And then recall the latest consultation from Defra which proposes vaccinating cattle to avoid culling any infectious badgers at all. But the poor cat whose  nine lives were halved by an environmental contact with the infectious excretions from a vaccinated badger throws a whole new light on the subject.  And also seeds into our environment not only the known spoligotypes of m.bovis  hosted by badgers but the Danish strain 1331 found in badger BCG.

As we said in the previous posting, there is no vaccine for stupidity.