Volta
Landscape as a Shared Space for Badgers and Cattle: Insights Into Indirect Contact and Bovine Tuberculosis Transmission Risk
ABSTRACT Though the magnitude of effect is uncertain, badger–cattle indirect contact has been implicated in bovine tuberculosis (bTB) transmission risk to cattle despite a paucity of data on badger space use. This study tracked field use by 35 GPS‐collared bTB test‐negative badgers (n = 3738 locational fixes, average fixes/badger = 107) and cattle grazing regimes at 446 fields over one grazing season (May–November 2016) on 18 farms (n = 56,202 field‐days). Individual badger visits spanned on average 3 farms (max. 9 farms). Badgers entered fields when occupied by grazing cattle on 20% of field‐days (nights). Most individual badgers (n = 25; 71%) were recorded in the same field as cattle on multiple occasions (up to 124 field‐days each). There was …