The safety of overdose and repeat administrations of BCG Danish strain 1331 vaccine in calves and pregnant heifers.

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB), caused by infection, is a zoonotic disease in cattle that represents a significant ongoing challenge to cattle farming productivity and the livelihoods of livestock farmers in the UK. Vaccination of cattle with BCG could directly target the ability of to proliferate within vaccinates, restricting bTB pathogenesis and onward disease transmission, and represent a step change in the tools available to help control bTB in farmed cattle. A Marketing Authorisation (MA) is required before a cattle BCG vaccine could be sold and supplied as a veterinary medicine within the UK and this requires comprehensive data supporting vaccine quality, efficacy and, most importantly, its safety.

The safety of BCG vaccination in cattle: results from good laboratory practice safety studies in calves and lactating cows.

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is a global disease of livestock that has damaging economic, animal health and public health consequences. Conventional bTB disease control strategies, based around the testing and slaughter of cattle infected with bTB, are typically used to help limit or reduce the transmission of this disease but in many low- and middle-income countries such strategies may often be economically unviable, culturally unacceptable or logistically impracticable. The use of vaccination to protect cattle against bTB could provide a potentially more affordable, ethically acceptable and practical additional disease control measure.

Assessment of the frequency of Mycobacterium bovis shedding in the faeces of naturally and experimentally TB infected cattle.

Aims: To assess the prevalence of Mycobacterium bovis bacilli in faecal samples of tuberculous cattle, and to better understand the risk of environmental dissemination of bovine tuberculosis (TB) through the spreading of manure or slurry.

Methods And Results: Faecal samples were collected from 72 naturally infected cattle with visible lesions of TB that had reacted to the tuberculin skin test and 12 cattle experimentally infected with M. bovis.

Optimisation of BCG Fermentation and Storage Survival.

Bacillus Calmette-Guérin ( BCG) was generated over a century ago for protection against (Mtb) and is one the oldest vaccines still in use. The BCG vaccine is currently produced using a pellicle growth method, which is a complex and lengthy process that has been challenging to standardise. Fermentation for BCG vaccine production would reduce the complexity associated with pellicle growth and increase batch to batch reproducibility.

Bioreactor-Grown Bacillus of Calmette and Guérin (BCG) Vaccine Protects Badgers against Virulent When Administered Orally: Identifying Limitations in Baited Vaccine Delivery.

Bovine tuberculosis (TB) in Great Britain adversely affects animal health and welfare and is a cause of considerable economic loss. The situation is exacerbated by European badgers () acting as a wildlife source of recurrent infection to cattle. Vaccination of badgers against TB is a possible means to reduce and control bovine TB.

Survival of Mycobacterium bovis BCG oral vaccine during transit through a dynamic in vitro model simulating the upper gastrointestinal tract of badgers.

In developing an oral bait BCG vaccine against tuberculosis in badgers we wanted to understand the conditions of the gastrointestinal tract and their impact on vaccine viability. Conditions mimicking stomach and small-intestine caused substantial reduction in BCG viability. We performed in vivo experiments using a telemetric pH monitoring system and used the data to parameterise a dynamic in vitro system (TIM-1) of the stomach and small intestine.

Assessment of the safety of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine administered orally to badgers (Meles meles).

European badgers (Meles meles) are a wildlife reservoir for Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) in parts of England, Wales and Ireland, constituting a potential source of tuberculosis (TB) infection for cattle. Vaccination of badgers against TB is one of the tools available for helping reduce the prevalence of bovine TB in badgers, made possible by the licensing in 2010 of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine for intramuscular administration to badgers (BadgerBCG).

Field evaluation of candidate baits for oral delivery of BCG vaccine to European badgers, Meles meles.

The control of tuberculosis (TB) in cattle in the UK and Ireland is compromised by transmission of Mycobacterium bovis to cattle from the European badger (Meles meles), which acts as a wildlife reservoir. Vaccination of badgers could potentially contribute to TB control but the only licensed vaccine is injectable BadgerBCG which requires the live-capture of badgers. Current research is aimed at developing an oral TB vaccine (where vaccine is contained within bait) that is intended to be more cost-effective to deploy over large areas.

The Effect of Oral Vaccination with BCG on the Development of Tuberculosis in Captive European Badgers ().

The European badger () is a reservoir host of and responsible for a proportion of the tuberculosis (TB) cases seen in cattle in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. An injectable preparation of the (BCG) vaccine is licensed for use in badgers in the UK and its use forms part of the bovine TB eradication plans of England and Wales. However, there are practical limitations to the widespread application of an injectable vaccine for badgers and a research priority is the development of an oral vaccine deliverable to badgers in bait.

Testing of a palatable bait and compatible vaccine carrier for the oral vaccination of European badgers (Meles meles) against tuberculosis.

The oral vaccination of wild badgers (Meles meles) with live Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is one of the tools being considered for the control of bovine tuberculosis (caused by Mycobacterium bovis) in the UK. The design of a product for oral vaccination requires that numerous, and often competing, conditions are met. These include the need for a highly palatable, but physically stable bait that will meet regulatory requirements, and one which is also compatible with the vaccine formulation; in this case live BCG.

The determination of the structure of Saturn's F ring by nearby moonlets.

Saturn's narrow F ring exhibits several unusual features that vary on timescales of hours to years. These include transient clumps, a central core surrounded by a multistranded structure and a regular series of longitudinal channels associated with Prometheus, one of the ring's two 'shepherding' satellites. Several smaller moonlets and clumps have been detected in the ring's immediate vicinity, and a population of embedded objects has been inferred.