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Revision as of 17:43, 12 September 2015
Delving into the problem of Bovine TB in the UK is not something that we as a team took lightly. Bovine TB is a challenging disease that is hard to treat, easily transmitted and currently illegal to vaccinate against. Put these three factors together with the highly complex social, political and economical situation the UK faces with eradicating TB, it is clear that Bovine TB is a National problem that needs a solution.
Extremely early into our project we began to appreciate this. Therefore we agreed that during our project we wanted to make people more aware of the challenges farmers, vets and local communities face when dealing with Bovine TB.
Establishing relationships with various experts early on was extremely important. Not only have these relationships shaped certain areas of our project but also gave us an unprecedented look into the issue of Bovine TB in the UK. In the beginning these experts allowed us to understand everything to do with Bovine TB in the field and as our project has developed we have been able to integrate their experiences, suggestions and feedback into the science we are doing in the lab.
Our Beyond the Bench became as much of a lesson for us as a team as it did have an impact on our Ribonostics project. Vets, farmers, politicians, the NFU and DEFRA are just to name a few of the people/organisations highly involved with our project.
What challenges does the UK face to eradicate Bovine TB?
This is the question that we as a team decided to ask. Not only does this question have many aspects, we believe it is the question that is best able to have a direct impact on the work we are doing. The timeline below shows a breakdown of how we decided to tackle this highly important question and how what we learnt helped shape our Ribonostic work...
Richard Sibley
Right at the start of our project we wanted to understand everything to do with current TB testing. Understanding the Tuberculin skin test, how the test is implemented in the field and some of the current issues with testing are all things we needed to appreciate. To do this we met with Richard (Dick) Sibley, director of a veterinary practice in Devon. Dick has worked directly with Bovine TB, attending multiple Mycobacterium conferences and also focusing the work of his practice towards tackling Bovine TB.
Click below to read how Dick and his practice influenced our team right from day one.
Read more Phase 1: Understand everything to do with current TB testing.Richard Sibley
Principal Vet and Director of West Ridge Veterinary Practice Ltd
We decided to visit a veterinary practice where we met with the director, Richard (Dick) Sibley, a highly respected vet with over 30 years experience across a wide range of veterinary practice. Dick and his practice have worked extensively with bTB, ranging from testing cattle through to offering bTB free programmes to farmers. After we outlined the concept of our Riboswitch, he explained more about the current bTB detection system, recent research into the disease and the work his practice does to tackle bTB. Below are the main points that Dick made us aware of at the start of our project.
Persistency and Contagiousness
Dick introduced some important concepts to us as a team. Firstly was the R0 value of Bovine TB (bTB) in cows. R0 is the disease reproduction number and is a mathematical way of explaining how contagious an infectious disease is. Although it can be hard to determine exactly, current research estimates the R0 value for TB in cows ranges from 1.0 - 4.9. This means one infectious cow has the ability to infect up to 4 other animals meaning the transmission rate can be extremely high. Combine this with the close conditions farm animals are kept in, bTB spread throughout a herd is fast. Under the current bTB testing law, if a farm experiences a breakdown it has a 60 day period until a second test is conducted. Any false negative individuals that have been left in a herd from the first test won’t get a chance to be detected for 60 days - more than enough time for those individuals to transmit the disease.
Persistency and Contagiousness
Mycobacterium bovis (M.bovis) is a very challenging pathogen. Not only is it incredibly difficult to treat, it has the ability to persist in the environment for months. Dust, etc etc are just some of the things that the bacterium is able to survive on. Clearly this creates a very challenging situation for both farmers and vets trying to eradicate bTB. If a farm is finally declared bTB free status, any area of the farm that may have been exposed to an infected animal (silage, buildings, equipment) may be able to transmit the infection back into the herd. Dick explained how some farmers face a situation where they have to isolate their entire farm, keep the cattle indoors and follow a strict regime to minimise the risk of bTB exposure. Also, Dick made us aware of some current research into the ability of M.bovis to persist in the environment.
Herd Size Increase and Sensitivity Issues
Advances in technology has led to a huge increase in the size of farms in the UK. Not only has the number of cattle increased as a whole, the size of individual herds has also greatly increased. In 1996 the average size of a UK dairy herd was 75 cows. In 2014 this had increased to 133 cows. Increase in herd size has highlighted how the current Tuberculin skin test is simply not sensitive enough to allow for a strategy to eradicate bTB in the UK, as shown by the larger dairy farm herds, where recurrent bTB breakdowns are common. Dick highlighted how the current Tuberculin skin test can leave behind cows that are infectious and that in current farming conditions leaving behind even a single infectious animal can lead to bTB breakdown. Large high risk herds are particularly challenging to achieve bTB free status. Dick made it clear that our test would be most useful not as a stand alone, but as a tool that could be used in conjunction with the current test to achieve greater specificity in these high risk large herds.
Points to Consider
Our multiple meetings with Richard (Dick) Sibley helped us as a team understand exactly what situation the UK currently faces with eradicating bTB. Dick made it clear to us the situation of bTB in Devon and Cornwall. With 1.8 million animals tested in Devon and Cornwall in 2014 and 800 farms under bTB restriction, the problem our test is trying to solve is very relevant to our local area. As well as highlighting some of the fundamental problems with the current Tuberculin skin test, Dick helped us gain an understanding of how our test might best be applied in the field. CLICK TO SEE HOW THIS WAS INTEGRATED
Saved and Safe
A wide range of parties are involved with tackling TB in the UK. Important to our project was to really engage with those at the forefront of TB eradication. Central to this is a company called Saved and Safe and their director Michael Ross. Michael lives in New Zealand and was highly involved with the strategy that saw a decrease in TB incidence rate across New Zealand of 94% in just 10 years. Following this success Michael has approached the UK with a strategy that brings together all affected parties. With their 31 UK and international partners, Saved & Safe are taking a new and innovative approach in the fight against TB, something our test could offer great potential to.
Read more Phase 2: Look at what projects are at the forefront of tackling TB.Tab 1 Content
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Phil Leighton
Our test will be cell free meaning all testing can be done 'in the field'. There were a number of important things to consider when designing exactly how our test would work. This is where Phil Leighton came into our project. A highly experienced vet, we accompanied Phil to a TB test on a Cornish farm and also spoke extensively about our project. Blood testing in cattle, the size of needles/tubes to collect samples and also blood clotting were all things Phil highlighted to us.
Click to read exactly how what Phil told us was integrated into our wet lab.
Read more Phase 3: Look at the real life design of our test.Tab 1 Content
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The Public
Bovine TB in the UK is a highly contentious issue with many different sides to the argument of how it is spread, what the current problems are and also what is the best way to eradicate it from our farming industry. As opposed to debating this issue, we as a team took to the streets with some simple facts, aiming to make people more aware of exactly how damaging Bovine TB is to the UK. When we started we believed that not enough people were aware of some of these key facts. The best way for us to demonstrate this as a team was to engage with the general public armed with clipboards and a simple survey. Our results were interesting to say the least...
Read more Phase 4: Understand the public perception of bTB in the UK.Tab 1 Content
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George Eustice
The Department for Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is committed to eradicating Bovine TB from the UK by 2038. As our project developed it was important that we had a clear understanding of the current work DEFRA is doing to eradicate bTB. To do this we met with George Eustice, the Minister of State at DEFRA and also the Conservative MP for Redruth and Camborne. We discussed in detail with George the most recent advancements DEFRA have made with bTB testing as well as explaining how we believe our test may have an impact. Furthermore we wanted to gauge how imminent policy changes may be for the UK.
Read more Phase 5: Look at DEFRA's Bovine TB strategy.Tab 1 Content
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Others
ETC
Phase 6Tab 1 Content
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