Eurasian badgers (Meles meles) are a reservoir host of Mycobacterium bovis and are implicated in the transmission of tuberculosis to cattle in Ireland and Great Britain. The development of a vaccine for use in badgers is considered a key element of any long-term sustainable campaign to eradicate the disease from livestock in both countries. The aim of this study was to investigate the protective response of badgers vaccinated orally with Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) encapsulated in a lipid formulation, followed by experimental challenge with M. bovis. A group of badgers was vaccinated by inoculating the BCG-lipid mixture containing approximately 10(8)colony forming units (cfu) of BCG into the oesophagus. The control group was sham inoculated with the lipid formulation only. Thirteen weeks after vaccination all the badgers were challenged with approximately 10(4)cfu of M. bovis delivered by endobronchial inoculation. Blood samples were taken throughout the study and the cell mediated immune (CMI) responses in peripheral blood were monitored by the IFN-gamma ELISA and ELISPOT assay. At 17 weeks after infection all the badgers were examined post-mortem to assess the pathological and bacteriological responses to challenge. All badgers in both groups were found to be infected. However, a significant protective effect of BCG vaccination was measured as a decrease in the number and severity of gross lesions, lower bacterial load in the lungs, and fewer sites of infection. The analysis of immune responses showed that vaccination with BCG did not generate any detectable CMI immunological responses, however the levels of the responses increased in both groups following M. bovis infection. The results of the study showed that vaccination with oral BCG in the lipid formulation generated a protective effect in the badgers.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 4. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 25 January 2018.
All research outputs
#9,572,057
of 28,836,933 outputs
Outputs from Vaccine
#9,328
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Outputs of similar age
#43,944
of 118,205 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Vaccine
#59
of 149 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 28,836,933 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 66th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 17,580 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 18.8. This one is in the 45th percentile – i.e., 45% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 118,205 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 62% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 149 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 59% of its contemporaries.
