Data from: Ranging behaviour of badgers Meles meles vaccinated with Bacillus Calmette Guerin

Because biological systems are complex, management interventions occasionally have unintended adverse consequences. For example, attempts to control bovine tuberculosis (TB) by culling badgers Meles meles have, under some circumstances, inadvertently increased cattle TB risks. Such harmful effects occur because culling profoundly alters badger movement behaviour, increasing pathogen transmission both between badgers and from badgers to cattle. It has recently been suggested that another TB management tool, badger vaccination with Bacillus Calmette Guerin, might provoke similar behavioural changes and hence similar harmful effects for cattle. We therefore took advantage of an existing project, which monitored 54 GPS-collared badgers across four study sites in southwest Britain, to explore whether vaccination, or live trapping to administer vaccine, influenced badger movement behaviour. We detected no significant effects of either vaccination or trapping on badgers’ monthly home range size, nightly distance travelled, or frequency of trespassing in neighbouring territories. The estimated effect of vaccination on badger home range size [2% reduction, 95% confidence interval (CI) 18% reduction – 17% increase] was statistically non-significant, but significantly smaller than that associated with both widespread (180% increase, 95% CI 70–362% increase; P < 0·001) and localised badger culling (74% increase, 95% CI 4–191% increase; P = 0·038). Synthesis and applications. In contrast with culling, live trapping and vaccinating badgers did not measurably alter their movement behaviour, fuelling optimism that vaccination might contribute positively to cattle tuberculosis control. Our study illustrates how existing monitoring can be exploited to assess potentially adverse effects of wildlife management.由于生物系统极为复杂，野生动物管理干预措施有时会产生意料之外的不良后果。例如，为控制牛结核病（bovine tuberculosis, TB）而捕杀狗獾（Meles meles）的举措，在部分情境下反而意外升高了牛群感染结核病的风险。此类有害效应的产生，是因为捕杀行为会显著改变狗獾的活动行为，进而加剧病原体在狗獾之间，以及狗獾向牛群的传播概率。 近期有研究提出，另一种结核病管理手段——使用卡介苗（Bacillus Calmette Guerin）对狗獾进行免疫接种，也可能引发类似的行为改变，进而对牛群造成同等的不良影响。为此，本研究依托一项已有的监测项目展开分析：该项目在英国西南部的4处研究区域内，对54只佩戴GPS项圈的狗獾进行了追踪，旨在探究免疫接种，或是为接种疫苗而进行活体诱捕，是否会对狗獾的活动行为产生影响。 研究结果显示，无论是免疫接种还是活体诱捕，均未对狗獾的月度家域面积、夜间移动距离，或是越界进入邻域的频次产生显著影响。免疫接种对狗獾家域面积的预估效应为[减少2%，95%置信区间（CI）为减少18%至增加17%]，该效应在统计学上并不显著，且显著低于大范围捕杀（家域面积增加180%，95% CI为70%–362%；P < 0·001）与局部捕杀（家域面积增加74%，95% CI为4%–191%；P = 0·038）所对应的效应值。 综合与应用：与捕杀手段不同，对狗獾进行活体诱捕与免疫接种，并未显著改变其活动行为，这为免疫接种有望为牛结核病防控带来积极效果的观点提供了支撑。本研究也展示了如何利用已有的监测数据，评估野生动物管理措施可能存在的不良影响。