| Summary: | This project aimed to investigate the contemporaneous and compatric incidents of bTB in cattle and badgers in Northern and Southern Edge counties in England and the LRA county of Hertfordshire between 2016 and 2022.
This project used a k-mer genomic comparison technique to analyse a total of 59 badgers and 353 cattle. Amongst the badgers, the most prevalent clade was B6-62 (across both the Northern and Southern Edge studies), followed by B3-11 (all in the Northern Edge badger study). Amongst cattle, clade distribution followed a similar pattern as in badgers, with B3-11 more prevalent in cattle from the Northern Edge counties and B6-62 more prevalent in cattle from the Southern Edge counties.
Most counties had at least one badger in each county did have a strong level of genetic identity with compatric cattle. The exceptions were Derbyshire, East Sussex, and Northamptonshire, where little to no genetic similarity was observed between compatric and contemporaneous cattle, even despite sharing the same clades.
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