Effects of sustained control of brushtail possums on levels of<i>Mycobacterium</i>bovis infection in cattle and brushtail possum populations from Hohotaka, New Zealand

Abstract

The results support the hypothesis that tuberculous possums transmit bovine tuberculosis to domestic cattle, and therefore that reducing the abundance of tuberculous possums reduces the incidence of Tb in cattle. If the level of possum culling is sufficient, it appears that M. bovis infection may be eradicated from possum populations. Better information on population density, rate of increase and annual culling rates would have been needed for a truly independent examination of the Barlow possum-Tb model.