TB vaccine may enable elimination of the disease in cattle by reducing its spread Vaccination not only reduces the severity of TB in infected cattle, but reduces its spread in dairy herds by 89%, research findsThe research, led by the University of Cambridge and Penn State University, improves prospects for the elimination and control of bovine tuberculosis (TB), an infectious disease of cattle that results in large economic costs and health impacts across the world. -Andrew ConlanThis is the first study to show that BCG-vaccinated cattle infected with TB are substantially less infectious to other cattle. “Our study found that BCG vaccination reduces TB transmission in cattle by almost 90%. Wood said: “For over twenty-years the UK government has pinned hopes on cattle vaccination for bovine tuberculosis as a solution to reduce the disease and the consequent costs of the controls. These results provide important support for the epidemiological benefit that cattle vaccination could have to reduce rates of transmission to and within herds.”