TB breakthrough brings vaccine closer

TB is at epidemic proportions in developing countries

Scientists have made a breakthrough in the battle to find a vaccine for the human and animal killer tuberculosis.

Vetinerary experts have discovered the genetic make-up of the bacteria which causes tuberculosis in cattle - revealed to be 99.9% identical to the kind found in humans.

The find will lead to better testing for TB at an earlier stage in cattle and means things are "on track" for the creation of a vaccine to treat both animals and humans.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme Dr Glyn Hewinson, project leader, said: "We are hoping that this will give us the building blocks to develop improved diagnostic tests and vaccines.

Incidents rising

"The options are open once you have made a vaccine."

Tuberculosis caused the death of 8,000 cattle as a result of testing for the disease in the year 2,000.

Incidents of TB have been rising in Britain since 1990 - farmers blame the rise on badgers.

The disease once claimed the lives of thousands of people in the UK, but now only affects a small number due to pasteurisation of milk.

But the cost to the global economy of the disease in cattle is enormous - reaching £2.1bn a year.

It paves the way for the development of a vaccine which is our ultimate objective

Elliot Morley

The scientists, an Anglo-French collaboration, sequenced the entire genome, or genetic breakdown, of the TB organism to give them a much better understanding of the disease.

Their discovery quashed the belief that humans originally caught the disease from animals and means it was more likely to be the other way round.

Dr Hewinson said it would mean tests to detect the disease much earlier in cattle were only about three years away.

Epidemic proportions

And the chance of producing a cure-all vaccine could be just 10 years away, he told the Today programme.

There are three vaccines for human tuberculosis which are about to move to clinical trials.

Schoolchildren are still routinely given the BCG vaccine, first introduced in the 1950s, which has been successful in reducing the number of TB cases in the UK.

But in developing countries TB is still a major problem in adults, where the disease has epidemic proportions.

Animal Health Minister Elliot Morley welcomed the breakthrough.

He said: "Bovine TB has been a top priority for the government and I am delighted that, in conjunction with others, such major development has been achieved.

"It paves the way for the development of a vaccine which is our ultimate objective."

The Anglo-French project was helped by funding from the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Wellcome Trust.