Roadmap for development of disease control strategies for bTB

What are we trying to achieve and why? What is the problem we are trying to solve?

• What are the fundamental pathways for host pathogen interaction and disease progression?
• Excretion levels – when do animals become infectious and do super-shedders exist

What are the scientific and technological challenges (knowledge gaps needing to be addressed)?

• How does the host handle pathogen exposure?
• Are there informative diagnostic biomarkers?
• What is the distribution of host responses?
• What are the stages of infection post-exposure?
• What is the natural history of infection?
• What are the correlates of protection (vaccines and diagnostics)?
• Is it possible to distinguish immune clearance from infection?

What approaches could/should be taken to address the research question?

• Monitor excretion levels in different infection situations.
• Consider experimental infection challenge models, in vitro macrophage, granuloma or organoid models or in vivo models.
• Consider investigating time course in experimental infection studies and read outs.
• Consider disease epidemiological modelling, including parameters estimated from experimental work.

What else needs to be done before we can solve this need?

Existing knowledge including successes and failures