Roadmap for the development of diagnostic test for bTB

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

The detection of animals that have latent infection.
To develop biosignatures (combination of biomarkers) that could inform on the latent/carrier status of an animal and evaluate the risk of Mb shedding and transmission .
Development of tools to identify animals at risk to transmit for targeted elimination to end massive herd culling

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

• Persistence implies existence of long-term, largely undetected infection; may be risk if productive infection.
• Current tests lack sensitivity to index exposure and infection.
• Is latency an epidemiologically important feature of bTB? How would latency manifest?
• Does M. bovis persist in the environment?
• To understand the different clinical states of TB in cattle akin to what is now establish for human TB
• To develop easy and affordable tools to identify biosignatures
• To identify a biosignature in circulating blood (the easiest and less invasive procedures for sampling large numbers of animals)

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

We need to embrace the One Health approach and work together with human TB specialists

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

Longitudinal in vitro, in vivo, or animal studies.
Animal-level molecular or genome epidemiology may find signals of persistence i.e., long-term infection in repeatedly negative cases, such as lesioned at routine slaughter.
To establish robust pipelines with all stakeholders-including bTB surveillance programs- to ensure rigorous and longitudinal follow up of animals in the field

Existing knowledge including successes and failures