Utilizing environmental DNA to monitor bovine tuberculosis in UK deer populations at the wildlife-livestock interface.

The proposed project is to utilize environmental DNA to monitor bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in UK deer populations at the wildlife-livestock interface. The key goals of the project are to define the limits of detection for Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) in both environmental and animal specimen samples, quantify the levels of M. bovis in the collected environmental and animal specimen samples, determine the biodiversity of the environmental samples and the geographic distribution of the species using DNA metabarcoding, and use a computational approach to explore how land-use changes among livestock farms may be leading to increased interactions between cattle and deer herds further leading to increased M. bovis transmissions. The proposed project will be conducted using a mixed methodology including field work, laboratory, and computational components. The proposed field work will be conducted in coordination with National Trust staff members at Exmoor National Park and Quantock Hills National Landscape. These sampling sites were selected due to their demonstrated high levels of bTB and combination of free- roaming wild deer and park-raised deer.