Possums (Trichosurus vulpecula) sharing dens: a potential infection route for bovine tuberculosis

Authors: Brockie RE, Ward GD, Fairweather AAC
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 35, Issue 1-2, pp 15-16, Jan 1987
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Cattle, Livestock, Possum, Production animal, Ruminant, Wildlife
Subject Terms: Bacterial, Behaviour, Disease transmission, Epidemiology, Mycobacterial, Disease/defect, Zoonosis, Infectious disease, Public health
Article class: Correspondence

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Abstract: Brushtail possums transmit bovine tuberculosis (Mycobacterium bovis) to cattle in New Zealand. In the laboratory the infection can spread from possum to possum by droplet infection but little is known about infection routes in the wild. It is widely supposed that shared dens provide sites for transmitting tuberculosis among possums, but there is little hard information on den-sharing in the scientific literature. Winter inspected possum dens in Queensland eucalypt forest on 783 occasions and found adult animals shared these sites on 23 occasions. At the most, two adult animals shared these dens. Jolly noted a pair of males in a single shelter on Banks Peninsula. Pracy reported that “instances of more than three opposums occupying the one nest have been observed frequently where populations are at high or peak levels”…

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