ReviewFrontiers in veterinary science2021
A Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin Vaccination Against Bovine Tuberculosis: Is Perfect the Enemy of Good?
Review in Frontiers in veterinary science, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 23 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 63 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prevalence of tuberculosis in bovines in Pakistan during 2000-2024: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2025Pooled it
- Development and application of the direct mycobacterial growth inhibition assay: a systematic review.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Pooled it
- Protective effect of heat-inactivated Mycobacterium bovis applied intramuscularly is associated with enhanced lung immune response in caprine tuberculosis.Veterinary research · 2025Article
- Recovery ofOpen forum infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Article
- The safety of overdose and repeat administrations of BCG Danish strain 1331 vaccine in calves and pregnant heifers.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Unveiling insights into bovine tuberculosis: A comprehensive review.Open veterinary journal · 2024Review
- The Establishment of a Novel γ-Interferon In Vitro Release Assay for the Differentiation ofVeterinary sciences · 2024Article
- Comparative analysis of tuberculin and defined antigen skin tests for detection of bovine tuberculosis in buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis) in Haryana state, India.BMC veterinary research · 2024Article
- The devil you know and the devil you don't: current status and challenges of bovine tuberculosis eradication in the United States.Irish veterinary journal · 2023Review
- Bovine tuberculosis in India: The need for One Health approach and the way forward.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2023Review
- Protective Efficacy of BCG Vaccination in Calves Vaccinated at Different Ages.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Specific and non-specific effects ofFrontiers in veterinary science · 2023Article
- The safety of BCG vaccination in cattle: results from good laboratory practice safety studies in calves and lactating cows.Heliyon · 2022Article
- Vaccination Strategies in a Potential Use of the Vaccine against Bovine Tuberculosis in Infected Herds.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Review
- Article
- Test performance data demonstrates utility of a cattle DIVA skin test reagent (DST-F) compatible with BCG vaccination.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Vaccination of Calves with theAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- HarnessingVaccines · 2022Review
- Defined Antigen Skin Test for Bovine Tuberculosis Retains Specificity on Revaccination With Bacillus Calmette-Guérin.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
14 authors at 9 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
More than 50 million cattle are likely exposed to bovine tuberculosis (bTB) worldwide, highlighting an urgent need for bTB control strategies in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and other regions where the disease remains endemic and test-and-slaughter approaches are unfeasible. While Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) was first developed as a vaccine for use in cattle even before its widespread use in humans, its efficacy against bTB remains poorly understood. To address this important knowledge gap, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the direct efficacy of BCG against bTB challenge in cattle, and performed scenario analyses with transmission dynamic models incorporating direct and indirect vaccinal effects ("herd-immunity") to assess potential impact on herd level disease control. The analysis shows a relative risk of infection of 0.75 (95% CI: 0.68, 0.82) in 1,902 vaccinates as compared with 1,667 controls, corresponding to a direct vaccine efficacy of 25% (95% CI: 18, 32). Importantly, scenario analyses considering both direct and indirect effects suggest that disease prevalence could be driven down close to Officially TB-Free (OTF) status (<0.1%), if BCG were introduced in the next 10-year time period in low to moderate (<15%) prevalence settings, and that 50-95% of cumulative cases may be averted over the next 50 years even in high (20-40%) disease burden settings with immediate implementation of BCG vaccination. Taken together, the analyses suggest that BCG vaccination may help accelerate control of bTB in endemic settings, particularly with early implementation in the face of dairy intensification in regions that currently lack effective bTB control programs.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.