isolated after subculturing on glycerine potato medium 239 times during 13 years starting from an initial virulent strain . Epidemiology and control Testing Skin testing is possible in cattle. Casal et al. 2012 tried both recombinant protein and overlapping peptide provocation, finding the peptide test to be less sensitive. New Zealand In New Zealand, the introduced common brushtail possum is a vector for the spread of M. bovis. The Biosecurity Act 1993, which established a national pest-management strategy, is the legislation behind control of the disease in New Zealand. The Animal Health Board operates a nationwide programme of cattle testing and possum control, with the goal of eradicating M. bovis from wild vector species across 2.5 million hectares – or one-quarter – of New Zealand's at-risk areas, by 2026, and eventually eradicating the disease entirely. The TB-free New Zealand programme is regarded as "world-leading". It has successfully reduced cattle- and deer-herd infection rates from more than 1700 in 1994 to fewer than 100 herds in July 2011. Much of this success can be attributed to sustained cattle controls reducing cross-infection and breaking the disease cycle. For example, at Hohotaka, in New Zealand's central North Island, control work from 1988 to 1994 achieved a sustained mean reduction of 87.5% in the density of TB‐infected possums. As expected, annual TB incidence in local cattle herds consequently declined by a similar amount (83.4%). Possums are controlled through a combination of trapping, ground-baiting, and where other methods are impractical, aerial treatment with 1080 poison. From 1979 to 1984, possum control was stopped due to lack of funding. From that point until 1994, TB rates in herds steadily increased. The area of New Zealand harbouring TB-infected wild animals expanded from about 10% of the country to 40%. The fact that possums are such effective transmitters of TB appears to be facilitated by their behaviour once they get the disease. United Kingdom In the 1930s, 40% of cattle in the UK were infected with M. bovis and 50,000 new cases of human M. bovis infection were reported every year. According to DEFRA and the Health Protection Agency, the risk to people contracting TB from cattle in Great Britain would be low. Badgers (Meles meles) were first identified as carriers of M. bovis in 1971, but the report of an independent review committee in 1997 (the Krebs Report) concluded: "strong circumstantial evidence [exists] to suggest that badgers