{"id":117,"date":"2026-05-05T10:37:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T10:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/?page_id=117"},"modified":"2026-05-14T14:15:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:15:20","slug":"home","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/","title":{"rendered":"Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"341\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/739\/2026\/05\/ChatGPT-Image-May-5-2026-10_22_30-AM-2-1024x341.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-137\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/739\/2026\/05\/ChatGPT-Image-May-5-2026-10_22_30-AM-2-1024x341.png 1024w, https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/739\/2026\/05\/ChatGPT-Image-May-5-2026-10_22_30-AM-2-300x100.png 300w, https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/739\/2026\/05\/ChatGPT-Image-May-5-2026-10_22_30-AM-2-768x256.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/739\/2026\/05\/ChatGPT-Image-May-5-2026-10_22_30-AM-2-1536x512.png 1536w, https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/739\/2026\/05\/ChatGPT-Image-May-5-2026-10_22_30-AM-2-2048x683.png 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Understanding wildlife disease through long-term evidence, evolutionary ecology and data science<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We are investigating scientifically how wildlife diseases persist, spread and fluctuate through time. Using long-term monitoring of bovine tuberculosis in a wild badger population, this project brings together ecology, genomics, demography, epidemiology, ageing research, social network analysis and statistical modelling to improve understanding of complex disease dynamics in wild populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bovine tuberculosis is a complex issue with consequences for farming, wildlife, conservation, policy and rural communities. This project is not a campaigning platform. Our role is to improve the evidence base by studying the biological, ecological and epidemiological processes that shape disease persistence and transmission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Diseases are often described as \u201cendemic\u201d when they persist in a population. But persistence does not necessarily mean that a disease is stable, simple or fully understood. Infection may be maintained by changing combinations of birth, death, movement, social structure, genetic variation, ageing, pathogen strains and wider landscape processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through long-term monitoring, diagnostic testing, genomic sequencing and statistical modelling the project aims to better understand the hidden processes that shape wildlife disease. We will share updates, explainers, resources and outputs through this website as the project develops.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Understanding wildlife disease through long-term evidence, evolutionary ecology and data science We are investigating scientifically how wildlife diseases persist, spread and fluctuate through time. Using long-term monitoring of bovine tuberculosis in a wild badger population, this project brings together ecology, genomics, demography, epidemiology, ageing research, social network analysis and statistical modelling to improve understanding of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3051,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Home - Badger Ageing, Demographic, Genomic and Epidemiological Research<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Home - Badger Ageing, Demographic, Genomic and Epidemiological Research\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Understanding wildlife disease through long-term evidence, evolutionary ecology and data science We are investigating scientifically how wildlife diseases persist, spread and fluctuate through time. Using long-term monitoring of bovine tuberculosis in a wild badger population, this project brings together ecology, genomics, demography, epidemiology, ageing research, social network analysis and statistical modelling to improve understanding of [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Badger Ageing, Demographic, Genomic and Epidemiological Research\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-14T14:15:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/739\/2026\/05\/ChatGPT-Image-May-5-2026-10_22_30-AM-2-1024x341.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/\",\"name\":\"Home - Badger Ageing, Demographic, Genomic and Epidemiological Research\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/739\/2026\/05\/ChatGPT-Image-May-5-2026-10_22_30-AM-2-1024x341.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-05T10:37:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-14T14:15:20+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/739\/2026\/05\/ChatGPT-Image-May-5-2026-10_22_30-AM-2.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/739\/2026\/05\/ChatGPT-Image-May-5-2026-10_22_30-AM-2.png\",\"width\":2172,\"height\":724},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Home\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/\",\"name\":\"Badger Ageing, Demographic, Genomic and Epidemiological Research\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Badger Ageing, Demographic, Genomic and Epidemiological Research\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/739\/2026\/05\/BADGER_logo_WhiteB.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/739\/2026\/05\/BADGER_logo_WhiteB.png\",\"width\":1064,\"height\":1046,\"caption\":\"Badger Ageing, Demographic, Genomic and Epidemiological Research\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Home - Badger Ageing, Demographic, Genomic and Epidemiological Research","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Home - Badger Ageing, Demographic, Genomic and Epidemiological Research","og_description":"Understanding wildlife disease through long-term evidence, evolutionary ecology and data science We are investigating scientifically how wildlife diseases persist, spread and fluctuate through time. Using long-term monitoring of bovine tuberculosis in a wild badger population, this project brings together ecology, genomics, demography, epidemiology, ageing research, social network analysis and statistical modelling to improve understanding of [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/","og_site_name":"Badger Ageing, Demographic, Genomic and Epidemiological Research","article_modified_time":"2026-05-14T14:15:20+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/739\/2026\/05\/ChatGPT-Image-May-5-2026-10_22_30-AM-2-1024x341.png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/","name":"Home - Badger Ageing, Demographic, Genomic and Epidemiological Research","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/739\/2026\/05\/ChatGPT-Image-May-5-2026-10_22_30-AM-2-1024x341.png","datePublished":"2026-05-05T10:37:32+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-14T14:15:20+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/739\/2026\/05\/ChatGPT-Image-May-5-2026-10_22_30-AM-2.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/739\/2026\/05\/ChatGPT-Image-May-5-2026-10_22_30-AM-2.png","width":2172,"height":724},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Home"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/","name":"Badger Ageing, Demographic, Genomic and Epidemiological Research","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/#organization","name":"Badger Ageing, Demographic, Genomic and Epidemiological Research","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/739\/2026\/05\/BADGER_logo_WhiteB.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/739\/2026\/05\/BADGER_logo_WhiteB.png","width":1064,"height":1046,"caption":"Badger Ageing, Demographic, Genomic and Epidemiological Research"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/117"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3051"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/117\/revisions\/243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/badger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}