Not only does the new test enable the TB bacteria to be identified more quickly, it allows doctors to add various drugs to the liquid media in which the sample is grown to determine which would be of benefit in tackling the infection.
With political momentum gathering to address non-communicable diseases, public and private actors should be also be looking to integrate TB control with programs targeting diabetes, for example.
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They say some of the badgers were known to be infected with TB and that both farms suffered bovive TB outbreaks during the course of the study.
Government legislation requires all cattle, including those not housed on farms, to be tested for bovine TB.
"We're not against culling badgers if it's going to be effective in curbing bovine TB, but you can't apply the criteria everywhere that would make it effective, " Mr Bullock told BBC News.
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Cattle can be vaccinated and their products consumed locally using a test that can tell between TB infection and vaccination, although the products cannot be exported to either the EU or the US, according to officials.
However, it is less effective at preventing TB in the lungs, which is where adults and teenagers tends to be infected.
The other challenge is in the tantalising thought that the same success may well be repeatable - to help control major killers like TB, pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria.
By tweaking the design of a cull - expanding the central killing zone, and choosing sites carefully to take advantage of hard boundaries like rivers and motorways - Defra's chief veterinary officer Nigel Gibbens argues it should be possible to maximise the positive impact on bovine TB infection rates in cattle.
More healthcare professionals must be trained in high-burden countries to deliver quality TB care.
FORBES: To Stop Tuberculosis In Its Tracks, Urgent Global Action Is Needed
The pilot schemes, which aim to assess the effectiveness of the government's plan to slow down the spread of TB in cattle in England, will be monitored by an independent group for a period of six weeks.
Overall, 6.6% of 4, 400 newly diagnosed TB patients in the study, conducted at 18 clinics nationwide, were found to be drug resistant, an officer of the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, a nonprofit conducting the study for the Indian government, said at a private presentation last week.
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As far as badger vaccination goes I am willing and in fact encouraging its use as an adjunct to the control of disease, but ultimately culling should be done as well to expedite the overall success of control of TB.
Dr John Watson, head of the respiratory division at the PHLS and one of the report's authors, told BBC News Online the findings "could be an argument in favour of offering testing to all patients with TB under the age of 55".
TB, and might reduce the length of treatment by two to three months, which would be a useful gain.
The technology, however, could be applied to other vaccines, such as those against influenza virus, or vaccines under development for TB and malaria or for existing vaccines administered in childhood.
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