Following treatment allocation, initial culls were conducted on all land in the proactive areas for which consent was given between 1998 and 2002.
Culling in proactive areas did not start simultaneously in all triplets, with initial proactive culls ranging from December 1998 for triplet B to December 2002 for triplet D. The final proactive cull was completed in late 2005.
Across the combined during- and post-trial period, the incidence of confirmed breakdowns was 28.7% lower (95% CI: 20.8% to 35.8% lower) in proactive areas than in no-culling areas.
Inside proactive areas, the number of M. bovis positive badgers initially culled within 1500 m of a farm was the strongest predictor of the risk of a confirmed bTB breakdown.
While it is impossible to determine whether the system has now returned to equilibrium, in other studies badger numbers have taken five [26] to ten [25], [27] years to recover from culls, suggesting that growth of the badger populations in RBCT proactive areas may continue for several more years.
To show the feasibility of the ubiES framework proposed in this paper, a prototype system, context-aware multi-agent system-my optimization (CAMA-myOpt), has been implemented in PDA-based proactive services area such as context-aware comparative shopping.
For the 30-month period when effects were detectable inside trial areas, the incidence of confirmed breakdowns on lands ≤2 km outside proactive culling areas was comparable (6.0% lower, 95% CI: 29.7% lower to 25.7% higher, p = 0.68) with that ≤2 km outside no-culling areas.
Across the entire post-trial period, the incidence of confirmed breakdowns inside proactive culling areas was 37.6% lower (95% CI: 24.6% to 48.4% lower) than that inside no-culling areas (Table 1).
Across the entire post-trial period, the incidence of confirmed breakdowns on lands ≤2 km outside proactive culling areas was comparable (5.6% lower, 95% CI: 31.4% lower to 30.0% higher, p = 0.73) with that ≤2 km outside no-culling areas (Table 3).
