BVA president warns of ‘very serious’ human health risk from bovine TB

Speaking at a BVA dinner in London, attended by Defra Secretary Hilary Benn, association president Nicky Paull said: “The continuing spread of bovine bTB within cattle and wildlife - particularly badgers but also other susceptible species such as deer - has not only an unacceptable impact on animal health and welfare but also the potential for being a very serious risk to public health.

“And we should not forget the health and welfare of our farming communities.”

Mrs Paull reiterated the BVA’s call for badgers to be culled to control the disease, stressing the ‘public benefit’ in the ‘elimination of zoonotic diseases like tuberculosis’.

“As veterinary scientists and practitioners, we remain convinced that steps need to be taken immediately, and humanely, to control the spread of infection in all susceptible species,” she said.

Her comments followed the revelation last year that a former veterinary nurse, from Cornwall, and her dog contracted bTB last year.

A paper on the case, published in medical journal Thorax, concluded that the woman could have been infected by cattle while working as a veterinary nurse or badgers ‘both on her property and as part of her previous work’.

The paper warned of a ‘low, but ongoing, public health risk’ where bTB is prevalent in cattle and badgers.

A Defra spokeswoman said the number of cases of human infection with bTB was ‘low and stable’ and accounted for less than 1 per cent of all confirmed cases of TB in humans.

The majority of bTB cases in humans are due to reactivation of infection contracted prior to the introduction of milk pasteurisation, or infection picked up from abroad, she added.