- From ProMED-mail
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- Beef Farmer And Wife Caught TB From Cattle The Citizen
- Gloucestershire
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- A Newent beef farmer, and his wife, contracted tuberculosis
from his cattle, allegedly spread by badgers, an official report reveals
today, 13 Jul 2004. Several other unconfirmed cases have also been reported,
one by a county MP, sparking fears about a worrying new escalation of the
epidemic in the county. The case is revealed in scientific evidence given
to a Parliamentary select committee, which met to look at new ways to tackle
the disease linked to badgers.
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- The infection of the unidentified farmer and his wife
could mark a disturbing escalation of the disease, which the Government's
scientific advisors have previously said carries a "negligible"
risk to humans. While about 50 cases of human TB caused by the strain in
cattle are recorded every year, the great majority are in older people
who have consumed unpasteurized milk in the past.
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- In the case in Gloucestershire, which remains the epicenter
of the disease, there was no milk involved, and the farmer was a beef farmer
rather than a dairy farmer, suggesting the disease was caught through direct
contact from the herd.
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- A spokesman for Defra (Department for Environmental Food
and Rural Affairs) said the report was referring to a case of 2 people
from a farming family at Newent, who, in 1999, received airborne infection
from a beef herd. "This is not a common occurrence. The previous case
like this was in 1990," she said.
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- The report contains minutes of a meeting in May 2004,
when the Defra select committee was addressed by 3 scientific experts,
including Alick Simmons, head of Defra's Veterinary Endemic and Zoonoses
Division.
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- Fielding a question, from Forest of Dean MP Diana Organ,
on how many farmers, stockmen, or vets had contracted TB in the last 3
years, Mr. Simmons said: "There has been a recent report of a farmer
in Gloucestershire having contracted bovine TB from a beef herd, where
there was no milk for human consumption produced, so one could surmise
reasonably, I think, that there has been occupational risk there, but that
is really quite a rare occurrence.
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- "We believe that the risk mostly is through consumption
of raw milk, but one could not be confident that there are other routes
which are not creating a risk."
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- Professor Doug Young, Professor of Microbiology at Imperial
College, who is Defra's bovine TB vaccine adviser, warned that there could
be an upsurge in humans contracting the disease.
-
- "Predominantly, those are people in the older age
groups who contracted _M. bovis_ infection prior to pasteurization and
are now suffering from the effects of that 50 or so years later."
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- The scientists' comments will cause alarm in Gloucestershire,
which has the largest proportion of cattle herds infected by bovine TB
in the country. Recent Defra figures revealed that 475 herds, out of 1773
in Gloucestershire, were put under TB restrictions in 2003 because of an
outbreak of the disease at some time. The figure equates to 31 percent
of herds and was up from 25 percent in 2002. Although Gloucestershire has
experienced fewer outbreaks than counties such as Devon and Cornwall, the
percentage of herds experiencing infections is considerably higher, making
it England's TB capital.
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- Diana Organ, the Forest of Dean MP, who is a Defra committee
member, said: "There are 1 or 2 cases, and we have to be vigilant
all the time. I raised the question because, years ago, I had a teacher
who thought he got TB on a farm visit.
-
- "This shows how important it is to take action as
soon as the reactors [cattle that are tuberculin-skin-test reactive - Mod.LL]
appear. There is a new test which should improve matters, although the
farmers are a bit reticent to adopt it at the moment."
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- David Drew, the Labor MP for Stroud, who is also on the
committee, and chairs a subcommittee on bovine TB, said: "There is
always a risk that you ignore this at your peril. I don't see this as an
escalation, though. There are always one or 2 cases every year."
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- Roland Blackwell, of Barton End Farm, in Nailsworth,
has been calling for a targeted cull of badgers since his cattle had been
diagnosed as suffering from TB in February 2004.
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- He said: "I wasn't aware of this case, but we all
knew it could happen very easily, and it comes as no surprise."
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- But, a Defra spokesman denied the Gloucestershire case
marked an escalation of the epidemic. She said bovine TB was a "different
strain" of tuberculosis, but, was also a serious lung disease.
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- http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=1
38490&command=newPage&contentPK=10581539
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- ProMED-mail promed@promedmail.org
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- The clinical aspects of the 2 cases are not described.
It is presumed that both individuals had pulmonary infection with _M. bovis_
rather than just being tuberculin convertors. _M. bovis_ is a member of
the _M. tuberculosis_ complex, and, therefore, will react with the commercially
available DNA probes used to identify _M. tuberculosis_. _M. bovis_ is
negative for nicotinamidase and pyrazinamidase, and, does not reduce nitrate,
whereas _M. tuberculosis_ is positive in the 2 tests and reduces nitrate.
Since it does not have pyrazinamidase, _M. bovis_ is resistant for pyrazinamide.
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- Airborne transmission of _M. bovis_ does occur as mentioned
in the posting. This route was highlighted by a number of cases of infection
in zookeepers caring for a sick rhinoceros (Dalovisio JR, Stetter M, Mikota-Wells
S. Rhinoceros' rhinorrhea: Cause of an outbreak of infection due to airborne_Mycobacterium
bovis_ in zookeepers. Clin Infect Dis 1992;15:598-600. - Mod.LL
-
- [The outbreak of FMD in March 2001 and its aftermath
seriously curtailed the Veterinary Service tuberculosis programme. The
result was a backlog of TB tests in cattle, leading to worsening of a situation
which was already bad enough. The number of herds under TB restrictions
on 31 Dec 2003 stood at 3074, i.e. 3.2 percent of the national herd (out
of a total of approximately 96,000 herds).
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- In view of the deteriorating situation, the UK Government
commissioned a review of the evidence for a link between badgers and Bovine
TB. The Review Group concluded that there was convincing evidence that
badgers were a source of infection for cattle, but the extent to which
they added to problem in could not be calculated. Following a trial, conducted
by the Institute for Animal Health (IAH), it was concluded that reactive
culling of badgers is unlikely to contribute to the control of cattle TB
or offer a viable base for future policy. In a reversal of previous thinking
the Group considered that the prospects of a vaccine for cows was more
promising as there had been more progress in understanding the basic immunological
responses in cattle. The development of such a vaccine is currently subject
to research by the IAH. - Mod.AS]
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- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD Please visit my "Emerging
Diseases" message board at: http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?
- Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
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