Public health and bovine tuberculosis
Historically, tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium bovis (bovine tuberculosis, bTB) was a major public health issue in the UK. bTB in humans was widespread in the UK before the introduction of pasteurisation of milk in the 1960s: in the 1930s, 40% of dairy cows were infected and 0.5% had tuberculous mastitis. During this period, approximately 2500 people died annually from bTB. Therefore, measures were introduced to eliminate bTB from the UK. As a result, by the 1970s, bTB was eliminated from most of Britain, with persistent infection limited to the southwest. Subsequently, bTB has re-emerged: in 2007, there were 4172 new herd breakdowns in England and Wales. The resurgence of bTB has resulted in public expenditure now approaching £100 million annually. More and more extreme measures are being proposed to stop the spread of the disease such as widespread badger culling programmes, despite scientific studies casting doubt on the efficacy of such practices.
This article argues that, apart from milk pasteurisation, these measures no longer make economic sense and hence are now resulting in gross misallocation of public resources. We are therefore of the opinion that there is no public health rationale for the multimillion bTB control programme in the UK provided that milk continues to be pasteurised. The logical conclusion arising from this is that without a public health perspective, bTB is essentially an endemic animal disease and hence any control programme should be economically effective in terms of improvements in animal health and welfare and industry profitability or viability.
Public health and bovine tuberculosis: what’s all the fuss about? Trends in Microbiology, Nov 25 2009
Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in UK cattle is increasing rapidly. Consequently, the UK Government is spending escalating sums of money in attempts at disease control. We propose that bTB control in cattle is irrelevant as a public health policy. In the UK, cattle-to-human transmission is negligible. Aerosol transmission, the only probable route of human acquisition, occurs at inconsequential levels when milk is pasteurised, even when bTB is highly endemic in cattle. Furthermore, there is little evidence for a positive cost benefit in terms of animal health of bTB control. Such evidence is required; otherwise, there is little justification for the large sums of public money spent on bTB control in the UK.
Related:
- Origin and spread of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
- Tuberculosis – is the white plague winning?
- Irish badger cull ‘futile’ in controlling bovine tuberculosis
- Culling badgers a low priority for curbing cattle tuberculosis
Tags: Agriculture, Biology, Environment, Health, Medicine, Microbiology, Science, Tuberculosis
