Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people contracted bovine tuberculosis (a) through contact with cattle and (b) by ingesting products produced by infected cattle and what the biological mechanisms were for contracting the disease.
[123051]
Answer
Between 2007 and 2011, 97 cases of “Mycobacterium bovis” were reported in England and Wales, as shown in the following table.
| Number
of “Mycobacterium bovis” cases reported to Health
Protection Agency national surveillance, England and Wales,
2007-11 | |
| Number
of
cases | |
| 2007 | 20 |
| 2008 | 16 |
| 2009 | 16 |
| 2010 | 23 |
| 2011 | 22 |
| Total | 97 |
| Source: Health Protection Agency |
Of the cases reported, 38 had contact with cattle recorded.
From the 97 cases reported; 42 reported consumption of raw (or directly from farm) dairy products in their lifetime. Of these, only two reported consumption since
1995. The Health Protection Agency does not collect data on whether or not the dairy products consumed were from infected cattle.
The two most likely mechanisms of transmission to humans are (a) by ingestion of the organism in contaminated dairy products or (b) by inhalation of the organism expelled from the lungs of an infected cow.