Editor
Letters
Western Daily Press
Dear Editor,
Richard Osborne of Moredon in Wiltshire; like many others; seems to be determined to allow bigotry and sentiment to cloud the serious situation with Bovine tuberculosis and confuse the issue. Anyone in any doubt that the badger population needs to be seriously culled; and maybe yet many other specious like Roe Deer, need only to research the subject themselves. With the nature of TB and its protracted effects, his particular question about sheep is barely relevant because of their life span; and by and large horses are not domiciliary for long periods on the land like cattle. However that does not mean they cannot be affected.
Simple research will tell you Bovine tuberculosis (Tb) is caused by the bacterium, Mycobacterium bovis. Its primary host appeared to be cattle, but the organism has been isolated from a wide range of species, including deer, pigs, sheep, horses, dogs, cats, badgers and humans. However, humans and most other species are normally spillover hosts in which infection is not self-maintaining.
Transmission of M. bovis within and between species is thought to be mainly by the airborne route, but animals may also become infected if they ingest large numbers of the bacterium. Infected cattle are considered the main source of M. bovis infection for susceptible cattle. However, in recent years, the badger has emerged as a significant source of M. bovis infection for cattle in the UK and Ireland.
May I draw yours and everybody else’s attention to some quotes from Dr. Jerome Harms. University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1997.
Mycobacterium bovis the cause of Bovine Tuberculosis;
“In contrast (to 1 in 10 immunocompetent humans), nearly all cattle infected with M. bovis develop active disease and can transmit the organism to other animals or humans.”
“Recently, there have been many outbreaks of M.bovis caused tuberculosis in humans especially HIV+ patients. Most have occurred in countries where M.bovis is endemic in the animal agriculture population. Multi-drug resistant strains of M. bovis are now appearing as well. The significance of this TB threat from M. bovis has not been taken as seriously as the threat from Mycobacterium TB.”
“However, the scientific and medical community must not ignore the potential of an M.bovis TB epidemic.”
My own assessment is that there is absolutely no point at all in culling cattle, if we do not first radically reduce the invasion of their pasture by other infected species.
Yours
Charles Henry