Cluster of human tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium bovis: evidence for person-to-person transmission in the UK

Evans, Jonathan D.; Smith, E. Grace; Banerjee, Ashis; Smith, Robert; Dale, James; Innes, John; Hunt, David; Tweddell, Alan; Wood, Annette; Anderson, Charlotte; Hewinson, R. Glyn; Smith, Noel H.; Hawkey, Peter M.; Sonnenberg, Pam

doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(07)60598-4

Cited by 156 publications

(121 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Remarkably, local farmers, with a much higher contact rate with cattle, were not infected and, therefore, other means of transmission (such as from badgers via the household dog) are possible. Finally, there is a recent cluster of six cases reported in Birmingham [9]. All of these patients, linked to each other by contact, were young, indigenous to the UK and had a spoligotype that is common in UK cattle.…”

Section: Glossarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Public health and bovine tuberculosis: what's all the fuss about?

Torgerson¹,

Torgerson²

2010

Trends in Microbiology

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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.

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Section: Glossarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Public health and bovine tuberculosis: what's all the fuss about?

Torgerson¹,

Torgerson²

2010

Trends in Microbiology

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“…In Britain, a nationwide eradication program reduced the incidence of cattle TB to very low levels by the 1970s; however, infection rates among cattle have been rising since the mid1980s (Krebs et al, 1997), and the first case of human-to-human transmission was reported recently (Evans et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bovine Tuberculosis in Cattle and Badgers in Localized Culling Areas

Woodroffe¹,

Donnelly

Cox³

et al. 2009

Journal of Wildlife Diseases

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ABSTRACT:Bovine tuberculosis (TB) is a zoonotic disease that can have serious consequences for cattle farming and, potentially, for public health. In Britain, failure to control bovine TB has been linked to persistent infection of European badger (Meles meles) populations. However, culling of badgers in the vicinity of recent TB outbreaks in cattle has failed to reduce the overall incidence of cattle TB. Using data from a large-scale study conducted in 1998-2005, we show that badgers collected on such localized culls had elevated prevalence of Mycobacterium bovis, the causative agent of bovine TB, suggesting that infections in cattle and badgers were indeed associated. Moreover, there was a high degree of similarity in the M. bovis strain types isolated from cattle and associated badgers. This similarity between strain types appeared to be unaffected by time lags between the detection of infection in cattle and culling of badgers, or by the presence of purchased cattle that might have acquired infection elsewhere. However, localized culling appeared to prompt an increase in the prevalence of M. bovis infection in badgers, probably by disrupting ranging and territorial behavior and hence increasing intraspecific transmission rates. This elevated prevalence among badgers could offset the benefits, for cattle, of reduced badger densities and may help to explain the failure of localized culling to reduce cattle TB incidence.

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“…First, there have been outbreaks of multidrug-resistant (MDR) M. bovis strains among hospitalised patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (Samper et al 1997) and these outbreaks highlight the risk associated with MDR M. bovis, especially in countries where animals with M. bovis and humans with HIV co-exist. Second, evidence for person-to-person transmission of M. bovis has been demonstrated (Evans et al 2007) and, third, zoonotic TB has re-emerged at the United States of America-Mexico border among immigrants from regions where bovine TB is endemic (Dankner et al 1993, Dankner & Davis 2000, LoBue et al 2003, Rodwell et al 2010.…”

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confidence: 99%