To Lawrence Roberts concerning Bovine tuberculosis:
 
Bovine tuberculosis, caused by the bacteria known as Mycobacterium bovis, is
a serious health problem in many parts of the world.  M. bovis causes not
only tremendous financial losses, but also may be passed to humans through
the milk.  This is one of teh major reasons for pasteurization of milk.  In
the U.S., most cattle are tested and if psotive, are sent to slaughter.
 
M.  bovis has also been identified, interestingly enough, on several New
Zealand ferret farms (Surveillance, 11:27, 1984).  If there are truly wild
ferrets in NZ, then there is a possibility for this bacteria to spread into
the cattle population, necessitating test an slaughter, and eventually to get
into the human population.
 
Because tuberculosis is a serious, life-threatening disease, msot governments
do as much as possible to keep it out of the food chain.
 
I have seen two cases of ferret tuberculosis in five years, but both were of the
M. avium-intracellulare type, the kind that we see most often in human AIDS
patients.  Where the ferret picked it up, I don't know.
 
        Thanks for the info from down under.
 
Bruce Williams   [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1065]