Bovine tuberculosis
A chronic bacterial disease of cattle caused by Mycobacterium bovis, controlled by testing herds.
Also: bovine TB, Mycobacterium bovis
Bovine tuberculosis is a long-lasting infection of cattle, mainly of the lungs and lymph nodes, caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis. Animals may show little sign for a long time. Most control programmes test cattle regularly with a skin test and remove animals that react, and many countries have become officially free of it. Wild animals can keep the infection going: badgers in Britain and Ireland, brushtail possums in New Zealand and deer in parts of the United States, and the culling of badgers in Britain is a long-running public debate. Pasteurisation of milk largely ended the spread of bovine TB to people through milk.