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Written question asked by Baroness Byford (Conservative), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour) on Wednesday, 22 April 2009.

Bovine Tuberculosis

Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many cases of bovine tuberculosis have been confirmed in (a) cats, (b) dogs, and (c) deer, in each of the last 15 years.
Answer

The number of confirmed bovine tuberculosis cases within the past 15 years for cats, dogs and deer (farmed and wild), in GB, are set out in the following table. Suspect cases of TB in domestic animal species other than cattle and deer have only been notifiable since March 2006. As shown in this table, incidents of TB caused by Mycobacterium bovis in those species were recorded prior to this, but we will not necessarily be aware of all cases due, for instance, to misdiagnosis or lack of reporting.

Year Domestic Cat Dog *Deer (Farmed) *Deer (Wild)
1994 - - 3 1
1995 - - 0 3
1996 - - 11 11
1997 - - 3 3
1998 2 0 8 6
1999 0 0 9 7
2000 3 0 8 6
2001 0 0 1 1
2002 2 1 7 3
2003 2 0 0 14
2004 6 1 0 42
2005 13 0 1 31
2006 14 0 5 29
2007 15 1 1 20
2008** 16 2 1 31
*Number of bacteriologically confirmed cases of TB in deer submitted to VLA for laboratory examination (source: VLA surveillance contract SB4510 and annual reports of the CVO, Defra). Data exclude positive deer tissues or carcases submitted as part of the survey of TB in wild deer in the SW of England (2006-07) and other research projects during this period studying the prevalence of TB in wild deer.
**Data for 2008 are provisional and yet to be confirmed.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
2564; 709 c397-8WA
Session
2008-09
Subjects
Deer Dogs Bovine tuberculosis Cats
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk