Pet Cats Spread Tuberculosis to Their Owners, England Public Health Officials Say

A total of nine cats in Berkshire and Hampshire were found to be infected with tuberculosis, and two human cases were linked to those cats. Although the cat-to-human transmission is very unlikely, it is still possible by breathing in or ingesting bacteria shed by the animal.

Mycobacterium bovis is the bacteria associated with tuberculosis in cattle. The disease affects the lungs and symptoms can take months to appear. They include fever and night swears, persistent cough, weight loss, and blood in phlegm or saliva. Public Health England announced that the infected people are responding to treatment.

These infections are noteworthy because tuberculosis cases caused by mycobacterium bovis account for less than 1% of the 9,000 annual tuberculosis cases in the UK. The last case reported in cats was in March of 2013, so it's likely the symptoms took a while to surface. Of the nine infected cats, six have died and three are undergoing treatment.

Even more unlikely is the fact that mycobacterium bovis is uncommon in cats because it mainly affects livestock animals. Health officials tested nearby cattle that were infected with tuberculosis and found that they had the same strain as the infected cats. But Professor Malcolm Bennett of the University of Liverpool says that cases of TB in pets have consistently been seen on occasion.

"There seems to be an increase in the number of cases of bovine TB diagnosed in cats in recent years, and the report emphasises both the wide host range of these bacteria and that sharing our lives with other animals, whatever the benefits, carries some small risk. However, human infection, feline infection and transmission between the two remain rare," said Professor Bennett in this BBC News article.

Domestic cats are also responsible for the spread of Cat Scratch Disease (caused by Bartonella bacterium) and taxoplasmosis (caused by T. gondii parasite). Health officials say that one-third of the UK population will acquire a toxoplasmosis in infection at some point in their lives.

You can read more about tuberculosis on the Public Health England website.