Tuberculosis control in deer

Authors: Hunter JW, Wilson PR, Beatson NS
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 34, Issue 4, pp 56-57, Apr 1986
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Deer, Livestock, Production animal, Ruminant
Subject Terms: Bacterial, Biosecurity, Disease control/eradication, Epidemiology, Mycobacterial, Disease/defect, Zoonosis, Infectious disease, Public health
Article class: Correspondence

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Abstract: In a leading article entitled “Tuberculosis in Deer” in this Journal in 1979, John Hellstrom stated “…there shall soon be sufficient information and resources to allow the design of a soundly based control programme in which the whole profession should take full part. Hopefully, public opinion will allow the logical development of such a programme, rather than force the introduction of an ill-considered and potentially damaging scheme.” The introduction of the deer tuberculosis accreditation scheme in August 1985, and the recent publication of guidelines on the use and interpretation of tuberculin tests for deer, which introduces to the profession and the deer farming industry the use of the comparative cervical test, provides an appropriate time to review the role of the profession in assisting the deer industry in controlling the disease. Sources within the industry and the profession have argued that the control schemes introduced since that article were illconsidered and damaging given the limitations of the single intracervical tuberculosis test…

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