[Sbom]

Just curious as a big goat farm near here lost his herd to tb over a year ago.
When talking recently to a senior vet he advised against drinking raw cows milk if the herd was prone to tb as at some point during the disease the milk is not safe to drink unpasteurised. Unfortunately I have a love of fresh warm milk as it comes from the cow and the herd I milk has tb animals regularly despite 6 month testing.
This got me wondering if people ( me included ) are putting themselves at some risk by drinking unpasteurised goats milk when they have no idea of the tb status of their goats 
I then questioned a friend who is a GP as to wether my children should be vaccinated against it to due to the unpasteurised milk they drink...he openly admitted he had no idea.
Just got me wondering......

[Anke]

Unless you have bought goats that come from one of the large dairy herds it is highly unlikely that your goats have bTB. If your animals have been home-bred for a few generations and you keep a fairly closed herd, they could only have contracted it from any wild animals/cows next door etc. Again unlikely.

In Scotland they have recently introduced legislation where the government vets can ask for goats (and other animals, incl alpacas, llamas etc) to be tested IF there is reasonable probability that bTB may have been contracted/may be present. If the test is positive compensation is payable too.

As to human vaccination, I have no idea if there is a vaccine for bTB in humans? Or is the usual TB vaccine effective?

I know that humans have got bTB from their goats (isolated incident) and not sure if it came through close contact or drinking the milk raw...

[Sbom]

Hmmm, it's still got me thinking,
If cows get it from wildlife whilst out grazing I can't see why goats don't... As I said a goat dairy herd not 3 miles from here was lost to it and unfortunately is still fighting for compensation, which he's unlikely to get.
I was vaccinated for tb as a child but it isn't done on nhs anymore.
My milking goat did come from a big dairy herd....I may quiz the vet on the matter when we test the cows next. I wonder if/ how it shows itself in goats as only found in cows when they have been slaughtered.
I may consider getting her tested as the kids guzzle the milk 

[Lesley Silvester]

I am prone to chest infections as I have rheumatoid nodules on my right lung (part of the disease I have). The consultant knows I keep goats and has never suggested any connection. To be fair, bTB had never occurred to me so I didn't actually ask.