THE threat to the British dairy herd posed by bovine tuberculosis is highlighted this week with information that the disease can be contracted and spread by domestic cats.

The warnings follow speculation in Gloucestershire that a domestic cat may have picked up bovine TB from a neighbouring dairy farm which has suffered an outbreak.

And animal welfare experts from the National Federation of Badger Groups revealed this week that research published in Michigan, USA, and confirmed by studies in the UK, shows that cats can contract the disease from drinking unpasteurised milk. There is also a possibility that cats could catch bovine TB from eating rats infected with the disease.

It has been suggested by some vets that badgers are infecting cats with bovine TB, but Dr Elaine King, chief executive of the National Federation of Badger Groups, said: "This is prejudiced supposition which is not supported by the facts. Cats give badgers a wide berth and do not contact bovine TB easily. So it is virtually impossible that badgers could pass the disease on to cats."

The federation claims that key evidence confirming that cats can acquire bovine TB on dairy farms, but not from badgers, was published in a report in the Veterinary Record in 2000, saying that "it would be difficult to envisage a mechanism for the transmission of M bovis infection between badgers and cats".

Dr King said: "Owners whose cats wander on to dairy farms are advised to be aware of this risk, because the authors of the Veterinary Record paper concluded that infected cats could go on to pose an infection risk to their owners."