Cats being infected with TB could be risk to owners, vets warn "The real issue with cats with TB is that unless they are feral, they tend to have close contact with humans," said Carl Padgett, a former president of the British Veterinary Association. That is where you ramp up a degree of the public health risk through direct contact with cats that have TB and that is where I see the importance rather than driving the outbreak among cattle. Tuberculosis is caused by a type of bacteria known as Mycobacterium. In humans it is typically caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis while in cattle it is Mycobacterium bovis, but this can also cause disease in humans. In 2011 there were 8,963 cases of TB in humans. Less than 1 per cent is thought to have been caused by the bovine version of the bacterium. Between 1994 and 2011 there were 570 human cases of bovine TB in humans. The majority of cases were in people who were over 65 and who had drunk infected unpasteurised milk. The study by experts at the University of Edinburgh Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies found that, in one year, there were 187 cases of tuberculosis in cats, 17 per cent of which were the bovine strain. Professor Danielle Gunn-Moore, a researcher in feline medicine who has been studying the presence of TB in cats and who led the study, which is published in the journal of Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, said: "This study has revealed that the potential incidence of feline mycobacteriosis in Great Britain is higher than previously thought. These findings suggest that these infections are a common cause of clinical significant disease in cats in Great Britain and more work needs to further improve our understanding of these infections. She added that vets needed to be more aware of the presence of TB in cats. The most common cause of the disease in cats was a strain called Mycobacterium microti, which is usually found in voles. Prof Gunn-Moore said in all the cases of mycobacterial infections in cats she had seen she had never seen an infection passed onto a human and so believes the risk to be extremely low. "Cats are more of an end stage host rather than being a risk to spread to other animals," she said. In all the cases I have dealt with in Britain, I have not seen any cases of humans being infected by cats. There are a small number of cases where the infection has passed from dogs to humans. My biggest concern is the fact this is spilling over from cattle and badgers into cats, and poses a risk to cats. We are seeing about one per cent of samples sent to labs infected with mycobacterium, which is scary and that is why we are keen to raise awareness of this so vets can look out for it. A seal pup was put down last week after being found to be infected with bovine TB from a badger bite. A controversial cull of badgers is due to start this year in an attempt to control TB in Gloucestershire and Somerset, where thousands of cattle are infected by the disease each year. Official figures from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) show that it has received just 80 reports of bovine TB in domestic cats since 2009, with just nine being reported last year. Nigel Gibbens, the chief veterinary officer, told BBC Radio 4"s Farming Today programme this week that the number of cases in cats and other pets was tiny compared with cattle. He said: "Cats, of the pet species, seem to be more frequently infected and that could be because of the way they behave. They roam and do explore and could get into fights with feral cats and badgers themselves. There is a threat to humans. If an animal has an unresolving bite wound or a respiratory problem that won't go away, they should talk to their vets, and vets need to bear this in mind. Transmission to people is possible and has happened but the number of cases in pets is low and so the possibility of this is low. Mr Padgett said the Defra figures were probably so small because very few vets were looking for TB in cats. He added: "The fact that we have this evidence that cats can suffer from bovis is good as it raises the awareness of veterinary surgeons to look out for it. We don't want to get this out of proportion with suggestions that cats are the main spreader of TB. If that was the case, we would have seen a far greater incidence of TB in cats. We also don't want to panic the general public that cats are a major health risk for TB, but there is something here that needs to be looked at.