Letter: Fear of TB risk to us
With reference to the current controversy about the cause of TB in cattle. I am old enough to remember when TB was the scourge of the human population.
I can recall in the small Shropshire village where I was brought up a mother, her son and daughter all dying of the disease.
It also claimed the life of the vicar's daughter who was about 21 at the time.
I recall a few years later the strenuous efforts made by farmers in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture to eradicate TB from cattle, enabling in due course the universal and proud production of TT (tuberculin tested) milk.
Now TB has returned to cattle with a vengeance and my fear is that unless this regression is checked it will be but a short step before the disease returns to the human population.
I believe that an urgent inquiry is necessary lasting no longer than a week and reporting back in less than two months.
Interested parties would be required to focus factual but unemotional evidence and be subject to cross examination.
The chairman of the inquiry would be charged with determining what was best in the national interest and his decision would be binding on the Government to act.
Michael Hughes
Shrewsbury
