History of Uncertainty: Bovine Tuberculosis in Britain, 1850 to the Present

A History of Uncertainty claims that among the diseases spread from animals to humans one of the greatest killers has been bovine tuberculosis, spread mainly through food and drink. It estimates at least 600,000 deaths from this cause between 1848 and 1960 in Great Britain, mainly due to infected milk and meat. It took that whole period to bring the disease under control in humans but the problem lingers in cattle. The uncertainties surrounding the veterinary science of tuberculosis and the difficulties of formulating effective public policy are the principal foci of the book. While current media interest is in the role of badgers and their control by culling, the book argues that the situation is far more complex than the headlines suggest and that it is likely to be decades before a resolution can be found