A government scientist is suspected of having contracted bovine tuberculosis from an infected badger.

Thirty other staff employed by the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera) at Woodchester, near Stroud, Gloucestershire, are also being tested for the disease.

The workers are all involved in studying the spread of bovine TB for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

It is the first time that a suspect case has emerged among government scientific staff in the 30 years of official research into the disease.

If confirmed, senior veterinary surgeons and farmers’ leaders are certain to renew their demand for an emergency cull of badgers in the disease hotspot areas of Britain, such as the South West and the Gloucestershire and Herefordshire border.

Plans are already under way in Wales for a pilot cull of badgers in north Pembrokeshire to help to curb the spread of the disease.

Dr Alison Wilson, head of executive support at Fera, confirmed that the health of a member of staff was under investigation “for a suspected mycobacterial infection”.

She said: “Some of Fera’s staff work on long-term wildlife research projects, looking at the relationship between badgers and cattle in the spread of bovine TB.

“Fera is therefore treating the case seriously, as it may represent infection by Mycobacterium bovis, the organism which causes bovine TB.”

Dr Robbie McDonald, head of wildlife and emerging diseases at the agency, said that bovine TB was a serious infection, but rare in Britain, with most cases linked to the consumption of unpasteurised milk.

“We do a lot of very close-up work with wildlife that puts our staff at an elevated risk, so that’s why we are acting in this very cautious way at the moment,” he said, adding that the risk to the public was very low.

However, some veterinary experts have raised fears that the disease could spread more widely after a former veterinary nurse from Cornwall, her daughter and the family dog, are thought to have caught the disease from a badger that wandered into their garden.

A paper on the case, published in the medical journal Thorax, concluded that the woman could have inhaled infection from badger urine or pus while touching soil or grass, or transmission may have been via broken skin.

The 42-year-old woman was treated for the respiratory infection and her daughter was prescribed medication.

Roger Sainsbury, a former government veterinary officer in Cornwall, who specialised in bovine TB for 30 years, is concerned that human health may be at risk.

He said: “This is a very serious problem. We could do something about it but we are not and that is a travesty.”

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