DETROIT (AP) – Officials say five people who worked in a Michigan wildlife disease lab were diagnosed last year with a latent form of tuberculosis.
The Department of Natural Resources lab processes thousands of deer heads during hunting season to check for chronic wasting disease and bovine TB.
TB is an illness caused by bacteria that attack the lungs. It can be fatal, although a latent form shows no symptoms and doesn’t make people feel sick.
DNR spokesman Ed Golder says it’s been the department’s “working assumption” that the workers got TB from infected deer. But Golder says, “We can’t say for sure.”
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