Bovine TB testing should wrap up this year

By Collin Gallant on September 23, 2017.

Medicine Hat News

Food inspection authorities say the majority of new testing related to a bovine tuberculosis in southeast Alberta will complete by the year end with efforts going as far as Manitoba to determine the cause.

An update Friday by the Canadian Food Inspection agency states no further cases have been detected aside from the original six in one herd, located last fall in the Jenner area.

That premise has been released from quarantine with five other spreads where the animals spent time due to undergoing cleaning and disinfection.

That herd was among 11,500 animals destroyed during the containment effort with compensation paid to producers. Another 17,500 were tested and released during trace-out investigations.

That involved herds to where animals from the infected herd were sold to or co-mingled during the period of infection.

So called “trace-in” testing involves herds that had animals arrived from the previous five years.

That process will involve 15,000 animals on 68 premises, including 29 in Alberta, 36 in Saskatchewan and three in Manitoba. Four of those residences have already been tested and are considered released.

An outbreak of the disease — the subject of eradication efforts by the federal government since the 1920s — occurred in Manitoba about 12 years ago.

However top veterinary officials at the CFIA have said the particular strain of TB detected in Jenner was unique and had not been seen in Canada before. It is similar to strains found in Mexico, though administrators say the exact origin may never be known.

According to the CFIA the maximum compensation per head of cattle ordered destroyed is $4,500, or for breeding stock $10,000, though actual amounts vary.

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