Bovine TB testing complete in southeast
By Collin Gallant on January 19, 2018.
Medicine Hat News
About 15 months after U.S. meat inspectors raised an alarm, testing for bovine tuberculosis in the southeast Alberta region is complete.
As well, payments to compensate livestock producers will not be included in tax filings due this spring.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency states in an update that confirmed cases remain at the six found in late 2016, and that 30,000 animals have been released from measures to contain the infectious disease.
It said this month that a final round of on-farm testing of 15,000 animals is complete. So called trace-in testing involved 71 properties in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
No additional cases have been discovered as of Jan. 12. Also at that time, all but four ranches in Alberta and six in Saskatchewan have been released from quarantine protocols.
The latest round involved ranches that sold stock into commingled herds near Jenner and elsewhere that were at the centre of the quarantine.
The disease has been the focus of an eradication program in Canada since the 1920s, but has cropped up in three locations since 2000.
In the fall of 2016 U.S. food inspectors found the disease in a cow shipped to a U.S. slaughterhouse from Jenner area.
Trace-out testing was completed last winter, and though only five other cases were discovered, about 11,500 animals were destroyed as part of the containment strategy.
All compensation payments have been made, the CFIA states.
On Nov. 6, Agriculture Canada also announced tax deferral program for affected producers.
Payments received in 2016 or 2017 will not be included in income for those tax years, then 83 per cent in 2018, 11 per cent in 2019, and the remainder in 2020.
“The Government recognizes that taxpayers affected by bovine TB may be unable to fully replenish their herds within a year,” read a statement from Agriculture Canada. “Replacement purchases are expected to extend over several years.”
The ranch that hosted the original herd, where all six total cases were present, has also been released from quarantine.
That entire herd was destroyed. Two related properties where those animals were commingled aren’t hosting cattle presently and will be released once cleaning is certified by the CFIA, the agency states.
