Bovine TB scare shuts 28 farms in Alberta, B.C.
Agence-France Presse and CanWest News Service

Published: Sunday, November 11, 2007

A case of bovine tuberculosis has been discovered on a single farm in British Columbia, prompting more than two dozen farms in that province and Alberta to be placed under quarantine to keep the disease from spreading.

Twenty-two farms in Alberta and six in British Columbia have been placed under quarantine and about 400 animals are expected to be slaughtered, Canadian Food Inspection Agency spokeswoman Maria Koller-Jones said Saturday.

"One of the (farms) quarantined is because we have found tuberculosis on the farm, and that's one of the quarantined (farms) in British Columbia," she said.

All of the others are a precautionary quarantine because all the other farms received cattle from the farm where the bull was."

She said the 400 cows to be slaughtered all came from the British Columbia farm where the infection was discovered.

"We're going to have to slaughter all those animals. That's the only way we can determine whether or not they carried the infection."

It is unlikely a person eating meat of an animal infected with bovine tuberculosis could become infected, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's website.

The disease can be transmitted from cattle to other farm animals, bison, and all of the deer species under certain conditions.

Sick animals may show weakness, loss of appetite, weight loss and a fluctuating fever. Suspicious lesions can be found in organs or body cavities of diseased animals.

Koller-Jones said the case was not expected to impact Canadian exports of meat or dairy products.

"This case does not cause any concern for export, because we have a very low rate of tuberculosis and because we attack infection so aggressively when we find it," she said.

"We still meet the criteria for being considered free of tuberculosis, so this finding will have no impact on exporting either meat or dairy products."

Beef industry experts said that, although serious, discoveries of tuberculosis in cattle aren't cause for alarm among ranchers or consumers.

"It springs up every once in a while with contact between animals, but it's highly controllable and we just don't see it very often anymore," said Don Curtice, formerly with Alberta Beef Producers and Canadian Cattlemen's Association.

The last time bovine tuberculosis was detected in Canada was in 2004.

Curtice said the greatest challenge with bovine tuberculosis remains limiting contact with wild deer, elk and buffalo, which can pass the disease on to cows.

"The government comes in and basically isolates the cattle or has them slaughtered if it's domestic, but wildlife - they don't even want to touch them, which is a real sore spot in the cattle industry," he said.

Curtice said cattle can be vaccinated for the disease, though such a measure is not mandatory. Government regulations dictate that cattle in areas where bovine tuberculosis has been detected must be vaccinated for several years following an outbreak, he added.

"It's always a concern, but it's certainly not in the category of BSE (or mad-cow disease)," said Neil Jahnke, past president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association.

"Canada is deemed TB-free, and if we have a case now, you can have two or three before it becomes a major issue. Thirty, 40, 50 years ago, it was quite a concern in Western Canada."

With files from Calgary Herald

© CanWest News Service 2007
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=53251c09-d1fe-465e-8380-8b54ba8dd5f1&k=87418

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