Bovine TB found in Cimarron County

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), May 1, 2007 by Brian Brus

A case of bovine tuberculosis has been confirmed in a cattle herd in far northwestern Oklahoma, state Department of Agriculture officials said Monday.

Department veterinarian Becky Brewer said the infection was discovered during routine slaughter surveillance and tracked to a producer in Cimarron County in the state's panhandle. A second cow from the herd was confirmed Monday, she said.

No meat from the TB-positive animal entered the public's food supply, she said.

Oklahoma has had the federal designation of being a "TB-free state" since 1984, department spokesman Jack Carson said; the last case of bovine TB recorded in the state was in 1982. Losing that status would require additional testing and would drive up costs for Oklahoma cattle ranchers.

"If we find more infected herds, we could lose that," Carson said, but added that the limited exposure so far of two cows is unlikely to jeopardize the status.

"We are working very hard to do everything we can to minimize the economic impact of this situation and also to safeguard our state's beef industry," Brewer said. "We will now begin testing herds that border the ranch the TB-positive animal came from."

The bacteria that causes TB, mycobacterium bovis, can spread to humans and other species, although the risk is low, officials said. Most human infections have involved drinking unpasteurized milk.

"It's not highly transmittable," Carson said. "You can have a big herd of cows and only have one or two with the disease."

The herd from which the current cases were identified has more than 1,000 cows and calves, he said.

Carson said that in accordance with USDA regulations, the entire herd of the Oklahoma producer will be slaughtered and each carcass inspected individually. If no TB lesions are found, the carcass will be released for processing. Carson said the federal government compensates producers for resulting losses.

Officials said that during the past few years there has been a slight increase in the TB cases among both dairy and beef cattle in the United States. New Mexico and Colorado are now dealing with herds that have tested positive. Carson said inspectors have not yet identified the Oklahoma infection vector, but the rancher in question, who was not identified, has bought cattle from those areas in the past.

In recent years, several states - including Texas, California, Michigan, Minnesota and South Dakota - have detected the disease within their borders. The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service administers the department's bovine TB eradication program.

The beef industry group R-CALF USA in mid-April questioned the USDA service's procedures: "We do not understand why APHIS has delayed taking swift and decisive action to protect the U.S. cattle industry from the continual reintroduction of bovine TB from Mexico - a condition that's detrimental to the health and welfare of the U.S. cattle industry," R-CALF USA Director Max Thornsberry said in a prepared statement.

R-CALF USA pointed to a 2006 USDA audit in which the inspector general reported that the majority of TB-infected cattle found in slaughter surveillance originally are imported from Mexico and that the department lacks the controls necessary to eradicate the reintroduction of the disease.