Officials searching for clues in bovine tuberculosis episode
Authorities unsure whether any
animals remain in Idaho
Sunday, July 6, 2008 5:47 PM PDT
Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
BOISE - The Idaho Department of Agriculture has launched a massive hunt to determine whether imported dairy bulls from California during the past few years came from herds infected with bovine tuberculosis.
Idaho Department of Agriculture officials are currently trying to discover whether any animals from the infected herds are still in the Gem State.
“Some may have gone to the slaughter house,” Dr. Bill Barton, Idaho state veterinarian, said last week. “We don’t know if we have any (infected bulls).”
He explained that dairy bulls are not normally kept long because of weight.
According to information provided by the Idaho Department of Agriculture, Bovine TB is spread from animal to animal when an infected animal coughs up or exhales the bacteria which is then inhaled by another animal and then spreads through the respiratory system of the newly infected animal.
Barton said the department will look for bulls which came to Idaho between April 2003 and February 2008, when herds in California were determined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be infected with the disease. If any bulls are found that fit the time scenario, they will be tested by the Idaho Department of Agriculture. The majority of infected animals do not display clinical signs of the disease and may be infected for years before any signs appear, according to a press release from the Idaho Department of Agriculture. Problems in animals may include weight and production losses, but humans are at very low risk of contracting the disease. It is primarily transmitted to humans by consumption of raw — or unpasteurized — milk or raw milk products containing the bacteria, people involved in certain slaughter processes or by exposure to bacteria around live infected cattle, the Agriculture Department said. Bovine TB does not pose a threat to the human food supply because the bacteria that causes the disease is not found in muscle meat, and the pasteurization destroys any TB bacteria in milk or milk products.
“There most certainly may be some bulls in the Treasure Valley,” Barton said. “Our hope is (if any infected bulls are found) they will be in as few herds as possible.”
Anne Marie Chamberlain, livestock extension agent for Malheur County, said she had not heard of any concerns for Oregon or locally but said she would check.
She said Malheur County has 23 dairies.
