Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Another seven farms released from TB quarantine

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has released another seven farms from tuberculosis quarantines established last year.

That brings the total released to 19 and the cattle count to 7,000 released.

But 54 premises with 11,000 cattle remain under quarantine in Alberta and Southwestern Saskatchewan.

The CFIA has ordered 10,000 head slaughtered, all under one owner with 18 premises.

One cull cow from that huge operation tested positive for TB when it was slaughtered at a packing plant in the U.S.

That triggered CFIA’s actions, trying to ensure that it has control of every animal that had any contact with that cow.

Screen testing identified six other animals, all under that same ownership. So far culture tests to confirm whether they were, in fact, infected with TB have yet to be released.

In a conference-call news-media event recently, CFIA officials said another 10,000 head of cattle from that main operation remain to be slaughtered.


They also said testing of potentially-infected cattle won’t be completed until cows and calves come in from pasture this fall.