January 29, 2013

US dairy farm clear of bovine TB

A dairy farm near Monroe County was declared clear of bovine tuberculosis by investigators from the USDA and the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA).

Tracing back from a positive TB result from a cow at a Cowlitz County slaughter facility led to this dairy and about a dozen other herds in Washington and Idaho, which will also be examined.

The cow was from a Moses Lake dairy and had been bought from the Monroe dairy about a year ago. Cattle at the Moses Lake dairy and elsewhere are still being tested. State health officials said there is no immediate human health concern connected to the suspected bovine TB case. The meat from the infected cow was isolated until the test results came back.

Washington has been an official TB-free state since 1988, WSDA communications director Hector Castro said. It will maintain that status if it proves the disease has been contained.  "They will keep looking until they find the source of the infection," he said. "We will know next week about possibly where it came from."

Paul Kohrs, the assistant state veterinarian and co-leader of the team, said the fate of the source cow or its herd will not be decided until the source has been confirmed.

"The good news is that the safety systems in place were effective in identifying this problem and preventing it from spreading," WSDA Director Dan Newhouse said. "Now, our inspectors will work with our federal, state and agricultural partners to trace this to its source and determine whether any other cows were infected."