By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) announced last week it is proposing changes to its bovine tuberculosis (TB) status and that the changes will take effect this summer.
It’s proposed that 57 counties in the lower peninsula be declared TB-free: those counties are now in the modified-accredited advanced zone, which indicates a small risk of TB transmission for cattle. The implication for cattle producers is that TB-free means there will no longer be mandatory movement testing for their cattle.
“It is a big step forward for the program, getting 57 counties to have TB-free status,” said James Averill, the MDA’s Bovine TB eradication program coordinator. “It’ll be a big jump forward.”
The proposal will, in effect, shrink the TB-affected area down to Alcona, Alpena, Montmorency and Oscoda counties in the northeastern lower peninsula. That TB endemic area is called the modified-accredited zone, a designation originating with the USDA that’s been adopted by the state.
Even after the change, however, there will still be a buffer zone surrounding the modified-accredited zone: in other words, a much smaller modified-accredited advanced zone. Those counties will include Antrim, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Crawford, Emmet, Otsego and Presque Isle.
Currently, these counties plus the 57 others in the lower peninsula are in this category.
“We know we have a risk there, but it’s a low lying risk,” Averill said of Emmet County, where there were two instances of TB positive cattle last year. One of those instances was in March 2010: after a year from that event passes, it will no longer matter as far as Bovine TB designations are concerned, Averill said.
In addition, right now there are sub-zones within the modified-accredited advanced zone. After the change, those too will disappear. Instead of movement testing requirements there will be only a movement certificate requirement, which doesn’t involve a veterinarian coming to visit. In most areas now producers must pay to have a veterinarian come out and do testing, although the government pays for these tests in the TB endemic area.
The USDA has also made the following request and the state has agreed: beef and dairy cattle, as well as bison 18 months of age and older, and all goats and privately-owned cervids six months of age or older that have had contact with cattle herds within a 12-mile radius of the 2009 Iosco County TB-positive deer, and within a 12-mile radius of the 2009 Oscoda County TB-positive deer, complete a whole herd Bovine TB test. The test has to be completed within 24 months of the most recent whole herd Bovine TB test, but no later than Dec. 31, 2012.
Right now “if you sold a bull in Lansing, Michigan to a farmer in Alpena, Michigan the animal must be tested,” Averill said. Under the new rule that won’t be required. Averill is hoping the new rule will be published in the Federal Register in early June. He’s also hoping that other states will recognize Michigan’s split-state status. Right now, Illinois and Wisconsin do not recognize it, but Indiana and Ohio do.
“It should make moving cattle out of state into those states that recognize it easier,” he said.
Averill said producers in the modified accredited zone “feel like we’re further segregating them with this step. We have to do what’s best for the cattle industry in the entire state.”
Meetings to discuss this latest step will be held on the following dates:
•1 p.m., Feb. 28, Constitution Hall, Brake Conference Room, South Tower, Atrium Level; 525 W. Allegan Street, Lansing
•3 p.m., March 3, Logan Township Hall; 4507 E M. 55 Prescott, Prescott
•11 a.m., March 4, Hillman Community Center; 24220 Veterans Memorial Highway, Hillman |
