By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent
 
LANSING, Mich. — The state is moving ahead with changes to its bovine tuberculosis (TB) status.

Beginning Jan. 4, 2010, the modified accredited zone (MAZ), also referred to as the zone of infection, will shrink from 13 counties to five. These counties are all located in the northeastern section of the lower peninsula. They include the entirety of Alcona, Alpena, Montmorency, Oscoda and Presque Isle counties, as well as parts of Iosco and Ogemaw counties.

The counties being taken out of the high risk area include Antrim, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Crawford, Emmet and Otsego. State officials are now calling this area subzone 1. The rest of the lower peninsula, not part of the MAZ is now being referred to as subzones 2 and 3.

The upper peninsula is designated a TB-free zone, with the rest of the state occupying a middle status, called modified accredited advanced zone (MAAZ). Starting Jan. 4, 2010, the upper peninsula will no longer have random testing of cattle. In subzone 2, a three-year retesting of all herds, begun in 2008, should conclude sometime next year. Also, there will no longer be random testing in subzone 3.

According to the MDA, the Gaylord market will now be in a different zone – MAAZ – so producers will need to have their animals electronically tagged before they are moved off the farm.

“This is definitely a positive move,” said James Averill, the Michigan Dept. of Agriculture’s Bovine TB Program coordinator. “It’s a forward step, and we are happy about it.”

Averill said that people in industry are “now asking when we are going to move to free status. The next step will be to get a majority of the lower peninsula free. I think by this time next year we will get most of it free.”

State officials have complained at times about how the federal government handles the state’s bovine TB status, believing that federal officials are too stringent. Averill said that the state sometimes finds itself caught between industry and the USDA.
“The cattle industry wants it one way and the federal government wants it so there can still be international commerce,” Averill said. “We are sometimes caught in the middle.”

Now, though, the state and industry are looking to move ahead. Averill said his next goal is to shrink the MAZ even further, by getting Presque Isle county out of the MAZ. Although that county hasn’t had a TB-positive herd since 2000, one wild deer there tested positive in 2008. They do have some potential risk,” Averill said.