California cows carrying TB are slaughtered
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More than 4,800 dairy cows at risk of carrying tuberculosis are being slaughtered this week in Central California, where nearly 16,000 cattle in the country’s largest milk-producing region have been quarantined, the Associated Press reports today:
Undersecretary of Agriculture Bruce Knight met privately with local dairy operators Tuesday along with the state veterinarian and other industry officials monitoring three new cases of TB recently discovered in Fresno County dairies. Federal and state agriculture officials were still tightlipped about the identities and locations of the three dairies where cows tested positive for the disease, which can be transmitted to humans and other mammals through the air or through drinking unpasteurized milk from an infected cow. The discovery of the highly contagious respiratory disease already has prompted changes in interstate shipping regulations. A routine inspection of a slaughterhouse cow in January found TB lesions on its lymph nodes, prompting the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s inspection of 150,000 cattle so far. Ninety percent of infected cattle do not show symptoms, which include weight loss, cough and rough coats.
The Associated Press reports that California had been free of the disease since 2005, two years after cases detected in Kings and Tulare counties prompted the testing of 876,000 cattle. As a result, more than 8,000 head cattle in two infected herds were slaughtered that year.
State officials are still trying to understand how the cows got exposed, but the culprit may be south of the border:
DNA testing shows that two of the cows that tested positive this spring share a strain of the bacteria that originated in Mexico. In June, the state Department of Food and Agriculture issued a warning against contact with cattle of Mexican origins, and the USDA is drafting an order that restricts transport of California cattle across state lines without testing by a veterinarian.
-- Francisco Vara-Orta