BC distanced from TB concerns

BC dairy producers have little to worry about following the discovery of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in a Manitoba herd earlier this month.

“There is no threat to dairy herds in British Columbia,” Dylan Kruger, public affairs director with the BC Dairy Association told Country Life in BC on June 16.

While the industry is monitoring the situation closely, Kruger notes that all animal movements at the affected farm in the Pembina Valley southwest of Winnipeg have been halted pending investigation by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and provincial authorities.

“Bovine tuberculosis is a reportable disease in Canada, and robust protocols are in place to contain and eradicate it,” Kruger says.

CFIA reports that samples from a seven-year-old cow collected at a federally registered slaughter facility in Manitoba tested positive for TB on June 9. Bovine TB was confirmed on June 13.

“Working with the information in the DairyTrace system, the CFIA identified a herd in Manitoba as the herd of origin of the infected animal,” CFIA says. “This herd has been placed under quarantine until testing and depopulation can be completed.”

Details regarding the specific herd, its size and other details have not been released.

BC producers last experienced bovine TB in 2018, when a cow-calf operation in the southern Interior tested positive. The discovery resulted in nearly 1,050 animals ordered destroyed at a cost of $3.78 million. Producers received approximately $3.2 million in compensation.

“The strength of Canada’s bovine TB program supported uninterrupted international market access for Canadian cattle and meat products during the course of the response and this mitigated any impacts on the overall Canadian cattle sector,” CFIA said in its final report on the outbreak. “The cooperation of individual producers involved in the response and the engagement with their industry associations were vital to the effectiveness of the CFIA’s response.”

Kruger says the dairy sector’s high level of engagement with respect to herd health is an asset in such situations.

“Dairy farmers are committed to the health and well-being of their animals,” he says. “Our thoughts are with the affected farm family during this difficult time.”