State takes action on brucellosis testing after positive cow found in Montana

By SUE ROESLER, Farm & Ranch Guide
Thursday, June 19, 2008 3:06 PM CDT

BISMARCK, N.D. - North Dakota is trying to protect its livestock from cattle disease outbreaks on both sides of its borders.

On the western side, Montana is in the process of losing its federal brucellosis-free status after a young cow recently tested positive for the disease.

On the eastern side, Minnesota is working on a split-state status for bovine tuberculosis after the disease was found in four additional cattle herds over the past 12 months. The state was recently downgraded to modified accredited status, two levels below TB-free status.

Both states were discussed at last week's N.D. State Board of Animal Health meeting in Bismarck.

In the case of Montana, the board took action to catch cattle and bison that might fall through the cracks until the state's status is officially downgraded in four to eight weeks. It takes that long to be listed on the Federal Register.

Meanwhile, auction barns in North Dakota would be susceptible unless more stringent measures were taken, said Dr. Susan Keller, North Dakota state veterinarian.

The board decided to require a negative brucellosis test for all test-eligible cattle and bison being imported from Montana 30 days prior to shipment. Test-eligible includes females, 18 months or older; females that have calved or females that are within a short time of calving; and bulls 12 months of age or older. Sexually intact cattle or bison need a permit.

Montana counties that border North Dakota where livestock producers have pastures on both sides of the border and need to transfer cattle back and forth could be exempt if the North Dakota state veterinarian's office does a risk assessment and determines it to be low risk.

Kansas and Wyoming are also requiring testing. Now Wyoming is having its own brucellosis problems.

On June 6, the Wyoming State Veterinarian sent out a press release stating he had received notice from the state lab that blood tests from two cows in one herd near Daniel, Wyo., had tested strongly positive for brucellosis. Verification has to be made but if it proves true, Wyoming would need to go two years without a brucellosis case to maintain its brucellosis-free status.

Brucellosis is a bacterial disease that causes cows to lose first calves and to have lowered milk production.

Unfortunately, Keller said, while 80 herds around Yellowstone Park are at high risk of brucellosis due to wildlife in the park, only 30 of those herds are in a voluntary herd management plan.

The 2- to 3-year-old cow that was infected had been vaccinated twice and was part of a herd management plan on the small, 50 commercial cattle herd located near Pray, Mont., in the Paradise Valley, in a county bordering the park.

The final test was completed at the National Animal Disease Center in Aimes, Iowa, and on June 9, the center reported the cow was confirmed positive.

“Even after vaccination, a cow can become infected,” Keller said. “After vaccination, they are reboosted a half year later.”

She doesn't see the problem as something that can be solved anytime soon.

“There is only so much they can do,” she said.

Keller thinks it will take support from Congress, after looking at what it is doing to the national herd.

According to National Cattlemen's Beef Association vice president Bill Donald of Montana, there is a vaccine coming out for bison but it would have to be injected from a distance away as the herds are wild. In addition, that would not address elk.

Another Montana cattle herd was infected last year in pastures surrounding the park. It was suspected to have contracted the disease from elk moving out of the park, but that could not be determined for sure.

In fact, officials are speculating that there have been no bison roaming in the Paradise Valley where the cow ended up positive for brucellosis last week.

Both Wyoming and Idaho have found brucellosis cases near the park in recent years. Both states lost, then regained their status as brucellosis-free states.

Montana, Wyoming and Idaho are all participating in a complicated state and federal plan intended to keep Yellowstone's bison from spreading brucellosis to neighboring cattle.

Marty Zaluski, Montana state veterinarian, said in a press release to the board that losing brucellosis-free status was “particularly frustrating given efforts by livestock producers and the industry to mitigate risks and increased disease surveillance.”

Montana had considered split-state status earlier this year, but decided not to go through with it. The soonest Montana can apply for brucellosis-free status will be on May 27, 2009.

The North Dakota Board of Animal Health also discussed Minnesota's situation with bovine TB and how it could affect North Dakota herds.

The board looked at a map of the Minnesota Bovine TB Management Zone. Recently, the Minnesota Board of Animal Health asked the USDA to consider giving parts of four counties - Roseau, Marshall, northern Beltrami and western Lake of the Woods - a Modified Accredited status.

The Board of Animal Health is hoping Minnesota's other 83 counties can return to TB free status by the fall of 2008.

Modified accredited status requires producers to conduct additional testing when shipping animals out of state.

“The good news is that surveillance is being done on all deer infected in the management zone,” said Keller. “Over 1,000 deer have been removed from that area.”

The question is whether the management zone is including enough herds to meet requirements. The work on the management zone is still going on, so North Dakota doesn't know for sure where the final zone borders will be.

“If they make it to the Red River Valley, then we'll have a problem (in North Dakota,)” said Dr. Charlie Stoltenow, consulting veterinarian, of Fargo.

It was mentioned there would be an extra doe season in northeast North Dakota this fall. Areas north of U.S. Highway 2 along the Red River will have a September rifle season for antlerless deer. It will run from Sept. 26 to Oct. 2.

The goal is to reduce the deer herds which are overpopulated in those areas, and that should help ease concern over deer crossing into North Dakota from Minnesota.

Keller said hunting surveillance in some of these other states to combat TB was not always the best measure. She said trained people should check the carcasses because the lymph nodes have to be cut in half on suspected deer to know for sure if it is TB.

The board also talked about moving livestock show animals back and forth between Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota and the possibility of contracting a disease if the livestock were comingling.

One of the biggest potential problems involves one county fair in Montana that relies heavily on the border county in North Dakota to bring in show animals. Would these animals be able to return and what kind of testing would be needed?

No board action was taken on the matter at this time. 

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