The end is in sight for the bovine tuberculosis investigation across Western Canada.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has announced all quarantines related to the investigation have been lifted.

The CFIA says, about 11,500 animals have been destroyed with compensation of $39 million paid to producers.

The investigation started with a case of bovine TB in Southeast Alberta in September of 2016.

Karin Schmid, Beef Production Specialist with the Alberta Beef Producers, says there has been no additional cases of bovine TB beyond the original six animals all from the same infected herd.

"Due to the movement of cattle and the involvement of community pastures where there was that opportunity for disease transmission, the investigation was basically doing our due-diligence to make sure the disease hadn't spread beyond that initial herd."

Later this Spring, the CFIA will post the investigation summary on their website, and once the final laboratory culture test results are completed, the investigation will be closed.

Schmid says, producers who had to restock after depopulating their herds, have completed one round of testing on the restocked cattle to insure they are free of bovine TB, but they will still have to undergo a second round of testing this fall.

"If in the very unfortunate circumstance one of the second restock testing comes back positive, it would just re-open this old investigation."

A total 79 herds that received animals from the infected herd, also know as trace-out herds, have been tested and released. 71 herds that sent animals to the infected herd, also know as trace-in herds, have also been tested and released.

Schmid says, last winter around this time, trace-out herd testing was finished, and trace-in testing started last fall.

"The trace-in testing did go very smoothly, especially compared to the some of the initial work done when the outbreak was first announced. There was a lot of time to prepare over the summer, getting contact with all those trace-in herds, make sure there was a lot of two communication between CFIA, industry, and those affected producers in order to make that process was as smooth as possible. And the quarantines were a lot shorter."

Although the investigation is drawing to a close, no source of infection has been identified.

"We have not been able to identify the source, and this is actually quite common in tuberculosis investigations. It can be very difficult to determine where it came from in the first place."

She says, there will also be active surveillance of elk in South Eastern Alberta.

"They (the CFIA) are planning active surveillance for at least the next three years just to make sure. We don't expect that there has been any transfer of disease from the cattle to the elk, or vice versa, but we just want to be sure of that."

Canada's Agriculture Minister, Lawrence MacAulay, says this is a positive step forward for Canada's cattle industry.

"The federal government's payment of $39 million in compensation to producers for animals ordered destroyed and related tax relief measures has reduced the financial impact for producers affected by the CFIA's disease response. Additionally, a Canada-Alberta program allocated up to $16.7 million for assistance for extraordinary quarantine costs. The cooperation of individual producers and their industry associations played a key role in the progress of the investigation and this has allowed Canada to retain its bovine TB free status with no disruption in access to international markets."

MacAulay says, he looks forward to continuing to work with Canadian cattle producers on market access and trade growth.

 

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