BISMARCK, N.D. -- The North Dakota Department of Agriculture announced Dec. 5 that preliminary testing of a beef cow in the southwest portion of the state show the animal had contracted bovine tuberculosis. The second of two tests, performed in November at the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, in November, confirmed the diagnosis, though not with absolute certainty.
"There is one remaining test," says Beth W. Carlson, the deputy state veterinarian. "A culture, which is really the gold standard, is still pending. Those results may take up to eight weeks."
However, even if the culture test confirms the disease, North Dakota will retain its TB-free status, which dates back to 1976. It takes the detection of two unrelated herds having TB within two years before the state's TB-free status could be downgraded.
"Even if we did find that this is an infected herd -- and at this point, it is not -- and we would find another infected herd that was related to this herd, we wouldn't necessarily lose our status at that point, either," she says.
The last detection of TB in North Dakota was nine years ago.
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The illness initially was detected through routine inspection at a processing plant in Long Prairie, Minn. Subsequent tracing of the animal led to the southwest North Dakota ranch.
The herd that the animal belonged to is being tested now, and early results from screening indicate only a possibility of TB within the herd.
TB screening is done on a regular basis to either allow shipment of animals from one state to another or to gain TB-free accreditation for the herd. This herd screening process normally points out a handful of animals in any herd, infected or healthy, that may be susceptible to bovine TB, Carlson says. Those animals then are singled out for further testing.
The southwest North Dakota herd is thus far falling in line with those kinds of results.
"We've seen a reasonable response, I guess, as what we would expect in any group of cattle," she says.
