February 27, 2008

LANSING - The Michigan Department of Natural Resources today announced a deer harvested in late December in Shiawassee County that was suspect for bovine Tuberculosis (TB) has tested positive for the disease. Further testing is needed to determine the exact strain of TB.

On March 3, 2008, the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) will designate any cattle, bison, and cervid farms within a 10-mile radius around where the deer was taken to be in a “Potential High-Risk Area.” The Shiawassee Potential High Risk Area is over 100 miles south of the northern Lower Michigan bovine TB zone.

“In the past, MDA designated potential high-risk areas in Osceola and Mecosta counties. In accordance with state law, these designations were dropped after six months of testing revealed no additional bovine TB,” said MDA State Veterinarian Dr. Steven Halstead.
“There are approximately 100 farms around the positive deer in Shiawassee County, and herds on these farms are being scheduled for surveillance testing.”

“Further strain typing of the isolated bacteria to determine the strain of bovine TB will take a few more weeks,” said DNR Wildlife Veterinarian Steve Schmitt.

Each year, the DNR conducts routine surveillance efforts in every Michigan county for both TB and Chronic Wasting Disease. With the cooperation of county officials, DNR has already begun testing road-killed deer within a 10-mile radius of the Shiawassee County deer for bovine TB. In fall 2008, a minimum of 300 hunter-harvested animals will be tested in that area.

“MDA and USDA will oversee the Shiawassee County cattle herd testing effort with an Incident Management Team, which will begin in early March,” said Halstead. “Utilizing this type of response strategy will be effective in reaching the overall goals of the bovine
TB program.”

Since the bovine TB eradication effort began in 1995, all of the state’s one million cattle have been tested for the disease, with no TB found in cattle outside the bovine TB Zone. To date, the DNR has tested nearly 162,000 wild white-tailed deer, with 594 testing positive for bovine TB. Strategies adopted by the DNR to reduce bovine TB in the wild white-tailed deer have reduced the prevalence rate of the disease from the high in 1995 of 4.9 percent to 2.3 percent in 2006 in the TB Core Area, located in southeast Montmorency County, southwest Alpena County, northwest Alcona County, and northeast Oscoda County.

For more information on Michigan’s bovine TB eradication project, visit: www.michigan.gov/emergingdiseases.