Northeast Michigan Producers Reminded to Keep Deer Away From Cattle
April 18, 2013
Lansing - The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) is reminding cattle and dairy producers in Northeast Lower Michigan of the disease risk, especially bovine tuberculosis (TB) exposure, involved with allowing deer access to their cattle and feed.
"This time of year, deer are coming out of the woods and onto hay fields potentially contaminating cattle feed with bovine TB," said MDARD's Bovine TB Program Coordinator, Dr. Rick Smith. "It is essential for producers to protect their livelihood by using risk mitigation techniques aimed at keeping deer off their farms."
Over 95 percent of Michigan producers in the bovine TB area have adopted wildlife risk mitigation (WRM) practices to prevent deer incursions onto their farms. The risk mitigation practices are an important part of disease prevention and consistently implementing them should reduce the risk of disease transmission.
"Spending money on risk mitigation practices is only one step in the process to reducing disease risk," said Smith. "Changing habits and on-farm practices by incorporating risk mitigation practices into everyday life is a long-term investment into the health of your farm."
Farmers, whose cattle have been identified as at risk for bovine TB transmission from wildlife, should use the steps below to prevent disease transmission and market their cattle:
Fence in feed - and keep the fences closed
Store feed in buildings
Feed cattle away from deer cover
Feed cattle daily
Provide water to cattle where it cannot be contaminated by deer
Use disease control permits from DNR to keep deer numbers down on cattle farms
For more information on bovine TB go to:
www.michigan.gov/emergingdiseases
###
Facebook: facebook.com/MIDeptofAgriculture
Twitter: @MichDeptofAg
Youtube: youtube.com/MIAgriculture
