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FARM SCENE: Michigan struggles to control deadly illness

By John Flesher, Associated Press, 4/9/2001 01:03

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) Mike Warner was sympathetic when federal officials seized sheep in Vermont that were suspected of having been exposed to a form of mad cow disease.

''It's a heartbreaker to watch the animals being taken,'' says Warner, a Michigan farmer who speaks from experience. Nearly two years ago, his 21 beef cows were destroyed after one tested positive for bovine tuberculosis.

While U.S. officials tighten security in hopes of keeping mad cow and foot-and-mouth disease out of the country, Michigan is continuing a battle begun in the mid-1990s against bovine TB, a chronic lung disease.

Bovine TB can kill cattle, but there is little chance of passing it to humans. And it is much less contagious than foot-and-mouth. Bovine TB is a bacterium spread mostly via breath or direct contact; foot-and-mouth is a virus known to have been blown by wind up to 30 miles, says Dr. John Clifford, a U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarian and tuberculosis specialist.

Still, bovine TB is a huge problem for the Michigan cattle industry. The USDA suspended the state's designation as free of bovine TB last year, making it harder to sell the cattle in other states and depressing their value.

The disease has been confirmed in 23 cows on 13 farms since 1998, says Bob Bender, coordinator of the state's eradication campaign. Roughly 1,500 cows have been destroyed because they were suspected of infection or part of a tainted herd.

The state has spent about $37 million fighting the illness, mostly for testing cattle and reimbursing owners of condemned herds. Christopher Wolf, agricultural economist at Michigan State University, predicts the bill will reach $120 million over a decade. The federal government has chipped in $13 million.

The only other place in the United States without bovine TB-free status is a small area around El Paso, Texas, where the disease has turned up on dairy farms for 15 years, Clifford said. Just one is under quarantine now.

Officials believe the source of the Texas infections is dairies across the border in Mexico, although they're unsure how the disease is crossing the Rio Grande.

In Michigan, Bender says the culprits generally are believed to be whitetail deer and, indirectly, people.

The illness has been detected in more than 330 deer since 1995, nearly all in the northeastern Lower Peninsula. It's the only sustained outbreak of bovine TB among free-ranging deer ever documented in North America, the USDA says.

Deer are common in Michigan. But the bovine TB zone is home to numerous hunting clubs that for years dumped huge piles of vegetables in the woods to keep deer alive during winter. With so many eating nose to nose, it was easier for the disease to spread.

Deer are believed to have passed bovine TB to cattle by mingling with them in pastures or nibbling at their feed, Bender says.

The state has outlawed deer feeding in the TB zone and restricted it elsewhere in the Lower Peninsula, while allowing hunters to kill more deer in the zone. The rate of infection there has been cut in half the last three years.

Meanwhile, the state is testing all but the youngest of its 1.3 million cattle about 400,000 thus far. Any suspected of infection after two levels of testing are killed, enabling a final diagnosis.

If the disease is confirmed, the rest of the herd goes to slaughter unless the farmer agrees to repeated, intensive testing.

''History and experience have shown that the most effective method is to just remove anything that's either infected or exposed,'' Bender said.

Warner, whose Alpena County farm is back in business after being under quarantine for more than a year, says he accepted the necessity of sacrificing his herd. But it wasn't easy, especially when state reimbursement fell short of what he thought the animals were worth.

''It was very tough,'' he said. ''I even had trouble selling feed from here. Nobody would buy anything. We've made a good turnaround, but I sure wouldn't wish this on anybody else.''

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-- Anonymous, April 09, 2001