YORKTON - In November 2024 a case of bovine tuberculosis (bovine TB) was detected in an animal originating on a Saskatchewan farm.
It was Saskatchewan’s second brush with bovine TB in recent years. In February 2023, Canadian officials got word from the United States Department of Agriculture that tests from an animal shipped from Saskatchewan the previous fall had come back positive.
Then in a notice to industry Feb. 25, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said they have found three more cases while testing the birth herd of an animal confirmed positive for bovine TB late last year.
The situation has the cattle industry in the province on high alert, and producers with more questions than there are seemingly answers.
To help better understand the situation the Saskatchewan Cattle Association held a pair of ‘town hall’ meetings (April 30 in Whitewood and May 1 in Yorkton) focused on the bovine tuberculosis cases.
Allison Danyluk Ross, a Canadian Food Inspection Agency regional veterinary officer began by giving a broad overview of the disease
Bovine TB, (a reportable disease in Canada), has been subject to a mandatory national eradication program since 1923, said Danyluk Ross.
While all areas of Canada are considered to be officially free of bovine TB today, isolated cases in cattle may occur.
The concern over the disease is in-part because “bovine TB can be transmitted to humans,” she said, adding in the early 20th century it was estimated six-to-30 per cent of TB in humans came from cattle. That situation led to a program of eradication, focused on eradication of infected herds, which nearly eradicated the disease – down to 0.001 per cent in 2023.
Human cases of bovine TB are very rare, notes the CFIA web page. Exposure can occur through the passage of fluids from an infected animal to an open skin sore, extended close contact with an animal with active respiratory TB or consuming raw or unpasteurized animal products (such as unpasteurized milk) from an infected animal. Generally, bovine TB does not pose a threat to public health in Canada because of the extremely low prevalence of the disease, the abattoir surveillance and testing programs in place, and practices such as pasteurization of milk.
In addition to concern of human transmission, Danyluk Ross said control of the disease is imperative to ensure export market access. She noted because Canada produces far more beef that is consumed domestically “market access is absolutely critical to us.”
Danyluk Ross said that is why herds which have proven cases are eradicated, and why traceability is so important, to find where cattle have come from and have gone to from an infected herd – initially looking at movements five years previous to the case 小蓝视频 identified.
Danyluk Ross said the process is extensive as testing is carried out, and animals are traced, with herds generally limited in movement.
The CFIA investigation and testing following a November 2024, case of bovine TB after detecting the disease in the herd led to the herd 小蓝视频 declared infected and humanely depopulated. The CFIA disease investigation is ongoing.
While animals eradicated due to TB are compensated for through the CFIA, the amounts offered were a matter of contention at the Town Hall meeting.
“We do compensate for all animals,” said Danyluk Ross, but the levels of compensation have not been adjusted in years.
With cattle prices at historic highs the amount available is not covering current values. While Danyluk Ross said she understood the concern, raising the amount offered was not in her control.
The Compensation for Destroyed Animals and Things Regulations guides the compensation payments for affected producers.
After a herd has been depopulated for a period of months, restocking is allowed and monitored.
While Canada is considered to be officially free of bovine TB today, isolated cases in cattle may occur, as shown by the recent cases in Saskatchewan.
In general terms Danyluk Ross said one of the issues with the bacterial disease is that it can survive dormant in the soil for extended periods of times, and when animals do become infected they may show no obvious signs making them carriers.
There are two tests for the disease, the Caudal Fold Test and the Bovigam Test, but neither are 100 per cent leaving the only guaranteed method of determining if the disease is present 小蓝视频 through autopsy, said Danyluk Ross.
There’s “no bovine test that is 100 per cent accurate,” she said.
Making the situation less clear for producers is that the source of the disease outbreaks is unknown.
Laboratory culture results from the November 29, 2024 infected animal found a strain that has never been identified in animals or humans in Canada, and the origin of the strain is unknown. It is not closely related to any of the recent strains in Western Canada, noted a Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) release.
“The strain has never been found in Canada before,” said Danyluk Ross. “. . . The origin of the strain is unknown.”
Back as far as 2009 bovine tuberculosis was found in elk and white-tailed deer in Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba, with some 43 elk and 10 white-tailed deer testing positive for the disease over the previous decade, which had some producers at the Yorkton Town Hall pointing a finger at the animals again.
Danyluk Ross said the recently identified TB strains are not related to those found in the Manitoba park.
Dr. Stephanie Smith, Saskatchewan, Chief Veterinary Officer said TB in Manitoba’s Riding Mountain Park has been deemed to have been eradicated.
As for elk and white-tailed deer in Saskatchewan, Iga Stasiak, provincial wildlife health specialist, said there has been no positive test of TB.
“To-date bovine TB has never been detected in Saskatchewan wildlife,” she said.
That said world wide TB does exist in various wildlife populations from badgers in Ireland and Great Britain to possums in Australia.
“Globally bovine TB has been found in wildlife,” said Stasiak.
Stasiak also noted that in response to the detection bovine TB detected in a Saskatchewan cattle farm, hunters harvesting elk in the Wildlife Management Zones where the herd is located were part of the elk extended hunt season and were required to submit game heads for bovine TB testing.
For the 2024-25 season, those hunting draw elk in WMZ 37 and elk and white-tailed deer during the regular season in WMZ 48 are required to submit heads for testing within one month from the time the animal was harvested. Voluntary submissions of moose and mule deer harvested in WMZs 37 and 48 are also encouraged.
The program has collected 228 elk and 109 white-tail deer to be tested, said Stasiak.
So far wildlife do not appear the source, assured Stasiak.
It has been “determined with 95 per cent confidence that the wildlife population is disease free,” she said.
