Ranchers in Manitoba’s Riding Mountain Eradication Area, who are required to test their cattle for tuberculosis, will soon receive provincial assistance of $6 per head.
According to a recent announcement by agriculture minister Rosann Wowchuk, Manitoba’s contribution of $240,000 represents 40 percent of the costs related to TB testing.
The province will encourage the federal government to provide the remainder of the funding, she said in a news release.
Martin Unrau, president of the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association, said his organization is pleased with the province’s action. The MCPA plans to discuss with its membership how to best proceed on the TB testing and eradication issue.
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“This is definitely a step forward because we’ve seen that a government department has taken a leadership role,” he said.
The issue of compensation for TB testing has long been a source of aggravation for the 500 ranchers who own some 50,000 head of cattle near the eradication area.
The first two stages of the testing process, which may take up to two weeks, in some cases require that entire herds be corralled for the duration.
Animals are run through a handling facility and injected with tuberculin under the tail. Then, after 72 hours, they are run through the chutes again to check for a reaction, usually a lump, at the injection site.
If an animal is found to have reacted to the first injection, a blood sample is taken and sent to a laboratory. Results from the blood test may take five days or longer.
Animals with suspicious blood test results are slaughtered, and tissue samples are taken. If the TB pathogen can be cultured in a lab, the animal is declared positive and all cattle with which it has come into contact must be destroyed.
Until last fall, consultations among representatives from the MCPA, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Parks Canada and Agriculture Canada seemed headed toward a solution on the mustering fee issue.
According to one report, Parks Canada was ready to ante up a portion or all of the cost, as it had done in the past. However, the plan hit a snag, and in the ensuing fallout, some fingers have been pointed at Ottawa.
“The wheels fell off,” said Glenn Campbell, an MCPA director.
As the owner of a 150-head herd near the park, Campbell understands the process. He said herds in the area are tested every two to four years, depending on their level of risk, which generally means proximity to the park boundary.
Those with larger herds scattered over wide areas suffer most when required to undergo testing, said Campbell, because they may need to hire extra help and pay for trucking to get their herds to a mustering point.
“We shouldn’t have to be testing,” said Campbell. “The only reason we’re testing is because Parks Canada is harbouring a TB-infected elk herd. They’ve known that for 16 or 18 years now.”
Some MCPA members have proposed that the 1,000 elk from the disease-free eastern side be captured, tested and confined to preserve the herd’s unique genetic base. Then, after the rest of the animals in the park are culled, the clean animals could be reintroduced after the CFIA determines that it is safe to do so.
Ken Kingdon, co-ordinator of the park’s wildlife health program, said efforts to control the disease in the park’s 2,000-head herd have been making steady progress since 1992.
In recent years, the “hot zone” of TB infected elk has been reduced to the west side of the park, he said.
Sport hunting outside the park, as well as a testing and removal program using helicopters and radio collar tracking devices inside the park, have reduced the overall impact on ranchers in the area, and brought the elk population down from a peak of 5,000 animals.
For every 100 elk captured and tested, typically only one is found to be TB positive, he said.
Culling the entire herd would upset the ecological balance of predators and prey within the park, and could spark opposition from the public. The current system is a compromise between two opposing views that seems to be working, Kingdon added.
“The evidence to date suggests that the program is not making it worse. The geographical area of interest is in fact shrinking,” he said, adding that no hunter-killed elk and deer samples have tested positive since 2003.
Before that, positives were found outside the park almost every year.
“At what point will we say that the disease is below detectable levels? The discussion right now is that within eight, 10 years after the last TB positive is found is when we will be able to declare that,” said Kingdon.
