The Canadian Food Inspection Agency may have its best people working on the current case of bovine tuberculosis, but officials admit it is a complex investigation into a confounding bacteria.
“If we tried to create a more perfect bug that we couldn’t get rid of, this one would be the one,” said veterinarian Dr. Rick James-Davies, CFIA regional director for the West.
Eighty people from the agency’s Calgary office are working on the southeastern Alberta case, and 40 are involved from Ottawa, said James-Davies.
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Canada has had tuberculosis free status since 1923, but cases occasionally appear. Trading partners expect a complete investigation and enhanced surveillance when cases are found, he told the Alberta Beef Producers annual meeting, which was held Dec. 5-7 in Calgary.
Surveillance normally takes place at federal plants during animal inspection after slaughter. The original case reported in September was detected in a five-year-old Alberta cow shipped to a packing plant in the United States.
As of Dec. 7, 26,000 cattle were under quarantine on 50 farms in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Of those, 18 have been declared high risk because they were in close proximity to the source animal at some point.
“We expect that 50 number to change. We will certainly find some others, and I hope they are the low-risk ones,” said James-Davies.
Testing is ongoing and should finish in early January, said Dr. Harpreet Kochhar, the CFIA’s chief veterinarian.
The bacteria is hard to find even with advanced testing.
It is called mycobacterium bovis and is one of many strains of mycobacteria that cause human tuberculosis, Johne’s disease and leprosy. It is contagious and takes a long time before symptoms occur. It also requires direct contact among animals, said Karen Schmid, a beef production specialist with Alberta Beef Producers.
Once the disease has progressed, it can form nodular lesions known as tubercles, which can move through the lymphatic system and remain dormant in the body until the immune system breaks down. In an advanced case, the animal may display a loss of appetite, weight loss, fluctuating fever and cough.
DNA testing showed that the strain found in Alberta is related to one that emerged in cattle in central Mexico in 1997. It has never been identified in Canadian livestock or wildlife but has been found in the United States.
barbara.duckworth@producer.com
