Manitoba Beef Producers says the province should reinstate testing of wild game for bovine TB as a precaution, while testing continues on a Manitoba cattle herd.
Two Manitoba herds were connected to cases of bovine tuberculosis found in Saskatchewan earlier this year. Testing is complete on one of those herds, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said in a statement sent to the Co-operator Oct. 23. At the time of the email, the second herd was still being tested.
Why it matters: A TB-infected cow came to the CFIA’s attention after it was shipped to the U.S., where the infection was detected in February.
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Both herds are in the region around Swan River, said MBP general manager Carson Callum.
That is near the old bovine TB eradication zone around Riding Mountain National Park.
“It’s something that we would hope that the provincial government and the CFIA would be monitoring,” he said.
Testing so far has not shown anything “overly concerning,” he said, but the process continues.
This July, Manitoba removed requirements for hunters to submit samples to test for bovine TB in the long-established eradication zone. In a program update, it said Manitoba has been free of bovine TB since 2016, making precautionary testing unnecessary.
The same release indicated provincial resources would be focused on chronic wasting disease surveillance in wild game. That illness was first detected in the province in 2021 and has been found in 22 cases as of July, according to Government of Manitoba data.
“We are actively monitoring the situation in both Manitoba and Saskatchewan and will adjust requirements as new information becomes available,” a provincial spokesperson said in an Oct. 24 statement. “If risk to wildlife increases, Manitoba could revive the testing requirements.”
In early October, Saskatchewan announced expansion of wildlife testing to include bovine TB.
Cases were detected after a Saskatchewan animal shipped to the U.S. tested positive in February. The CFIA quarantined the source herd, and herds connected to it, for further testing.
That was done throughout the year but was delayed by spring calving and pasture turnout.
Lab testing of samples from a related Saskatchewan herd is ongoing and an Alberta herd still needs to be tested, the CFIA said.
As of Oct. 16, the CFIA’s most recent update, there were 32 confirmed cases of bovine TB.
Testing in Manitoba hasn’t raised concern among elk producers, says the Manitoba Elk Growers Association.
“Our herds are regularly tested and inspected for TB, brucellosis and CWD,” said association president Ian Thorleifson in an Oct. 24 email. “No incidence of any of these diseases has ever been detected in a farmed cervid in Manitoba over our 70-year history of continuous operation.”
Elk herds don’t mingle with other herds at auction marts or community pastures, which reduces exposure, he added.
