Bovine TB tests still required for Curry, Roosevelt counties

Only two New Mexico counties — Roosevelt and Curry — will have to test for bovine tuberculosis in cattle leaving the county, according to a new federal directive announced Friday.

Previously, the entire state was under the testing requirement, part of the effects of a downgrade in bovine TB-status after an infected cow was discovered in Curry County last year.

“It will still present challenges for us here in these two counties, but it’ll help the rest of the state,” said Roosevelt County Extension agent Patrick Kircher.

State Livestock Board Executive Director Myles Culbertson said the USDA”s “split-status” decision in New Mexico hasn’t been posted on the federal register, so all the details aren’t available yet.

Elida beef producer Greg Smith said the testing requirement is expensive. Because he regularly shows cattle around the country, he must pay to have the cattle he travels with tested every 60 days.

Since the first time the area lost its bovine TB-free status in 2003, Smith said, he’s spent about $30,000 on testing.

In asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to reconsider the statewide downgrade in TB status, the New Mexico congressional delegation said the  move could cost state producers more than $4 million a year.

Walter Bradley, of Dairy Farmers of America in Clovis, said he knows of no dairies that don’t already voluntarily test their cattle for bovine TB. But he still called the status change good news. Beef producers in particular see the benefits, he said.

Because dairies around the state are members of the same cooperatives, Bradley said, the decreased expenses due to the status change could benefit all of them.

“If you help a few of them, it helps everybody,” he said.

Bovine TB is highly contagious among cattle and causes severe coughing, fatigue, emaciation, debilitation and possibly death. Bradley said it is very rare for humans to contract the disease from cattle, and milk is safe because it’s pasteurized.

To be declared bovine TB free, he said, the area must have no reported cases of the disease for five years.

Curry County Extension agent Stan Jones said he wished the downgraded TB status applied to only parts of Roosevelt and Curry counties. The northern and western areas never had a case of bovine TB, he said, but the testing requirements are affecting ranchers and feed lot operators in the areas.

Within two weeks, Jones said, the state veterinarian’s office will hold meetings in Roosevelt and Curry counties to discuss what the split status means for producers.

Culbertson said the agriculture department’s decision “came at the end of a lot of discussion and work with the USDA to be able to establish the parameters for assurance of no risk of TB in the rest of the state. So there will be some pretty significant surveillance activity by the Livestock Board.”

States that accept cattle from New Mexico also make their own rules. Culbertson said he expects receiving states to acknowledge the TB-free status for most of New Mexico, but added, “It’s important to caution that they do make their own rules and so we’ll have to wait for that.”

Erik Ness, a spokesman for the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau in Las Cruces, said the USDA’s latest decision was “a big win for the livestock industry.”

“We have a saying around here: You don’t need a sledge hammer to tune a piano. That’s kind of what was happening,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.