050113 Texas Gets New Deadline To Test Its Cattle For TBJanuary 8, 2005Lubbock, TX - U.S. Department of Agriculture officials have for a second time extended a cattle tuberculosis testing deadline in Texas, keeping animal transport trucks rolling in the nation's leading cattle-producing state. Without the extension of the Dec. 31 deadline, other states might have turned away Texas feeder cattle. Texas is one of only four states to lose the USDA's important TB-free designation. California, New Mexico and Michigan are the others. The deadline was extended to Aug. 31 or when the remainder of $3.25 million in federal funds for the state's testing program runs out. The latter probably will come first, said Dr. Dee Ellis, a veterinarian with the Texas Animal Health Commission, who is managing the program. "If we got our testing done this spring, we could take that to USDA" to begin the paperwork for returning to TB-free status, commission spokeswoman Carla Everett said. Bovine TB is a highly contagious lung disease but is rarely passed along to humans. Infected cattle spread the bacteria by coughing, bellowing and snorting in feedlots or pastures. When TB is detected, the entire herd is usually destroyed. Two outbreaks of the bacterial infection triggered the change in Texas' federal designation in 2002. October 2006 is the earliest Texas can regain TB-free status. That will mark two years from when a dairy that tested positive was depopulated, Ellis said. USDA officials said the testing deadline could be extended. All 831 dairy herds have been tested, but only 458 of the required 2,400 beef herds have been, Ellis said. The testing, which is voluntary for beef herds but mandatory for dairies, is also being done on newly permitted dairies, he said. The state has 153,000 herds. When the USDA extended the original Aug. 31, 2004, deadline, only 270 beef herds had been tested. About 100 herds were tested between late May and the end of August. "They've been slow throughout," Ellis said. "They've done more this fall, and I'm optimistic that we will successfully complete the testing program. But we'll continue to work with industry to make it happen." The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, based in Fort Worth, said it will continue to urge testing.
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