Feedlots will be set up for cattle quarantined because of bovine tuberculosis in Alberta and Saskatchewan, says the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
Producers on 35 farms under quarantine have paid thousands of dollars to feed 22,000 animals while CFIA investigators complete their work, which could take months.
The ranchers can't sell or move any of their livestock and must continue feeding cattle that they normally would have already sold before winter, and will likely have to sell their herds at a cut rate in the spring.
Cattle could start moving to designated feedlots as early as next week, although the locations have not been selected, said Jaspinder Komal, the chief veterinarian for the CFIA. It may just be a single location.
"(We) are working with the industry collaboratively to make sure there is a feedlot available and there's a facility for feed and water. And also taking care of these animals from a welfare prospective," he said.
It's not clear who will pay to feed and care for animals on the feedlot.
"We are currently working very closely with Alberta identifying all the costs that these individuals are occurring and certainly one of those costs is going to be the costs of feeding those animals," said Rosser Lloyd of Agriculture and Agri-Foods Canada.
"We are looking at it from the AgriRecovery assessment process and quickly trying to come to some conclusions on how we can help."
Half a dozen cattle at just one of those 35 farms, owned by rancher Brad Osadczuk, have tested positive for the contagious bacterial disease. The first infected animal was discovered after being slaughtered in the United States in mid-September.
Source : CBC