Sask. cow tests positive for bovine TB

Dec 18, 2024
By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content, Farms.com

The cow was processed at an abattoir in Alberta

A six-year-old cow originating in Saskatchewan and processed at a federally regulated abattoir in Alberta tested positive for bovine tuberculosis (TB).

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says tissues collected from the cow on Nov. 29 had a positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for the disease.

Bovine TB can result in enlarged lesions on the lymph nodes of the head and thorax, lung, spleen and liver.

The CFIA used the Canadian Livestock Traceability System to identify the Saskatchewan herd the cow came from.

“This herd has been placed under quarantine until testing can be completed,” the CFIA said in a Dec. 16 release.

Canada’s livestock sector has dealt with bovine TB outbreaks before.

In 2023, for example, a cow tested at a U.S. processing facility was traced back to a herd in Saskatchewan.

And between 2016 and 2017, around 11,500 animals had to be culled between Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba due to bovine TB.

Around the world, researchers are looking at vaccine development to protect livestock herds from bovine TB outbreaks.

In 2024, for example, researchers from Penn State, Addis Ababa University and the University of Cambridge showed a TB vaccine currently used in humans can reduce infectiousness in vaccinated livestock.

The study, carried out in Ethiopia, showed that the vaccine, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin, reduced bovine TB in cattle by almost 90 per cent.

And in 2023, researchers with the University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization says a vaccine is in development and field trials could happen “in the next couple of years.”

Bovine TB is a reportable disease in Canada, meaning all cases must be reported to the CFIA.

The disease has been subject to an eradication program since 1923.

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