Michigan deer hunters take note

tennmike

Bovine tuberculosis found in deer in Michigan. New outbreak of Bovine TB in a large herd of cattle in Alcona County. 73rd herd to be infected since 1998. Check them deer carcasses!

https://www.westernmassnews.com/hunters-warned-to-lookout-for-bovine-tuberculosis-in-deer/article_285d7912-ee24-5fa0-a0d8-be52011b38fb.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=user-share

Jayhawker

They have had that problem in that area before...interesting that in the past it's been a "deer problem"...too many deer, rather than what it is...a "cattle problem"... It's BOVINE TB....

tennmike

Hard to control disease in cattle. About the only method to control is to dispose of the cattle and start over later. How long to wait, I don't know. Anthrax, blackleg, brucelosis, and a couple of other diseases are what cattle around my parts are vaccinated for, and there is no bovine TB vaccine for cattle. Deer down here get hit with CWD at times, and Blue Tongue is a problem here in dry years. Blue Tongue works pretty fast, though, and the deer die pretty quick, and is usually spread by bad water sources from standing water.

Jayhawker

The safest thing to do is quarantine and test prior to adding new critters to the herd.
Preventing nose to nose contact with cervids is a harder proposition..,

tennmike

How it's passed from cows to deer is a question. It's either direct contact, nose to nose, or infected cows coughing on feed put out for cattle. That would be my guess as to the deer contracting it from cattle; eating infected feed from infected cows coughing on it while eating.

Quarantine of new animals is a good idea, but testing for Bovine TB before a sale should take care of that as a first defense.

Jayhawker

I know that testing of our surplus bison was required before we could sell them...all because we had one case of an animal that had contact with an infected cow through the fence 10 years previously...