Tuberculosis-infected dairy heifer linked to New Mexico

A dairy heifer infected with tuberculosis was discovered in Kansas and found to have originated from a heifer development feedlot in New Mexico.  Kansas depopulated 1,126 dairy heifers that had direct contact with the infected heifer at a cost of $2,252,000 plus the labor to test the cattle. An additional 3,400 Kansas heifers that had some association with the original feedlot in New Mexico were tested.

Epidemiology indicated that 18 large dairies in southwest Kansas had purchased replacements that had some degree of association with the New Mexico feedlot. Nearly 85,000 additional dairy cows were tested because of this, costing the state and federal government $240,000 for labor, supplies, and depopulation of suspect animals. The testing of these animals took 30 days and involved 30 people. The cost to those 18 dairies was also substantial.

Had an effective disease traceback system been in place, approximately 5,000 head of cattle would have been identified as a greater risk.  Those animals could have been located and tested at much less expense to the producers involved as well as the government.