The Bovine Tuberculosis Management program “pivots”
- Details
- Published on Thursday, June 30, 2016
By Dr. Allan Preston
Bovine Tuberculosis Coordinator
As the American election process continues to evolve, we hear the comment that the two major candidates are “pivoting” from the internal party nomination process to the election battle now ahead for the Democrats and Republicans. Well, here, north of the 49th parallel, the management of bovine tuberculosis is also “pivoting” from disease detection and eradication to a disease prevention and risk mitigation focus. Read on – see what was accomplished in 2015- 2016, see what’s in store for 2016–2017.
First – a reminder about the Bovine TB management plan goals
The program goals continue to focus on the Management Plan’s long term vision of:
• maintaining TB Free status in domestic livestock
• reducing the prevalence of TB in wildlife to undetectable levels
• reducing surveillance programs in both wild and domestic herds to maintenance levels
• minimizing wildlife-livestock interactions in the Riding Mountain region, and
• maintaining sustainable elk and deer populations in the ecosystem.
2015–2016 results
While recognizing that we are still awaiting the outcome from a few remaining small herd tests and some final lab results, the news for this past surveillance season is all good. The 43 Core Area livestock herds, approximately 4,300 head, were all tested this year, with negative results across the board – Goal #1 has been achieved.
The balance of the Core Area wild mature cow elk herd (73 cows) was tested and found to be negative as well. Finally, all of the 74 elk and 162 white tailed deer, hunter killed samples submitted also tested negative for TB. Goal #2 is getting much closer to completion. Goal #3 will be achieved in the 2016–2017 plan; Goal #4 is a key component for the current and future years, driven largely by on farm risk assessments and biosecurity programs. Goal #5 is a longer term work in progress as the elk and Whitetail Deer herds slowly rebuild, driven in part by habitat improvement within the park itself.
The 2015–2016 plan will come in approximately $250,000 under budget, with the actual expenditures being $1.9 million. We successfully achieved 18 of the 26 key performance indicators in the plan. Those key performance indicators not fully achieved have been recognized and moved forward into the 2016–17 plan for completion.
2016-2017 management plan
The management plan for 2016–2017 has been approved and implementation is well under way. Two key activities, the testing of live elk within the Core Area and the herd testing of domestic livestock, are “on hold” for this year, with no testing planned. This change has resulted in a much reduced budget – down to $1 million from last year’s $2 million, and it sees the roles for Parks Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) dramatically reduced for this year.
The 2016–2017 plan marks a clear transition from the past activities of disease detection and eradication, to current and future activities focused on the disease prevention and risk mitigation actions necessary to maintaining freedom from bovine tuberculosis in the Riding Mountain ecosystem. We have successfully reached disease freedom in domestic livestock and we are approaching, over the next four or five years, a similar level of confidence that the disease no longer exists in the wild cervid herd. This transition reduces the role for Parks Canada and the CFIA while putting more onus on Manitoba Agriculture, Manitoba Sustainable Development and the Manitoba Beef Producers, to advance those prevention and risk mitigation efforts.
Until we reach disease freedom in the wild elk and Whitetail Deer population, domestic slaughter surveillance and hunter killed sample analysis will supplant live animal testing, provided adequate epidemiological data is collected through these methods. Livestock producers can enhance the necessary progress in slaughter surveillance by ensuring that their Premise Identification and Canadian Cattle Identification Agency accounts are linked and ensuring that they are fully compliant with Canada’s traceability regulations. Hunters can enhance the wildlife surveillance numbers by ensuring that every elk and Whitetail Deer harvested in the Riding Mountain Eradication Area is submitted for analysis.
And livestock producers can certainly assist in risk mitigation through participation in the On Farm Risk Assessment program, implementing and maintaining the necessary biosecurity programs on their farms that will reduce any potential re-introduction of the disease into their herds.
Beyond 2017…
CFIA has signalled that it does not plan to return to on-farm herd testing in the 2017–2018 surveillance season and Parks Canada has indicated that its provisional plan to re-test the Core Area mature cow elk herd in 2019–2020 is unlikely to occur. However, both of these planned activity eliminations are contingent upon several caveats:
• No additional wildlife cases detected
• No additional livestock cases detected
• Continued and complete incorporation of slaughter surveillance into the disease model
• Continued hunter killed surveillance at the required levels
• On farm risk assessments and continued implementation of appropriate biosecurity measures
Closing note
The many years of effort by all have brought us much closer to achieving our collective goals. Always remember that the fifth goal of the plan – maintaining a sustainable elk and Whitetail Deer population in the ecosystem – must be addressed as well. The habitat enrichment programs underway by Parks Canada, along with an ever-changing agricultural landscape bordering the Park, bode well for a steady, albeit slow, resurgence in those wild cervid populations.
As the described transition takes place, all parties to the plan are encouraged to sustain their effort to allow us to, with certainty, reach those goals.
Until the next time...
