Bovine TB

 Bovine tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that is close to being eradicated in the United States, but still poses a significant risk to domestic livestock, wildlife, companion animals and humans throughout the world. The disease primarily affects the respiratory tract but can also spread to other parts of the body. The primary route of transmission is the exchange of respiratory secretions between infected and uninfected animals. Various factors affect the efficiency in which TB is spread within a cattle herd. The number of infected animals shedding the organism, as well as the number of susceptible animals present within a herd can have an impact on the transmission of the bacteria.

 The U.S. Senate recently accepted a key amendment that would provide some much-needed relief for cattle producers working to eradicate Bovine Tuberculosis - or TB - from their herds. National Cattlemen’s Beef Association   Colin Woodall explains how this additional assistance will help in the long-term efforts to fully eradicate this disease: To effectively eliminate those animals and help eradicate and ultimately get to our goal with a full eradication, we have to de-populate those diseased animals and their herdmates. But to do that we need have a fair and equitable payment to the producer in order to take those animals away from them and destroy them.