News
Michigan officials find deer with TB in a new area
Michigan ag officials are alerting farmers after finding a bovine tuberculosis-infected deer in a new area.
Dr. Mike Vanderklok is with the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. He says, “We have a core area where TB has been kind of found endemicly in the free-ranging white-tailed deer in northeastern lower Michigan, and occasionally we will find a TB-positive deer outside of that area, and that did happen.”
Vanderklok tells Brownfield the infected deer was found in Cheboygan County west of the area known to have deer with Bovine TB, so the department is reaching out to area farmers. “The letter went out at the end of last week. They should be receiving it anytime now, and we’ll be having a meeting next week on Thursday night for those producers at the Wolverine Village Hall to talk about the TB testing and what needs to be done.”
He says the cattle near the infected deer will have to be tested for bovine tuberculosis within the next twelve months.
Vanderklok says the disease has been contained to the wild deer herd, and it’s very rare for the disease to infect any of Michigan’s cattle.
