The government has quarantined three dozen farms and thousands of cattle in western Canada as it investigates an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis, a bacterial disease that can be transmitted to people. Ranchers appealed to the House of Commons for compensation for the quarantine or permission to sell the cattle, which are ready for marketing.
“The feed costs are going to destroy us … I’ll be broke by spring,” rancher Ross White said in video testimony, reported Reuters. An Alberta cattle group said 18,000 head are held in quarantine. The province is the heart of Canada’s beef industry.
Six cases of bovine TB have been confirmed in Alberta by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, beginning with the case of an animal shipped to a U.S. slaughterhouse. Canada is a leading source of cattle for import to U.S. feedlots.