We urge the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) and Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) to be more assertive in their efforts to eradicate Bovine Tuberculosis (TB) and move Michigan to TB-free status. We also urge the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to receive and provide feedback and implement recommendations in a timelier manner. We strongly encourage producer and hunter cooperation in all segments of our eradication efforts and support the departments and industry utilizing the latest technological advancements.
MDARD should draft an aggressive action plan with benchmarks and dates to achieve the goal of statewide TB-free status. This plan should involve industry stakeholders and request adequate funding for implementation. The legislature must provide oversight for accountability.
We oppose MDARD creating, implementing, or enforcing rules or regulations on cattle producers that would be more stringent than USDA’s published rules regarding bovine TB.
To expedite TB eradication, we support:
- A bounty and/or income tax credit for deer taken in any Michigan county that is not TB-free and contiguous counties.
- Funding the entire TB program from MDNR’s budget, and tying that budget to deer-herd reduction and TB prevalence.
- A late hunt in February or March, not January.
- MDARD, USDA, MDNR and other state and federal agencies involving producers from all affected areas of the state in decision-making processes regarding bovine TB eradication.
- Producer implementation of a Wildlife Risk Mitigation Plan (WRMP).
- State and federal funding for hiring a third-party designated agriculturalist to assist with WRMP development, implementation, and inspection.
- A complete and approved WRMP on file should empower producers with the authority to manage nuisance/destructive species on their land, including access to disease-control permits to reduce deer and elk interaction with cattle or livestock feed to minimize disease transmission. Additionally, farmers should be able to shoot any deer 24/7 within a designated farmyard circle.
- In counties deemed high-risk or positive for TB, and all contiguous counties, white-tailed deer harvest should be allowed year-round by any legal hunter without requiring a permit.
- Establishing and implementing a science-based zoning approach and testing process to address disease risk (e.g., a 10-mile radius zone around new TB-positive livestock herds).
- Eradication of white-tailed deer within a 10-mile radius high-risk zone established after TB-positive deer or cattle are found.
- Changes to the national TB-testing requirements that eliminate the need for an individual test for animals moving from a lower disease prevalence zone to a higher disease prevalence zone.
- Tying indemnity payments to the development and implementation of a WRMP on each farm in the modified accredited TB zone.
- State and/or federal funding for all required identification and testing.
- Producer compensation for all livestock injured or ordered removed during mandatory testing.
- The free use of state-owned equipment for producers required to perform state-mandated TB testing.
- Continued cooperation between MDARD and USDA to return Michigan to TB-free status by advancing the status in areas where TB has not been found, or those proven to be disease-free through science-based testing.
- State and federal funding for comprehensive and concerted research to further understand the transmission, persistence, detection, eradication, and vaccinations necessary to prevent disease transmission.
- Science-based and species-specific testing protocols.
- Developing an exit strategy for the entire state to upgrade the Modified Accredited Zone (MAZ) to TB-free status.
- Research into a buyout program for cattle producers in Deer Management Unit 487.
- MDARD pursuing aggressive action with surrounding states to open their borders to Michigan cattle.
- Dramatic reduction of the deer herd in any TB-infected Michigan county and contiguous counties. Action should include agency culling, spring hunt, unlimited fall hunting, and no-cost licenses.
- State support for deer-exclusion fencing around entire contiguous cattle farms and deeming such barriers acceptable options for farmers requesting a WRMP.
When herds are quarantined for disease control, we strongly urge MDARD/USDA to remove and test suspect animals as quickly as possible. Upon confirmation of infection, we support:
- Depopulation, or test-and-remove, within 60 days of when the disease was confirmed, and indemnity payments issued within 60 days after an indemnification agreement has been accepted by all parties.
- If a farm is depopulated because of bovine TB, and was operating under a WRMP with no intention of repopulation, indemnity should not be contingent on modifications to the plan.
- Requiring state and federal agencies to harvest and test potential carrier animals on and around TB-positive farms, including on state-owned land.
- Transparency from USDA Wildlife Services, including accounting and reporting of its monthly deer harvest.
In zones where TB is found, we support aggressive use of all wildlife management tools to control all animal disease transmission. Limits and bans on baiting and feeding may sometimes be justified and practical, but we do not support a statewide ban.
Continued state and federal funding is critical to complete eradication of the disease in free-ranging wildlife and livestock populations.
To ensure Michigan TB eradication efforts are not compromised, we encourage the MDARD director to require reciprocal requirements for the importation of breeding, show, and sport cattle.
We request state and/or federal funds be made available to producers for implementing WRMPs involving large expenditures. In the MAZ, we support the test-and-remove option for herd owners who have implemented a WRMP. We support whole-herd depopulation as the most effective method of disease eradication. We request USDA count herds positive only for the months in which they contain positive animals.
The current memorandum of understanding (MOU) between USDA, MDARD, and MDNR establishes ambitious quotas for collecting deer heads in the M counties, and in surrounding TB surveillance counties. To achieve these goals, we support:
- A more aggressive approach by MDNR to meeting deer-head collection requirements.
- Identification, transportation and testing in the MOU.
- A plan for coordinated effort between MDNR, processors, Michigan State University Veterinary Diagnostic Lab, Farm Bureau, and the hunting community in deer head collection by September 1 of each year.
- Weekly updates and reporting of completed deer-head testing beginning September 1 of each year.
- Payment for each deer head turned in until the requirements of the MOU are met, paid by the MDNR.
- Accountability from state and federal agencies for not meeting MOU requirements.
- Reduction and possible elimination of cattle testing in buffer counties at the end of the current MOU.
- Compensation from the MDNR budget to offset farm and MDARD testing expenses rooted in failed agency MOU compliance.
- Requiring heads from all deer taken on private and public lands in that region to be submitted for testing.
In order to meet testing requirements from USDA, MDARD, and MDNR, all deer heads taken from the seven counties around the MAZ for crop damage permits, as well as those taken on private and state lands, should be picked up by MDNR and submitted for TB testing. MDNR should also be required to pick up all vehicle-killed deer in that area and submit those heads for TB testing.
To maintain market access for cattle producers in a known TB positive region, we support the movement of cattle out of that region through normal channels as long as testing and movement requirements are met.
