Bovine Tuberculosis in Michigan Wildlife and Livestock

Abstract

Since 1994, the state of Michigan has recognized a problem with bovine tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium bovis, in wild white-tailed deer from a 12-county area in northeastern Lower Michigan. A total of 65,000 free-ranging deer have been tested, and 340 have been found to be positive for M. bovis. The disease has been found in other wildlife species, and, in 1998, in domestic cattle, where to date 13 beef cattle and 2 dairy cattle herds have been diagnosed with bovine TB. Unfortunately, the situation is unique in that there have never been reports of self-sustaining bovine TB in a wild, free-ranging cervid population in North America. Scientists, biologists, epidemiologists, and veterinarians who have studied this situation have concluded that the most logical theory is that high deer densities and the focal concentration caused by baiting (the practice of hunting deer over feed) and feeding are the factors most likely responsible for the establishment of self-sustaining TB in free-ranging Michigan deer. Baiting and feeding have been banned since 1998 in counties where the disease has been found. In addition, the deer herd has been reduced by 50% in the endemic area with the use of unlimited antlerless permits. The measures of apparent TB prevalence have been decreased by half since 1997, providing hopeful preliminary evidence that eradication strategies are succeeding.

A novel live recombinant mycobacterial vaccine against bovine tuberculosis more potent than BCG

“…Complicating the control of M. bovis infection, wild animals infected with M. bovis frequently serve as reservoirs for infecting the domesticated animals. Such wild animals include the badger in the United Kingdom and Ireland, the bushtail possum in New Zealand, the whitetailed deer in the United States, the marsh antelope in Zambia, and the African buffalo in South Africa [2,[4][5][6][7].…”

Tuberculosis

“…18-22,b The reemergence of M bovis infection in captive and free-ranging wild animals, with subsequent transmission of infection to domestic animals, is of concern to livestock producers and regulatory officials in the United States and in several other countries of the world. [23][24][25][26] In Michigan, the detection of tuberculosis in deer and other wild animals and the transmission of M bovis infection to beef and dairy herds have threatened the export of breeding stock and semen to other states and to countries outside the United States. 26 When an outbreak of tuberculosis in cattle is reported within a state, federal disease control officials remove the state' s accredited-free status, causing economic hardships for the state' s livestock industries.…”

THE OCCURRENCE OF PATHOGENS IN AN ENDANGERED POPULATION OF AMERICAN BADGERS (TAXIDEA TAXUS JACKSONI) IN ONTARIO, CANADA

“…European Badgers (Meles meles) have been implicated as reservoirs for the agent causing bovine tuberculosis, Mycobacterium bovis, in the United Kingdom (Woodroffe et al 2006), but American Badgers, which are not closely related to M. meles, (Koepfli et al 2008) are not considered carriers of the disease (Schmitt et al 2002).…”