The Indiana State Board of Animal Health announced Monday that it is investigating the TB case after cattle tested positive for the illness over the weekend after exhibiting signs during a routine inspection at a meat processing facility in Pennsylvania. The six affected steers were traced back to southeast Indiana. BOAH veterinarians are in the process of conducting a thorough investigation of the Indiana herd from which the animals were shipped. In follow-up to the initial positive report, the infected herd will be depopulated. The BOAH says its staff is working closely with the herd owner to trace any movements of animals into and out of the herd. As information develops, BOAH will notify herd owners and others who may be impacted by the investigation.
There is also an effort to determine if TB is present in the wildlife population. The BOAH and Indiana Department of Natural Resources have worked together on surveillance of hunter-harvested white-tailed deer in Franklin County and surrounding counties since 2009. No TB has been found in the 430 deer examined over the past seven years. Indiana has officially held a bovine tuberculosis-free status since 1984 with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Under federal guidelines, that status remains. Individual cases of TB had been found in a cattle herd and a farm in southeast Indiana between 2008 and 2011, according to the board.