An Open Letter from Myles Culbertson, NMLB Executive Director
COMMENTS ON THE FEDERAL BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS PROGRAM
December 11, 2008
Few, whether in or out of government, would maintain that that the 91-year-old Bovine Tuberculosis Program is succeeding, or is particularly relevant, in today’s livestock environment. The New Mexico experience bears the fact out. The federal indemnity in New Mexico exceeded $20,000,000 in 2007 and destroyed over 10,000 head of cattle to remove 52 infected animals from the supply chain. In 2008 a lone infected “mystery” cow caused the programmatic downgrade of the entire state. The taxpayers have been abused, the livestock industry is under unreasonable regulatory burden, and no national progress in the elimination of the disease can be claimed as a result. How many ways could twenty-plus million dollars have been better used? Maybe it could have underwritten development of a reliable test or an effective prevention; or not spent at all, held in reserve against the possibility of a serious agricultural crisis... Read More