Sheriff To Aid MDA in Bovine TB Checks
USDA Grant Allows Sheriff Dept. To Patrol Checkpoint at Bridge
By Ryan Schlehuber

Patrolling the bovine tuberculosis checkpoint on the north side of the Mackinac Bridge is now being performed by the Mackinac County Sheriff's Department, relieving Michigan State Police motor carrier officers, at least until December 31.

The state received a $50,000 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to increase its patrol of bovine tuberculosis (TB) at checkpoints throughout the state. Through the federal grant, the Michigan Department of Agriculture will provide funding for one county deputy to work with the department's compliance officers 40 hours a week to check vehicles with livestock coming north from the Lower Peninsula.

Previously, the state police motor carrier officers, who perform mobile surveillance at the bridge and on I-75 nearby to enforce the maximum weight limit for large vehicles crossing the bridge, assisted agriculture department officers at the bridge checkpoint for eight hours each week, pulling over vehicles hauling livestock that do not pull into the St. Ignace Welcome Center to be checked.

With the USDA funding, surveillance at the bridge checkpoint will be full time, said Al Rodriquez, compliance officer with the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA).

"The federal government is making a big push to keep bovine TB contained," said Mr. Rodriquez. "We started right away once we got the funding. This will allow us to track vehicles with livestock driving into the U.P. more often."

Mackinac County Deputy Brad Erskine began patrolling the checkpoint Wednesday, November 14.

Negotiations to allow the Mackinac County Sheriff's Department to continue the program for 2008 are ongoing, said Sheriff Scott Strait.

The Michigan State Police Traffic Safety Division, which includes motor carrier officers, will continue to assist the MDA with mobile surveillance of livestock vehicles heading toward the bridge by patrolling I-75 in northern Lower Michigan, said Lieutenant Rod Bloss of the Michigan State Police in Gaylord. He is the commanding officer for the 7th and 8th Districts, with 22 counties in the Lower Peninsula and 15 counties in the Upper Peninsula, including Mackinac.

"After January 1, we will be patrolling without being accompanied with an MDA compliance officer," he said, "as long as we can secure funding for overtime for officers from the USDA or state."

Checkpoints and patrols near the Mackinac Bridge for bovine TB have continued since 2005 to prevent the animal illness from spreading into the U.P. Another checkpoint effort has worked to prevent campfire wood from entering the U.P. to keep out the spread of the emerald ash borer.

Anyone moving livestock into the U.P. must pull into the checkpoint at the Welcome Center in St. Ignace, and must present a movement certificate, which can be obtained online at the Farm Animal Identification and Records database, www.nationalfair.com, or by calling the Michigan Department of Agriculture at (517) 373-1077.

Bovine TB has been under scrutiny in the United States since 1917. It was once estimated that one out of every 20 cattle slaughtered in the country was infected with the disease. In 1979, following years of eradication efforts, Michigan was declared free of the disease in livestock, however, cases were discovered in whitetailed deer in the Lower Peninsula in the late 1990s.

The discovery of bovine TB in domestic livestock and a number of wildlife species, including deer, resulted in the loss of Michigan's Bovine TB Accredited-Free State Status by the federal government in June 2000. The state is designated as Modified Accredited, which restricts the sale and flow of livestock and captive deer and elk from northern Lower Michigan.

Since then, there have been 42 reported cases of bovine TB in Michigan, with all but two cases involving cattle. The two other cases were found from deer in privately owned deer farms or ranches, said Mr. Rodriquez. No cases have been reported in the Upper Peninsula.