USDA Changes Minnesota TB Status

The United States Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has downgraded Minnesota because of the presence of bovine tuberculosis. The classification will make it more difficult to move or sell cattle from Minnesota to other states. Bovine TB has been detected in a number of northwestern Minnesota cattle herds and in the wild deer population as well. The state could have kept its advanced status if no more than three infected cattle herds had been discovered in the last two years. The USDA said that bovine TB can be deadly in animals and passed on to humans through raw but not pasteurized milk.