06/16/05 Hearing on TB rule; BSE testing

Washington Ag June 16, 2005 In an effort to keep Washington state free of bovine tuberculosis, the Washington State Department of Agriculture is seeking to make permanent an emergency ruled adopted in March that requires all dairy cows and bulls six months of age or older to test negative for the disease within 60 days prior to entering the state. A public hearing on the matter is scheduled for next Wednesday, June 22nd at the Natural Resources Building in Olympia. More than 30 other states enforce the same requirements. Doctor Randall Levings, Director of the National Veterinary Services Lab in Ames, Iowa says the fact that an animal can test negative for BSE in the immuno-histo-chemistry or IHC test but positive using the Western Blot test is not a complete shock, but it is puzzling. Levings: For us this on the one hand is scientifically interesting because in classic BSE they are both positive. In tens of thousands of tests run around the world they are always both positive or both negative. So there is something odd about this case just by its very nature of coming up negative on IHC and reactive on Western Blot." USDA of course recently reported that a downer cow born before the feed ban, that had tested negative on the IHC last November, recently tested positive for BSE on the Western Blot with further study on samples to be conducted in England. I'm Bob Hoff.