USDA shuts down cattle trade with Mexico’s Durango state

USDA shuts down cattle trade with Mexico’s Durango state    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service closed the U.S. border to cattle from the Mexican state of Durango due to inadequacies with that state’s bovine tuberculosis (TB) management program.
   Durango is divided into two sections for purposes of exporting cattle to the United States, with one section allowed to export and one that is not. During a review of Durango’s TB management practices, the agency found that animals from the section not allowed to export were being moved into the region that is allowed to export.
   Bovine TB can be transmitted from livestock to humans and other animals.
   To resume trade, Durango must meet all USDA guidelines, including:
   * Prohibiting the movement of dairy heifers from herds in known infected regions into the exporting region.
   * Requiring quarantine and tests of animals in any heifer raising operation in the exporting region that has received cattle from dairy herds in the known infected region.
   * Requiring quarantine and tests for herds along Durango’s internal regional border if one or more animal in the herd has tested positive.
   According to the USDA, Durango is the third largest cattle exporting state in Mexico. Cattle from Durango make up about 16.5 percent of all cattle imported into the United States from Mexico.