DEAD BEEF HERD RAISES QUESTIONS
Tuesday, January 18th, 2011 -- 11:38 AM
State officials are investigating the deaths of about 200 steers on a farm in Portage County.It appears the animals died of a viral strain of pneumonia.
"It's Acute Interstitial Pneumonia, which basically means it happened quick and they don't really know what caused it. They had lung damage and it happened quick,"
explains Clark County UW-Extension Livestock agent Maria Bendixen.
People with knowledge of the situation say the animals began dying last week, with the last succumbing to the illness on Saturday. They were dying within 12 hours of showing symptoms and didn?t respond to treatment.
Bendixen says there are still plenty of questions, for example: is what these animals died from contagious?
Livestock markets can be very touchy to animal illnesses, but it?s still too early to tell if other states will impose any sort of restrictions on Wisconsin beef.
"It's possible, more than likely, though, there was a vaccination protocol that wasn't done, or a new strain that we can create a vaccine for, or something like that," Bendixen says.
Regardless of the larger implications, the animals? deaths were probably devastating to the owners. Bendixen says beef steers have been going for between .90-cents and $1.20 a pound. A finished steer could earn well over $1,000 a head.
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