Comment from Walter Valente, Calaveras County Cattlemen's Association

Since January 2008 you have confirmed 3 dairy herds in Fresno Co. with TB. Information from one of your press releases anticipated that the TB status for California was going to be changed from Accredited Free to Modified Accredited Advanced. This change is a direct result of dairy cattle, and the dairy industry allowing a source of TB infected animals into the infected herds. With this abrupt change you are devastating the beef cattle industry. It appears that we are being directly targeted and severely impacted with undue hardships at a time of year when large numbers of cattle move from seasonal pastures and are sold. Areas outside the quarantine zone should not be affected. Members of our organization are already faced with record feed prices, feed costs, and the uncertainty of cattle futures. This change in status creates a tragedy, possibly putting some out of business or in tremendous financial debt. Again, records show that these problems arise from dairy herds only. Beef cattle producers do not fit into this Modified Accredited Advanced status and should immediately be reinstated back to the Accredited Free classification. Thousands of beef cattle have been tested in the recent past, all with negative results. Knowing about the problem back in January 2008, 8 months should have been ample time to devise a plan that would not hurt the beef cattle industry, which the status change is now doing. We would like to receive a detailed accounting of why beef cattle producers are included in this unwarranted status change, and what plans are being made to solve this situation immediately.