WASHINGTON – Last Friday the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service lifted temporary restrictions and additional testing requirements previously placed on importing sexually intact bovines (cattle and bison) from British Columbia. The restrictions went into affect on May 25, and were based on the recent importation of three cows from the province found to be reactors for brucellosis upon testing at slaughter.

A.P.H.I.S. will no longer require brucellosis testing for sexually intact bovines imported to the U.S. from British Columbia, Canada, for purposes other than immediate slaughter. This action is based on additional technical and epidemiological information received from Canada after a thorough investigation of the disease situation by Canadian authorities.


Canada quickly identified the herds of origin as part of their investigation; and all animals belonging to those herds over the last year were tested negative for brucellosis or have been otherwise adequately accounted for. No other positive results were found through Canada’s tracebacks.

A.P.H.I.S. concluded the positive results in the original group of reactors may have been due to the presence of cross reactive antibodies detected in the tests used. With the removal of the temporary brucellosis testing requirements, bovines from British Columbia, Canada, may again be imported to the U.S. under the guidelines that applied prior to May 25.