MOSES LAKE — The state Department of Agriculture plans to test 1,500 cows at dairies in Grant and Snohomish counties for bovine tuberculosis because one cow was found with the disease.
An inspector noticed a lesion on the cow Jan. 8 at a slaughterhouse in Cowlitz County.
Department spokesman Hector Castro told the Columbia Basin Herald that the meat never entered the food stream. And there is no health concern with the milk because it’s pasteurized before being sold to consumers.
Castro said the cow had been at the Grant County dairy for about a year and had been moved from a dairy in Snohomish County.
No cows will be moved during the investigation, which is expected to take six to eight weeks. TB has not been seen in Washington cattle since 1988.
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