Brucellosis testing for cattle in Wash. is reduced

PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) — The  testing of cattle for brucellosis has been greatly reduced in Washington after  the federal government decided to send much of the work to a laboratory  in Kansas.

Until October, the U.S.  Department of Agriculture had been sending more than 100,000 slaughter  surveillance samples a year to the Washington  Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Pullman to be tested for  the disease.

But agency veterinarian John  Huntley said many of the samples now are sent to a facility in Kansas as  part of the USDA's  nationwide brucellosis surveillance plan, The  Moscow-Pullman Daily News reported Friday.

Brucellosis infections can  devastate herds of cattle, and Jack  Field of the Washington Cattlemen's Association opposes the change.

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