close print view Agency: Agriculture and Rural Development

August 7, 2014

MEDIA CONTACT:   Bridget Patrick, 517-284-5661 or patrickb@michigan.gov

LANSING, MI – The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) today announced Arenac County Feedlot owner Daniel Koelsch was sentenced in the 23rd Circuit Court in Standish, Michigan, on July 30, 2014.  Koelsch will spend 30 days in jail and be on probation for two years for violating a bovine Tuberculosis (TB) quarantine between the months of July 2013 and November 2013.  While under a bovine TB quarantine he sold and bought cattle through marketing channels and could have spread the disease. This is expressly prohibited under the quarantine and poses a significant risk to the state’s cattle industry.   Bovine TB is a zoonotic bacterial disease that can affect all mammals including humans.  Michigan has a unique strain of bovine TB associated with cattle and wildlife in the Northeastern Lower Peninsula and has been working to eradicate the disease since 1995.   In addition, Koelsch will pay $8,806 in fines for violating the Animal Industry Act (Act 466 of 1988, as amended) which was established to protect both the cattle industry as well as the consumer.  The feedlot was quarantined in July 2013 when a bovine TB positive animal was found during trace testing.  Koelsch was permitted to finish 141 test-negative beef cattle; and, when the animals were ready for slaughter, MDARD was to arrange for safe movement of the cattle.    Fines were also levied earlier this year against two livestock dealers associated with a bovine TB infected dairy herd in Saginaw County who illegally moved calves without official Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags. All Michigan cattle are required to bear RFID tags in before they are moved from any property.   “We intend to prosecute those who violate the Animal Industry Act and put the state’s cattle industry at risk,” said Al Rodriquez, MDARD’s Animal Industry Division Compliance Officer. “The only way Michigan will ever achieve bovine TB free status is if everyone plays by the same rules.”   For more information on bovine TB and the Animal Industry Act visit: www.michigan.gov/emergingdiseases       ###  

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