Bovine TB designation hinders NM ranching, dairy operations Beef and dairy producers are preparing for stringent regulations across state lines and advocating for a smaller zone of restrictions after the USDA's Sept. 11 bovine tuberculosis downgrade. Around 50 representatives of state government, New Mexico State University and the ranching and dairy communities met at NMSU to discuss the state's downgrade Friday, part of a series of such informative meetings across the state. Two infections since May 2007, in Roosevelt and Curry counties in eastern New Mexico, prompted the USDA downgrade, to reduce the possible spread of the infection outside of the state. "We see that, in New Mexico, as the area of risk," said Myles Culbertson, executive director of the New Mexico Livestock Board, who said it was still unknown where the most recent cow became infected. Culbertson said the original anti-TB guidelines were established in 1917 because of a 6 percent prevalence of bovine TB in the bovine population and a higher incidence of people drinking raw milk. Though untreatable, cooking meat and pasteurizing milk kill the bacteria that causes bovine TB. The bacteria that causes it can be transmitted between infected animals and humans through drinking raw milk or breathing, according to the USDA. He said bovine TB should not be "misconstrued as a public health crisis." "Now, (the prevalence) is .016 percent, infinitesimally small," Culbertson said, noting that Colorado and Oklahoma were each one infection away from being downgraded as well. "That program, I think, is archaic ... The program says if you find two cases within 48 months, the whole state goes down." State veterinarian Dr. Dave Fly has estimated the cost of testing could cost the state up to $6 million. Culbertson said the quickest the state could get its downgrade revoked would be two years, but Gov. Bill Richardson and the state Livestock Board have asked the USDA for a reconsideration by October....