Revised
February, 2007

Administration:   These statutes are administered by the Nebraska Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Animal Industry, State Office Building, 301 Centennial Mall South, Lincoln, Nebraska 68509. Telephone: (402) 471-2351.

Revisions:   These statutes were last revised during the 2006 session of the Nebraska Legislature.

Rules:   A regulation has been promulgated under these statutes, known as Title 23, Chapter 5, Nebraska Administrative Code - Cattle Tuberculosis.

54-706   Tuberculosis; breeding cattle; testing; petition.
54-707   Tuberculin tests; notice; hearing.
54-708   Tuberculin tests; petition; contents; conclusiveness.
54-709   Tuberculin tests; interference; penalty.
54-710   Tuberculin tests; animals exempt.
54-711   Tuberculin test area; cattle brought into; test required.
54-712   Tuberculin tests; order of making.
54-713   Tuberculin tests; retests; when made.
54-714   Tuberculin tests and inspections; expenses; payment; limit; disposition.
54-715   Tuberculin tests; affected animals; disposition.
54-716   Tuberculin tests; reactors; compensation; conditions.
54-717   Tuberculin tests; areas previously tested; continuation without petition.
54-718   Tuberculin tests; funds for use outside county areas.
54-719   Tuberculin tests; cattle from other states.
54-720   Tuberculin tests; unlawful acts.
54-721   Tuberculin, defined.
54-722   Tuberculin; sale and distribution; regulation.
54-752   Violations; penalty.
54-753   Prevention of disease; writ of injunction available.

54-706. Tuberculosis; breeding cattle; testing; petition.   Whenever petitions signed by sixty percent or more of the owners residing in any county, representing fifty-one percent of breeding cattle therein as disclosed by the last assessment rolls of such county, shall be presented to the Department of Agriculture asking that all breeding cattle herds in such county be tested for tuberculosis, the department is hereby authorized to make such tests without expense to the owners, to the extent of the funds provided therefor. The petition shall be upon forms prepared by the department and upon which the circulator thereof shall make oath that he is the person who circulated the petition, that each of the petitioners signed his name thereto in his presence, and that he knows that such petitioners are residents of the county wherein the petitions were circulated.

54-707. Tuberculin tests; notice; hearing.   Upon the filing of such petition the Department of Agriculture shall fix a time for hearing upon the petition and any objections filed thereto, and cause a notice setting forth the filing of such petition and the date fixed for hearing to be published for three weeks in some newspaper of general circulation in the county within which the petitioners reside. If it shall be determined at the hearing that the petition is sufficient to satisfy the statute, the department shall declare the county in which the petitioners reside to be an area for the inspection, examination and testing of the breeding cattle therein for tuberculosis in the manner provided by law. After such area has been established, the department shall fix a time for the commencement of the work of making such inspection, examination and tests, and the department shall publish notice in at least one newspaper of general circulation in such county giving notice of the time fixed when such testing will begin within the county.

54-708. Tuberculin tests; petition; contents; conclusiveness.   The petitions provided for in section 54-706, when presented to and filed with the Department of Agriculture, shall until the hearing thereon be prima facie evidence and, if not challenged at such hearing, shall be conclusive evidence that they have been properly circulated; that the signatures appended thereto are the genuine signatures of the persons signing the same, that such petitioners are owners of the number of breeding cattle in the petition specified, and of every material and jurisdictional fact therein stated or contained.

54-709. Tuberculin tests; interference; penalty.   At any time after the date fixed for commencing the work, any member or agent of the Department of Agriculture, and all inspectors or persons appointed or authorized to assist in the work, may enter any barns, stables, yards, pastures, or other buildings or enclosures where cattle may be, for the purpose of making such inspection and test, and any person who shall interfere therewith or obstruct anyone in such work, or attempt to obstruct or prevent by force the carrying on of such inspection and testing shall be guilty of a Class II misdemeanor.

54-710. Tuberculin tests; animals exempt.   Steers and other cattle in feedlots being fed for market and steers brought in for feeding and grading purposes shall be exempted from test when kept separate and apart from tested cattle under the rules and regulations of the Department of Agriculture.

54-711. Tuberculin test area; cattle brought into; test required.   Before any breeding or dairy cattle shall be brought from a county not a modified accredited area, into any county after tuberculin testing shall have been commenced therein, or before any breeding or dairy cattle shall be moved from one part of such county to another, such cattle shall first be tuberculin tested, under such rules and regulations as shall be promulgated by the Department of Agriculture, and shall be found to be free from tuberculin infection.

54-712. Tuberculin tests; order of making.   The counties shall be tested in the order that petitions therefor are received unless the Department of Agriculture shall decide that it is not expedient to make the tests in that order. All cattle shall be considered under supervision of the department so long as such county is maintained as an area, and all tuberculin tests shall be made under rules and regulations of the department.

54-713. Tuberculin tests; retests; when made.   Retests shall be made by the Department of Agriculture in all such areas at such intervals as the department may deem necessary to protect the work already done, and to preserve for such counties their standing as accredited or area-tested counties under the uniform methods and rules adopted by the United States Bureau of Animal Industry for the establishment and maintenance of tuberculosis-free accredited herds and modified accredited areas, and under the provisions of any agreement entered into between the United States Bureau of Animal Industry and the Nebraska Department of Agriculture. Such retests shall be made at such times and in such manner as the department may determine. Such retests shall be given preference over initial tests in subsequently established areas. The department is authorized to make such retests in any county in the state which has been declared an area, without petitions asking for such retests.

54-714. Tuberculin tests and inspections; expenses; payment; limit; disposition.   When any county has been declared an area under the provisions of section 54-707, the Department of Agriculture shall estimate the expense of making an inspection and test within such county, not including therein the salary and subsistence of the officers, agents, employees and appointees of the department engaged in making such inspection and test, and certify such estimate to the board of county commissioners or supervisors of the county, who shall include the same in their next annual estimate of county expenses. For the purpose of contributing to the cost of making such tests or of making retests ordered by the department, every county in which such inspections and tests have been made shall pay into the state treasury to the credit of the General Fund the cost of such inspections and tests, not including therein the salaries and subsistence of the officers, agents, employees and appointees of the department engaged therein, but such sum shall not exceed fifteen cents for each bovine animal tested as determined by the department. On July 15 of each year the department shall report and certify the amount of such expenses to the county clerk of the county in which such tests and retests were made, and the county board of such county shall thereupon cause such sum to be then paid out of the general fund of such county to the State Treasurer.

54-715. Tuberculin tests; affected animals; disposition.   Whenever any bovine animal has reacted to the tuberculin test, or has otherwise been determined by the Department of Agriculture to be affected with tuberculosis, such animal shall be branded, quarantined, and slaughtered pursuant to the rules and regulations promulgated by the department. There shall be no retesting of reactor animals.

54-716. Tuberculin tests; reactors; compensation; conditions.   No compensation shall be paid by the State of Nebraska except for breeding cattle, which shall be construed to mean any sexually entire bovine animal at the time when such animal is slaughtered as provided in section 54-715. Furthermore, no compensation may be paid unless all lawful quarantine regulations of the Department of Agriculture have been complied with, nor until the premises contaminated by the tuberculous animal or animals have been properly cleaned and disinfected in accordance with the rules and regulations approved by the department. No compensation shall be paid until a tuberculin test has been applied under the rules and regulations of the department on the entire herd or lot of cattle of which such tuberculous animal was a part at the time of, or immediately prior to, the making of the tuberculin test under which such animal was determined to be tuberculous, and no compensation shall be paid for any animal not having been owned and kept within this state for a period of at least three months immediately preceding the time of making such test.

54-717. Tuberculin tests; areas previously tested; continuation without petition.   Where any county has been declared an area for the inspection, examination and testing of cattle for tuberculosis under the provisions of any law of this state enacted prior to April 4, 1927, or where, prior to that date, a systematic inspection, examination and testing of cattle for tuberculosis has been undertaken in any county on a cooperative basis by the United States Bureau of Animal Industry and the Nebraska Department of Agriculture, and more than five thousand cattle have been tested in such county prior to April 4, 1927, the inspection, examination and testing of cattle for tuberculosis in such county or counties may be continued by the department under the provisions of sections 54-706 to 54-720 without petition or hearing in all respects as if such petition had been filed and hearing had and the county declared an area hereunder.

54-718. Tuberculin tests; funds for use outside county areas.   It is provided that the Department of Agriculture may use not to exceed fifteen percent of the fund appropriated by the Legislature for tuberculosis eradication for accredited herd work outside of the counties operating under the county area plan.

54-719. Tuberculin tests; cattle from other states.   The Department of Agriculture may, in its discretion, require all cattle shipped into the state for breeding or dairy purposes to be tested for tuberculosis after their arrival in the state under rules and regulations which may, from time to time, be promulgated by the department.

54-720. Tuberculin tests; unlawful acts.   It shall be unlawful for any person to inject or apply tuberculin into or on any domestic animal, or to cause or to permit the same to be done, for any other purpose than to ascertain, determine or diagnose the presence of the disease tuberculosis, or to inject or apply tuberculin on any domestic animal for the purpose of plugging, or for the fraudulent purpose of concealing the presence of tuberculosis in such animal, or for the purpose of preventing future reactions to tuberculin.

54-721. Tuberculin, defined.   Within the meaning and provisions of sections 54-706 to 54-722, the term tuberculin is declared to mean any substance prepared by the cultivation, extraction, disintegration, crushing, grinding, or by any other process, of the bacillus tuberculosis.

54-722. Tuberculin; sale and distribution; regulation.   The Department of Agriculture is hereby authorized and empowered to regulate the sale and distribution of tuberculin in this state, to determine to what persons or class of persons it may be sold, and by whom and in what manner the same may be used.

54-752. Violations; penalty.   Any person violating any of the provisions of sections 54-701 to 54-753 and 54-7,105 to 54- 7,108 shall be guilty of a Class II misdemeanor for the first violation and a Class I misdemeanor for any subsequent violation.

54-753. Prevention of disease; writ of injunction available.   The penal provisions of section 54-752 shall not be exclusive, but the district courts of this state, in the exercise of their equity jurisdiction, may, by injunction, compel the observance of, and by that remedy enforce, the provisions of sections 54-701 to 54-753 and 54-7,105 to 54-7,108 and the rules and regulations established and promulgated by the Department of Agriculture.