The Alberta Beef Producers are pleased with the actions taken this week by the provincial and federal governments to help ranchers dealing with bovine TB.

Beef Producers Executive Director Rich Smith says it's positive news.

"Certainly for the producers involved in the investigation it's taken an enormous physical, emotional and financial toll on those producers and we very much appreciate the the governments have taken action to address the financial aspects of it.

Smith says consumers should be adversely affected by the bovine TB issue.

"This is having a devastating effect  on producers involved in the quarantine but it's not going to have significant affects on the supply of beef, the availability of beef or our export markets, our trade in beef," Smith says. "This is not going to be anything like the impact that occurred with BSE when we had borders closed and all those actions, this is a different situation."

The two levels of government say producers affected by the bovine TB quarantine will be eligible for financial assistance under the agri-recovery framework.

In the meantime, producers can continue to access immediate help to address cash flow pressures through the Advance Payments Program.  

Under that program producers are eligible for an advance up to $400,000, with the first $100,000 being interest free.

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