The bovine tuberculosis investigation in Western Canada is expected to wrap up later this spring.

The investigation started in September 2016, when a Canadian cow was found with bovine TB in an American slaughter facility, and was traced back to Southern Alberta.

Senior Executive with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Dr. Rick James-Davies, is responsible for the TB investigation.

James-Davies says no source of infection was identified during the investigation.

"It's not unexpected that in a country that is essentially free of TB, when we go out and test all those source farms, it's very common that we don't find it there. It's kind of an interesting reality that that's actually good news. That's what we expect to find, that's what our trading partners expect to find, but obviously it leaves a piece of the story where it's not a nice clean finish to say, here's where it came from and here's where it went."

He says all the on-farm work has been completed.

"We have preliminary results back on all of those animals sufficient that we were now able to release all the quarantines that were associated with animals. We do have some final culture results that we are waiting for. We are very optimistic that those are going to come back negative, and that they're just confirming what we've already found, but it will be a little later in April before we have the last of those results back."

The CFIA says later this spring they will post an investigation summary report on their website and once the final laboratory culture results are completed, the investigation will officially be closed.

James-Davies says the 11,500 animals destroyed were mainly from operations in Alberta, and the 150 farms tested were split equally between Alberta and Saskatchewan, with a couple in Manitoba.

Producer compensation for the investigation totaled $39 million.

James-Davies says Agriculture Canada, through their provincial partners, made available $16.7 million in disaster relief for extraordinary costs.

"Because of the time of year this happened, when most farms were basically getting ready to sell their calves and have their cows home for the winter, there were some hardships because they needed to hang onto their calves and feed them longer, so the disaster relief program was put in."

He says the CFIA spent about $13 million on the investigation.

James-Davies says a large part of the success for the investigation can be attributed to industry associations and great cooperation from producers.