John Barnes

Michigan’s failure to test a wildlife lab technician for tuberculosis in 2018 means it may have missed an opportunity to identify the outbreak before four additional workers tested positive last summer.

MiOSHA inspectors are reviewing whether faulty masks or other safety hazards were present at the wildlife lab, where five workers contracted bovine tuberculosis. The review was spurred by Bridge reporting on the outbreak.

Deer-to-human transmission of TB is an exceedingly rare, Michigan-centric phenomenon. Department of Natural Resources officials said they saw no reason to publicly announce the cases.

In response to a Bridge Magazine investigation, Nessel said her office will look into whether the state agency mishandled public records on the 2016 killings of protected gray wolves in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

State wildlife leaders violated the state Freedom of Information Act, concealing details surrounding calf deaths and the 2016 shootings of protected gray wolves. Records suggest a different motive for the kills.