Officials are still awaiting final results from testing of a southwestern North Dakota cattle herd for bovine tuberculosis, but State Veterinarian Susan Keller says the results that have come in are promising.

"It looks like everything is going to be OK," she said.

Tests on 27 of 28 "suspect" cows in the herd of more than 200 animals have been finished and no sign of the disease has been found, she said.

Officials say odds are that the 28th cow also will test negative, as well as a 29th suspect cow found in a second round of tests.

The cattle are being tested after a cow with a TB lesion was found at a meat processing plant in Long Prairie, Minn., late last year. The cow was traced back to the herd in southwestern North Dakota. Officials are not identifying the herd until testing is finished.

Keller said the state Board of Animal Health is hoping the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, will wrap up testing on the 28th suspect cow by the end of the week.

A required second round of testing on the herd turned up the 29th suspect cow, Keller said. Suspect cows are killed to allow for further testing that involves culturing tissue samples to see if the bovine TB bacteria grow. That takes at least eight weeks.

Keller said the discovery of the 29th suspect cow does not necessarily mean it will be another two months before restrictions on the movement of the quarantined herd are eased. If the initial 28 suspect cows all are negative, she said, odds are that no bovine TB is in the herd.

"We'll be looking at a recommendation from APHIS on how to handle the last one out there," she said, referring to the federal Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Keller said it is likely the 28th suspect cow will test negative.

"Usually if something is cultured for this long and hasn't turned up anything, it's going to be negative," she said.

Live testing of four neighboring herds also has turned up nothing, Keller said, though calving is likely to delay completion of that testing, possibly until late May.

The North Dakota Game and Fish Department is monitoring the cattle testing. If bovine TB is found, wildlife officials plan to kill hundreds of deer and elk to prevent them from spreading the disease to other livestock.

North Dakota has been deemed "TB-free" for 33 years. A state must have at least two herds test positive for the disease within two years to lose that status.