SECTION 33B. Declaration of quarantine areas; tuberculin tests of bovine animals; modified accredited areas; violation of terms of quarantine

The director may, upon application to him by not less than seventy-five per cent of the cattle owners owning cattle permanently kept in any city or town, or upon like application by the owners of eighty-five per cent of such cattle, declare said city or town a quarantine area and may proceed to test by the tuberculin test or otherwise all bovine animals within said area. Whenever not less than eighty-five per cent of the cattle permanently kept in the commonwealth are being tested for bovine tuberculosis under the supervision of the director or of the appropriate federal officials, the director may declare the entire commonwealth to be a quarantine area and may proceed to test by the tuberculin test or otherwise all bovine animals within the commonwealth. If the director finds and declares that such a city or town or the commonwealth, as the case may be, is substantially free from bovine tuberculosis, he may proclaim it to constitute a modified accredited area and may prescribe rules and regulations, subject to the approval of the governor and council, prohibiting the shipment or transportation into the same of any bovine animals without a permit and health certificate issued by the director or some officer designated by the director for the purpose. Whoever violates the terms and conditions of any such quarantine or any such rule or regulation shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or both.