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Federal officials urge state to lighten up with buffalo DENVER (AP) - Federal livestock officials say their concern over the disease risk posed by Yellowstone National Park bison has lessened, and they now encourage Montana to be more accommodating to wandering buffalo. But the state says it remains wary of the risk, and the stakes are too high for Montana's livestock industry to gamble that the new opinions are correct. Many Yellowstone bison are infected with brucellosis, a disease that causes the cows to abort and can cause undulant fever in humans. The state and federal government now have a strict management plan to keep bison away from cattle pastures. Bison wandering into Montana in search of winter forage now are either hazed back into the park or corralled and tested for exposure to the disease. Those testing positive are shipped to slaughter. Patrick Collins of the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the federal agency charged with stamping out brucellosis, said that policy is in line with past APHIS warnings to the state. The national park is the last stronghold of brucellosis, and for years federal officials warned Montana ranchers that they could lose the ability to freely export beef if local herds were infected. But Collins said since 1997, APHIS has been prodding the Montana Department of Livestock to soften its stance because agency scientists now assess the risk as lower. Bulls are generally thought to be incapable of transmitting the disease. The only way scientists now think cattle are likely to catch the disease, Collins said, is by eating the afterbirth of infected bison. In certain areas close to the park, which are devoid of cattle in winter, even pregnant females pose little threat to Montana's cattle industry, as long as cattle are kept out of the area for 30 to 60 days after the bison have left, he said. The federal experts consider all bison low-risk as long as time and space is maintained between them and cattle. "It's our policy," Collins said of the risk assessment. "We're comfortable with it. We're encouraging Montana to adopt it. It protects the cattle from the threat of disease and it minimizes the need for lethal control (of bison). Producers all over the country have had faith in our science for years and years and years. "Our scientists are now saying the low-risk policy makes sense. It's workable." But Arnold Gertonson, Montana's state veterinarian, said the state does not intend to change its bison policy. He said the slim chance of bulls and nonpregnant bison cows spreading the disease provide reason enough to maintain the current program. "We wish, too, that the bison did not have to be killed or removed," Gertonson said. "But the economic impact of the state of Montana losing its brucellosis-free status is too great for us to risk at this time. Let's put it this way: The risk of transmission is unknown at this time." Plus, some cattle graze on private land near Yellowstone National Park as early as May, he said. Grazing on private land is not affected by a recent agreement to keep domestic cattle off area national forest lands until summer. Conservationists say the federal low-risk position is bolstered by the results of laboratory tests on tissue taken from bison slaughtered this winter. Of 17 bison killed, 15 were tested, and only two actually were infected with brucellosis. The other 13 tested positive for exposure, but apparently did not actually carry the disease. However, both Collins and Gertonson said the lab test is not always accurate. And the tissue test takes too long for day-to-day management, Gertonson said. He said Montana will continue using the quicker test for brucellosis exposure to determine which animals will be slaughtered. Copyright 1999 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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