"Yellowstone Is A Large Ranch"

R-CALF Wants Brucellosis Eradication In Yellowstone

By Brodie Farquhar, 12-15-06

A national cattlemen’s organization normally associated with meat-packer concentration issues, is urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture to eradicate brucellosis in Yellowstone’s bison, “by multiple means.”

Barring development of 100 percent effective vaccinations, that goal could only be reached by a massive test and slaughter program, said Larry Cooper, a USDA spokesman.

Brucellosis is a disease that can cause abortions in cattle, bison and other animals. It was first detected in a Yellowstone bison in 1917 – and probably contracted the disease from cattle in the Lamar Valley.

The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund (R-CALF) wrote Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns last month, urging USDA to:

• Mandate brucellosis testing of bison in the Yellowstone Ecosystem;
• Work toward eradication of brucellosis in Yellowstone bison by multiple means, including but not limited to trapping, testing and vaccinating bison in that area;
• Work with the National Park and Wildlife services to control the size of bison and elk herds in the Yellowstone Ecosystem;
• Continue brucellosis testing, vaccination and surveillance where it already occurs and implement surveillance in all states where cattle are present;
• Maintain a national brucellosis surveillance/vaccination program for livestock disease traceback purposes; and
• Redirect funds for an animal ID program to fund ongoing and existing brucellosis surveillance/vaccination programs.

As of 2003, the Greater Yellowstone Interagency Brucellosis Committee (GYIBC) has a stated objective to plan for the elimination of brucellosis from wildlife populations in the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA) by 2010.

According to a Yellowstone policy statement, the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture have no intention to utilize a broad scale program of test and slaughter of wildlife in the GYA as a means to eliminate brucellosis.

Currently, bison are from time to time tested for brucellosis and may be shipped to slaughter as a means to manage bison that are free ranging beyond the Yellowstone National Park boundary.

Critics sound off
“What R-CALF is really calling for,” said Amy McNamara of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, “is the mass wasting of wildlife and the agricultural management of wildlife, rather than allowing wildlife agencies to do their job.”

George Wuerthner, co-editor of “Welfare Ranching,” said he wondered why the cattlemen were focusing solely on bison, since there are other wildlife that carry the disease – especially elk, and in much greater numbers than bison.

“You might be able to achieve a momentary elimination of the disease in bison (before reinfection),” said Wuerthner, “but what then?”

A serious brucellosis eradication program would have to include elk and other wildlife, said Wuerthner, but that’s politically risky because elk have a political constituency – hunters.

“Bison don’t have a constituency and they’re viewed by ranchers as direct competitors against cattle for forage,” Wuerthner said.

The goal of brucellosis eradication in the Yellowstone Ecosystem has huge implications for wildlife, he said, yet the real risk of infection from wildlife to livestock is very low.

He noted that brucellosis transmission to livestock can only occur by contact with body fluids, and the only bison body fluids that pose a threat to livestock are those associated with birth or abortion. This alone means that even brucellosis-infected bison wandering near cattle, outside of the primary abortion or birth season, don't pose a threat of infection at all, Wuerthner said.

Yet this hasn't prevented agencies from killing bison, he said.

“Why should U.S. citizens tolerate massive manipulation of the public’s wildlife, just to appease livestock interests?” Wuerthner asked.

He believes that brucellosis is “an excuse – a Trojan horse if you will – for agriculture to take over the management of wildlife, take it away from state wildlife agencies.”

No apologies
“I view Yellowstone as a large ranch,” said Dennis McDonald, immediate past-president of the Montana Cattlemen’s Association (MCA) and currently representing Region I (Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon) on the R-CALF board of directors.

McDonald said he pushed the brucellosis resolution through R-CALF and takes pride in the fact that the MCA is putting pressure on federal agencies to eradicate brucellosis in both bison and elk in the Greater Yellowstone. McDonald acknowledged that such a task would be “more problematic” for elk, but insisted it is doable with bison.

McDonald said large-scale test and slaughter programs, combined with vaccinations, is what is needed to protect regional cattlemen from economic penalties caused by losing their brucellosis-free status. He acknowledged that a large-scale test and slaughter program would mean the death of hundreds, perhaps thousands of animals.

Wyoming just regained brucellosis-free status, he said, but Idaho is still struggling to get it back, while Montana ranchers are worried it might happen to them.

He claimed that Yellowstone is badly overgrazed and overpopulated by bison, who leave the park because they’re starving.

Yet Glenn Plumb, supervisory wildlife biologist at Yellowstone, has stated that research indicates that Yellowstone can handle between 2,200 and 7,500 bison, and that overgrazing is not a problem.

A cautionary note
Kathleen Kelley, a co-founder of R-CALF and a family rancher based near Meeker, Colorado, said she was personally disappointed by R-CALF’s brucellosis recommendations.

“It is not a thoughtful stance, and it takes a difficult position in terms of public relations,” said Kelley, who stepped down from the R-CALF board earlier this year. She said she’d prefer R-CALF to get back to its original mission – that of fighting the concentrated power of meat packing companies, rather than take up “a parochial issue” like brucellosis in Yellowstone.

(This article also appeared in the Casper Star Tribune.)

Links:
Yellowstone National Park’s policy about brucellosis eradication

More information about the Greater Yellowstone Interagency Brucellosis Committee

R-CALF USA is at http://www.r-calfusa.com/

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