BUFFERING BUFFALO
Don’t expect
brucellosis to disappear from the Yellowstone area anytime soon,
says a draft report issued by the National Academy of Sciences. The
disease, common among bison and elk, led the state of Montana to
shoot or slaughter nearly one-third of the Yellowstone bison herd
last winter when the animals moved outside park boundaries – and
near domesticated cattle – in search of food. The report,
Brucellosis in the Greater Yellowstone Area, confirms that between
30 and 40 percent of bison in Yellowstone National Park test
positive for brucellosis antibodies. But it also concludes that the
risk of elk or bison passing on the disease to domesticated animals
is almost nonexistent. Since total elimination of the disease from
the wild herds would require killing infected animals, the authors
recommend vaccinating and monitoring cattle in a buffer zone around
the park.
“It’s the simplest way in the short
term to reduce the probability of transmission to cattle,” says
Dale McCullough, professor of wildlife biology at the University of
California-Berkeley and one of the authors of the study.
Eliminating the disease will not be possible, he adds, until
researchers develop more effective vaccines and better ways to
vaccinate wild herds. “It would be nice not to have (brucellosis),”
says McCullough, “but if these problems can’t be solved, we’ll just
have to control the risks forever.”
The full
draft report is available on the Internet at http://www2.nas.edu/
besthome/bisonelk.htm. A final report is expected this spring and
can be ordered from the National Academy Press by calling 800/
624-6242, or by writing the National Research Council, Office of
News and Public Information, 2101 Constitution Avenue NW,
Washington D.C. 20418.
*Michelle
Nijhuis
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Buffering buffalo.
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