Bison study marks radical shift for Research Council
Lawler AA. 1997. Bison study marks radical shift for Research Council. Science. 276(5320):1786-1787
The National Research Council is studying whether cattle in Montana are at risk from Yellowstone National Park bison carrying brucellosis. The debate has pitted the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and ranchers against National Park Service officials and environmentalists. The Park Service decided to ask the NRC for an impartial scientific assessment of the problem, but the counci is itself embroiled in controversy over whether its procedures for such studies must follow federal guidelines for public access. Instead of assembling a panel of experts for a series of closed meetings the council is hiring two scientists to carry out the $200,000 study. Environmentalists are angered at the selection of Norman Cheville, a veterinary pathologist at Iowa State University in Ames, as one of the two principal investigators. Cheville is a longtime employee of USDA, which has threatened to decertify the safety of Montana beef because the wandering Yellowstone bison herds are infected with brucellosis
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Lawler, A
- Units
- YELL
- Keywords
- Animal Studies, Bison (Bison bison), Brucellosis, Disease, Mammals