Brucellosis and the Future of Greater Yellowstone: Summary of the National Brucellosis Symposium

Boyce, Mark

Brucellosis is a bacterial disease that infects a diversity of wild and domestic animals, and can cause serious, but easily treatable, disease in humans. In particular, Brucella abortus is a bacterium that infects cattle often resulting in abortion of calves. The disease is usually transmitted through ingestion of milk or placental fluids. Since the 1930s the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has supported an aggressive program to eradicate brucellosis from the United States; overall the program has been highly effective at virtually eliminating the threat of the disease in domestic livestock. As of 1994, only 200 livestock herds in the United States are known to harbor the disease. Protocol for eradication entails testing cattle herds in which the disease has been found, and slaughtering all that test seropositive for antibodies to the disease. If the disease persists, the entire herd of cattle must be slaughtered. The bane of the brucellosis eradication program is, however, that bison and elk in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) carry brucellosis and serve as a reservoir for the disease. Thus, it would appear virtually impossible to eradicate the disease because existing technology does not provide a means by which brucellosis can be eliminated from free- ranging herds of bison and elk. The only alternative by which the USDA might possibly accomplish its eradication objective given existing technology is by depopulation of elk and bison from the GYE. Depopulation means slaughtering every elk and every bison over 18 million acres of the GYE––perhaps more than 100,000 elk and 4,000 bison! Given the learned migratory behavior of elk herds in the region, centuries would be required before the GYE would recover from such a drastic management scheme.

Brucellosis and the Future of Greater Yellowstone: Summary of the National Brucellosis Symposium

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