| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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| News
Article 4/02/04 |
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| Park
prepares bison vaccination plan
By JENNIFER McKEE
Billings Gazette
April 2, 2004
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HELENA
- Montana and Yellowstone National Park officials
are preparing to launch a sweeping brucellosis vaccine
program targeting every young bison inside the park and
every one that wanders outside.
Superintendent of Yellowstone National Park Suzanne Lewis
met with Gov. Judy Martz Thursday. They were joined by
the head of the state's Livestock Department and Yellowstone's
chief of ecology to discuss the plans.
Lewis told Martz that the park will start preparing this
month for the environmental study necessary to start the
vaccine program. Although the plan is still in its earliest
stages, Tom Ollif, Yellowstone's chief of natural resources,
said the park anticipates giving the vaccine to every
bison calf and yearling in the park via a "biobullet"
shot from a rifle. Neither the shot nor the vaccine will
hurt the young bison, Ollif said.
Marc Bridges, head of Montana's Livestock Department,
said the state is launching a similar environmental study
in preparation for Montana's own bison vaccination program.
The state will vaccinate every young bison that leaves
the park.
Brucellosis is a disease of cattle, bison and elk that
causes cows to abort their calves. It is considered a
serious disease, and states that have brucellosis in their
cattle herds cannot freely sell their calves to markets
and feedlots out of state. Montana's cattle are rated
brucellosis-free.
But brucellosis is common among bison and elk in parts
of Yellowstone Park. Currently, nothing is done in Montana
to keep elk from leaving the park, but state and federal
officials try to keep brucellosis-infected bison from
infecting nearby cattle herds in Montana - a process that
involves hazing bison into the park, capturing those that
leave and killing all bison that test positive for the
disease. So far this winter, officials have sent more
than 260 bison to slaughter.
The plan that calls for killing infected bison also requires
the upcoming vaccination program. Bridges said that even
if the vaccination program is successful, the bison management
plan does not call for letting disease-free bison to wander
wherever they will. Instead, only a set number of untested
bison will be able to leave the park unrestricted.
Ollif said he wasn't sure where the bison would go if
there were no restrictions on their migrations. "They'd
probably just keep going north," he said.
Park officials have already begun vaccinating some bison
this year. But those bison - more than 113 and counting
- were all caught leaving the park and held in pens. The
new vaccination plan, which is still several years from
beginning, would mark the first time officials have tried
to vaccinate unrestricted wild animals.
The vaccine has some problems, Lewis said. Although she's
confident it's safe for both bison and the environment,
exactly how effective it is remains to be seen. Some studies
say the vaccine does little to protect bison from brucellosis,
while others say it is relatively successful. Lewis said
fine-tuning the vaccine is just one goal of the vaccination
program, which she described as something of an experiment.
Martz, who also used some of the hour she spoke with Lewis
to lobby for continued snowmobile access to the park,
said she was pleased the state and park are working together.
"You did what we asked you to do," she told
Lewis.
But not everyone was pleased with the news. Mike Mease,
campaign coordinator for the Buffalo Field Campaign, a
group dedicated to protecting wild buffalo, said the vaccine
officials want to use on bison doesn't even work well
on cows.
"What a joke," he said. "Why don't we take
all this money we've been throwing away and find a vaccine
that works on cattle."
Then, Mease said, ranchers could vaccinate their cattle
with a reliable vaccine and the wild bison of Yellowstone,
which don't seem particularly troubled by brucellosis,
would be left alone.
"Why do the wildlife always have to suffer the burden
of cattle industry?" he said.
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