Arecently published study has identified several "hot spots" of brucellosis-infected elk in the Yellowstone region that are geographically distant from the Wyoming elk and bison winter feeding grounds that have long been considered a catalyst for spreading the disease.

The finding is significant, according to the study's authors, because it means that elimination of the feeding grounds won't solve the overall thorny problem of wildlife-infected brucellosis.

Maybe so but, if anything, it makes an even stronger case for the elimination of the feeding grounds as soon as possible. And it should take the spotlight off Yellowstone's much-maligned bison, which have been harassed, killed and slaughtered in the name of disease control.

The brucellosis problem is big and getting bigger. If infected, the disease causes cattle to abort their calves, and the presence of the disease in livestock prompts sever and expensive federal restrictions on the sale and shipment of those animals - an economic blow to ranchers. And the study found that positive tests for the disease in elk in the Yellowstone region have been steadily rising over the last 20 years.

The Wyoming feeding grounds were established because a lack of lower, publicly owned wintering areas pushed elk onto private land where they fed off livestock feed, an expensive problem for ranchers.

But the practice also has created an artificially high elk population that translates into higher hunter success rates and a thriving outfitting industry. And so any proposal to wean the wild elk off of the feeding grounds - which would result in lower and less predictable elk numbers - meets stiff resistance.

Though the recent study found that pockets of high brucellosis exposure rates in elk far from these feeding grounds, there is little to no disagreement that the feeding grounds are still a source of disease transmission among the densely crowded herds found there in the winter.

While the study indicates that stopping the practice of feeding elk and bison in winter won't eliminate the disease in the newly found hot spots immediately, it will eliminate a source of reinfection through migrating animals, which can cover great distances throughout the region.

Wildlife is an inestimably valuable asset for all the states in the Yellowstone region, but that wildlife should not be promoted or managed for the sake of any business.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should take what steps are necessary to start phasing out the feeding grounds beginning next winter.

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