| Buffalo Field Campaign- Science
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Yellowstone
Bison Vaccination Program (2010)
Alert! Public comments needed by September 24, 2010 (midnight Mountain Time)!
7/9/10- Bison vaccine no magic bullet, Park Service says
Inoculating some in Yellowstone herd to protect cattle could make brucellosis bacteria stronger.
6/07/10- News Editorial- Bison air-rifle brucellosis vaccination is waste of effort, Bozeman Daily Chronicle |
BFC and WWP co-letter to leaders nationwide asking for public support of purchasing private lands and public land grazing permits from willing sellers as an environmentally preferred alternative to Yellowstone National Park vaccinating wild buffalo. (PDF, 3 pages, 412kb)
BFC Talking Points
BFC and WWP comments on bison vaccination inside Yellowstone National Park (Word, 50 pages, 1.6MB)
Download and review excerpts from YNP's impact statement (PDF, 25 pages, 328kb)
Download and review YNP's Draft Environmental Impact Statement (PDF, 218 pages, 2.2MB)
Submit your comments to Yellowstone National Park
Contact Congress and ask them to buy out cattle and not waste taxpayer dollars vaccinating wildlife
While people from around the world are visiting Yellowstone National Park and enjoying the company of wild buffalo and Yellowstone's other natural wonders, the Park Service is making plans to further jeopardize the buffalo's wild integrity.
Yellowstone National Park recently released a lengthy Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) to open the way for the Park to shoot wild buffalo with an ineffective, unapproved and harmful livestock brucellosis vaccine (SRB51).
Vaccinating wild buffalo is an ill-conceived, harmful, costly and wasteful plan by Yellowstone National Park that jeopardizes America's last wild buffalo.
The Park Service wants American taxpayers to pick up the $9 million tab to pay for a 30-year program that treats wildlife like cattle, using a vaccine approved for domestic cattle not wild buffalo.
Yellowstone National Park admits its' decision - the "environmentally preferred alternative" - to vaccinate wild buffalo could result in the organism spreading and infecting more buffalo with more harmful and persistent variations of brucella abortus.
Vaccinating wild buffalo is an unacceptable harm and a threat to the wildness of buffalo and must not be allowed by we the people in America's first national park.
Please take action today and provide your personal comments which are being accepted through September 24, 2010.
Send your comments via the Park's web form.
Comments can be mailed to (include your City, State/Province, Zip code): Bison Ecology and Management Office, Center for Resources P.O. Box 168, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming 82190.
Call Superintendent Suzanne Lewis and let her know you oppose the Park's ill-conceived plan to vaccinate wild buffalo inside Yellowstone National Park and support buying out cattle in buffalo's native range: (307) 344-2213.
ROAM WILD AND FREE! |
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Yellowstone
Bison Vaccination Program (2003-2004)
12/05/04-
Livestock department proposes vaccinating bison that leave
Yellowstone
See News Article 12/10/03-
U.S. proposes plan to vaccinate bison
See Update from the Field 12/12/03-
Agencies Plan Intrusive Vaccination Program
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The
Yellowstone bison herd is the only continuously wild herd in
the United States. It is descended from just 23 wild bison
that survived the mass eradication of the 19th century and is
the largest remaining single population of genetically pure
bison. Yellowstone bison are a unique cultural and biological
treasure because they are the last wild bison in America.
Vaccinating them would degrade that wild character.
Vaccines, like RB51, are designed for livestock, not wildlife.
Rather than focus on Yellowstone's wild bison, management efforts
should be directed at cattle herds. The Park's plan fails
to consider the impacts of capturing and handling America's
only continuously wild herd of bison. Such handling will
negatively impact the health of bison yearlings and calves.
Tests used to determine which bison go to slaughter and which
get the vaccine detect only brucellosis antibodies, not actual
infection. This means that bison sent to slaughter could
actually be the members of the herd most resistant to brucellosis.
Nature is already doing what this program will fail to do.
Holding orphaned yearlings and calves in captivity, cut off
from the rest of their herd and denied sufficient range to roam,
further compromises their wild character. When they are
released in spring with an ear tag, the domestication of the
last wild bison in America will be complete. Maybe we
should change the Park's name to Yellowstone National Ranch,
since wildlife there will no longer be treated as wild.
The vaccine that the Park Service plans to use, RB51, is unproven.
The vaccine has never been used on wild bison. The Park
Service should not proceed until long-term studies on wild bison
are conducted and the results are determined. Figures
cited in the story were from experiments conducted on domestic
bison. Yellowstone bison have carried brucellosis for
nearly a century, and, as the recent herd size demonstrates,
have shown no noticeable effect in terms of viable birth rates.
On the other hand, cattle that recently contracted brucellosis
from elk in Wyoming had been vaccinated with RB51. If
the vaccine doesn't work on the cattle for which it was developed,
why would it work on wild bison?
RB51 is not effective in bison. According to a recent
peer-reviewed study (Davis, D.S. and Elzer, P.H., 2002, Brucella
Vaccines in Wildlife, Veterinary Microbiology (90): 533-544.),
"It was determined that RB51 did not confer significant
protection in the vaccinated animals. In terms of abortions
and infections, the RB51 bison vaccinated with three injections
did not differ significantly from the non-vaccinated bison..."
A month hasn't even passed since APHIS (US Department of Agriculture's
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) concluded its comment
period for an Environmental Assessment (EA) on its plans to
vaccinate Yellowstone bison with RB51. The proposed plan
calls for vaccination of yearlings and calves who leave the
Park. The authors of the EA admit that the "efficacy
[of RB51] in bison has not been definitively determined."
The public comments haven't even received an official response,
yet the Park Service is moving ahead on a pilot program that
calls for the exact same vaccination inside the Park.
What does this say about public process? Is the Park Service,
in its rush to vaccinate, seeking any public input? Have
they even considered the range of public comment recently collected
on the same issue? If an EA is required for bison outside
the Park, a similar process should be undertaken for bison inside
the Park.
Vaccinating Yellowstone bison with an ineffective vaccine will
not eliminate brucellosis from the herd. Because the disease
has little effect on bison and because wild bison have never
transmitted brucellosis to livestock, management efforts should
focus on cattle. There are very few head of cattle ranging
in areas where Yellowstone bison migrate in winter and spring.
The cattle are routinely rounded up and vaccinated for a number
of diseases. A far more effective, economically viable
alternative would manage cattle for disease while treating the
last wild herd of bison in America as wildlife in Yellowstone. |
Possible
points to make to the NPS:
… Vaccinating Yellowstone bison degrades
their wild character.
… The test used to determine which bison
to ship to slaughter tests for exposure, not infection.
This means that bison carrying brucellosis antibodies will be
shipped to slaughter even though the disease does not affect
them, and in the case of bull bison is not even likely to be
transmitted.
… RB51 is unproven and ineffective in
bison.
… Keeping yearlings and calves in captivity
until spring is cruel and further erodes their wild character.
… The NPS should seek formal public comment
before taking an action that threatens the wild character of
the last wild bison in America.
… The mission of the NPS is to protect
wildlife, not to protect the livestock industry from a perceived
threat. Eradicating brucellosis from the Greater Yellowstone
Ecosystem is unrealistic and will disrupt all wildlife.
Ask the NPS to do its job and protect the wildlife!
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