AR-News: Brucellosis on the loose: Disease poses tough problems for state

Tue Feb 3 03:47:55 EST 2004

Brucellosis on the loose: Disease poses tough problems for state
Associated Press

CHEYENNE - On Jan. 14, western Wyoming rancher Jerry Jensen watched as his 
family's herd was hauled away in five large cattle trucks to be slaughtered.

"It wasn't the best," he recalled. "I mean, you see four generations (of 
family ranching) go down the road, and it wasn't our fault."

But twice in the past two months, livestock herds in Wyoming have tested 
positive for brucellosis, which ran rampant across the United States in the 
middle decades of the 20th century.

In cattle, brucellosis can cause abortions, weak calves and sterility. 
People who drink unpasteurized milk or handle tissue from infected cows can 
develop chronic flulike symptoms. In humans, the disease is known as 
undulant or Malta fever, and in some rare, untreated cases, death can 
result.

Within a few weeks, the federal government is expected to strip Wyoming of 
its "brucellosis-free" status, meaning many of the state's 1.2 million 
cattle will be subject to stringent testing requirements.

Veterinary costs of drawing blood run from $3 to $6 per cow, and additional 
expenses to ranchers could range from as much as $10 per head from injuries 
and stress to livestock and wear and tear on equipment. Stressed cattle lose 
weight and don't bring as much money. Even market prices for healthy Wyoming 
beef may fall because of the stigma.

California, Colorado, Nebraska and South Dakota already have imposed testing 
restrictions on imports of Wyoming cattle since the finding Dec. 2 of the 
first infected herd, on the Donald Jensen family near Boulder, Wyo., about 
100 miles south of Yellowstone National Park. The second finding was Jan. 20 
in a feedlot near Worland in north-central Wyoming, although those infected 
cows initially came from the Jensen herd.

Brucellosis has been known since 1843, originally as abortion disease and 
later Bang's disease, for the Danish veterinarian who isolated the organism. 
Besides cattle, carriers include elk, bison, swine, sheep and other animals.

"It is a bad bug," said Terry Kreeger, a state veterinary researcher. "It 
hides from you. It's very difficult to treat and it doesn't respond well to 
vaccinations."

A combination of inoculation, testing and killing sick animals reduced the 
number of infected herds from 124,000 in 1952 to 15 in 1998. In 2003, only 
three newly infected herds were diagnosed - two in Texas and one in Wyoming.

The Agriculture Department estimates that brucellosis cost America's cattle 
ranchers $400 million a year in 1952; today, losses attributable to the 
disease are estimated at less than $1 million.

"When you get down this close and then you have something break loose, it's 
dealt with kind of like a foreign animal disease," said Cleon Kimberling, an 
extension veterinarian at Colorado State University.

Jensen and other ranchers are not surprised by the latest discovery, 
especially when many infected elk and bison roam in and near Yellowstone 
National Park. The infection in Yellowstone is cited by the state of Montana 
as justification for killing bison that wander out of the park into Montana 
cattle country.

An investigation continues into the cause of the Wyoming infection, but a 
herd of elk that gathers at a state winter feeding ground near the Jensen 
ranch is suspected.

Jensen said environmentalists are preventing wildlife officials from killing 
elk that have the disease.

"I'm just getting sick and tired of the damn game and everything superseding 
the cattle industry," he said. "There can be a common medium where 
everything can still have their place, but the cattlemen are outnumbered."

Joel Bousman, another Boulder rancher, said livestock producers have been 
worried for years that a cow would get the disease from elk.

"We've understood that this is a time bomb waiting to go off," he said. 
"This problem will never go away until it's addressed as to the source."

But State Veterinarian Jim Logan said the issue becomes mired in 
state-federal wildlife management squabbles, and the very real possibility 
that conservationists would litigate against killing infected elk.

Nancy Smith, who runs a snowmobile business in Boulder with her husband, 
Ken, said the situation is pitiful.

"It is affecting people and it will come down to affect us because ranchers 
are our customers, and I grew up with ranchers and it breaks my heart too," 
she said.

Kimberling said better identification methods to trace origins of ill cattle 
would help stem outbreaks of bovine diseases.

"It's coming, but it has been slow," he said. "I've contended for years if 
we had had a good identification program, we would have eradicated 
brucellosis 30 years ago."

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?ts=1&display=rednews/2004/02/01/build/wyoming/30-brucellosis.inc

"I hold flesh-food to be unsuited to our species."
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
Albert Einstein

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