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Montana loses brucellosis-free status
http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/06/10/top/top/50lo_080610_brucellosis.txt
By JENNIFER McKEE - IR State Bureau - 06/10/08
Montana will officially lose its status as a brucellosis-free state in coming weeks after a Paradise Valley heifer tested positive for the disease Monday.
The downgrade will increase costs for all ranchers, officials and industry representatives say, but will especially hurt Montana?s cattle breeders, many of whom have built up internationally regarded genetic lines.
?If you?re in the purebred business, it?s big,? said Gov. Brian Schweitzer Monday. Schweitzer said recently announced negotiations to sell Montana breeding stock to Russian ranchers will likely ?stop immediately.?
The state will not officially lose its brucellosis-free status until news of it can be published in the Federal Register in an estimated four to six weeks, according to state information.
The disease re-emerged in Montana for the first time in 22 years last May, when several cattle in a herd near Bridger tested positive for the disease. Some of those animals were later traced to a ranch in Emigrant, also in the Paradise Valley.
After last May?s case, federal rules required that no more brucellosis cases surface in Montana for two years, or the state would automatically lose its brucellosis-free status.
Brucellosis is a serious disease of cattle, elk, bison and swine that can cause heifers to abort their first calves. In rare cases, the disease can spread to humans.
Brucellosis was once common in the United States, but federal policy has long called for eradicating the disease from the American cattle herd.
Just five months ago, the federal government announced that for the first time in 74 years, all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands were officially classified as ?brucellosis-free.?
The disease persists in the wild bison and elk in and around Yellowstone National Park, where the free-ranging animals can spread the disease to nearby domestic stock.
A complicated federal and state plan intended to prevent Yellowstone?s wild animals from spreading the disease has been in effect in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho for years. Nonetheless, cattle from all three states have come down with the disease.
Both Idaho and Wyoming also lost their brucellosis-free status in recent years, although both states later regained it.
The diseased heifer had twice been vaccinated against brucellosis, according to information from the Montana Department of Livestock.
The case was found as part of a routine, herd-wide testing regime included as part of a voluntary brucellosis management plan worked out between the rancher and the state.
No other cattle in the herd tested positive. The diseased animal has been destroyed. The heifer was first tested several weeks ago, but a definitive case of brucellosis can only be identified by tests at the National Animal Disease Center in Ames, Iowa, according to the Montana Department of Livestock.
Results of those tests came back Monday afternoon.
Steve Merritt, a spokesman for the Montana Department of Livestock, said the state was not releasing the exact location of the animal, the ranch or the ranch?s owner at this time to protect privacy.
Merritt did say the animal did not come from the ranch of state Rep. Bruce Malcolm, the Emigrant-area rancher whose stock was implicated in last May?s brucellosis cases.
The case now starts an extensive state and federal testing regimen in which surrounding cattle will be tested.
Herds linked to the positive heifer will be placed under quarantine and tested.
Merritt said the entire herd in which the diseased cow lived could be slaughtered.
If so, federal money is available to the rancher.
Montana cannot apply to regain its disease-free status again until next May, according to state information.
Merritt said he could not say exactly how the heifer got the disease and wouldn?t speculate that it caught brucellosis from Yellowstone?s wildlife.
Schweitzer said that while he was upset by the announcement, he wasn?t particularly surprised. Last year, he called for splitting the state into two zones, one small area around Yellowstone and the other encompassing the rest of the state.
Schweitzer said federal regulators had agreed to work with Montana on the plan. Under that scheme, if another brucellosis case was found within the Yellowstone zone, only ranchers in that area would lose their brucellosis-free status. The rest of the state would remain officially disease-free.
The state?s two largest ranching groups, the Montana Cattlemen?s Association and the Montana Stockgrowers Association, disagreed over the ?split-state? idea. MSA opposed it, saying the plan created a disease sacrifice zone; MCA supported it, arguing it would protect the vast majority of ranchers from a difficult to control disease.
For want of a consensus, Schweitzer said, he did not pursue the idea.
On Monday, Schweitzer said the blame belongs to the MSA.
?They were the roadblock,? he said. ?They need to take some responsibility for what occurred today.?
Errol Rice, executive director of the Montana Stockgrowers Association, disagreed.
Rice said that even if Schweitzer had moved forward with the idea, the state would not yet have its ?split-state? plan approved by the federal government and Monday?s brucellosis case would still cost the entire state its disease-free status.
Rice said the state should now focus on regaining its brucellosis-free status.
?We want to get that back as quickly as possible,? he said, adding that at this point, it was too early to tell how badly the downgrade would affect the Montana cattle industry.
http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/06/10/top/top/50lo_080610_brucellosis.txt
By JENNIFER McKEE - IR State Bureau - 06/10/08
Montana will officially lose its status as a brucellosis-free state in coming weeks after a Paradise Valley heifer tested positive for the disease Monday.
The downgrade will increase costs for all ranchers, officials and industry representatives say, but will especially hurt Montana?s cattle breeders, many of whom have built up internationally regarded genetic lines.
?If you?re in the purebred business, it?s big,? said Gov. Brian Schweitzer Monday. Schweitzer said recently announced negotiations to sell Montana breeding stock to Russian ranchers will likely ?stop immediately.?
The state will not officially lose its brucellosis-free status until news of it can be published in the Federal Register in an estimated four to six weeks, according to state information.
The disease re-emerged in Montana for the first time in 22 years last May, when several cattle in a herd near Bridger tested positive for the disease. Some of those animals were later traced to a ranch in Emigrant, also in the Paradise Valley.
After last May?s case, federal rules required that no more brucellosis cases surface in Montana for two years, or the state would automatically lose its brucellosis-free status.
Brucellosis is a serious disease of cattle, elk, bison and swine that can cause heifers to abort their first calves. In rare cases, the disease can spread to humans.
Brucellosis was once common in the United States, but federal policy has long called for eradicating the disease from the American cattle herd.
Just five months ago, the federal government announced that for the first time in 74 years, all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands were officially classified as ?brucellosis-free.?
The disease persists in the wild bison and elk in and around Yellowstone National Park, where the free-ranging animals can spread the disease to nearby domestic stock.
A complicated federal and state plan intended to prevent Yellowstone?s wild animals from spreading the disease has been in effect in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho for years. Nonetheless, cattle from all three states have come down with the disease.
Both Idaho and Wyoming also lost their brucellosis-free status in recent years, although both states later regained it.
The diseased heifer had twice been vaccinated against brucellosis, according to information from the Montana Department of Livestock.
The case was found as part of a routine, herd-wide testing regime included as part of a voluntary brucellosis management plan worked out between the rancher and the state.
No other cattle in the herd tested positive. The diseased animal has been destroyed. The heifer was first tested several weeks ago, but a definitive case of brucellosis can only be identified by tests at the National Animal Disease Center in Ames, Iowa, according to the Montana Department of Livestock.
Results of those tests came back Monday afternoon.
Steve Merritt, a spokesman for the Montana Department of Livestock, said the state was not releasing the exact location of the animal, the ranch or the ranch?s owner at this time to protect privacy.
Merritt did say the animal did not come from the ranch of state Rep. Bruce Malcolm, the Emigrant-area rancher whose stock was implicated in last May?s brucellosis cases.
The case now starts an extensive state and federal testing regimen in which surrounding cattle will be tested.
Herds linked to the positive heifer will be placed under quarantine and tested.
Merritt said the entire herd in which the diseased cow lived could be slaughtered.
If so, federal money is available to the rancher.
Montana cannot apply to regain its disease-free status again until next May, according to state information.
Merritt said he could not say exactly how the heifer got the disease and wouldn?t speculate that it caught brucellosis from Yellowstone?s wildlife.
Schweitzer said that while he was upset by the announcement, he wasn?t particularly surprised. Last year, he called for splitting the state into two zones, one small area around Yellowstone and the other encompassing the rest of the state.
Schweitzer said federal regulators had agreed to work with Montana on the plan. Under that scheme, if another brucellosis case was found within the Yellowstone zone, only ranchers in that area would lose their brucellosis-free status. The rest of the state would remain officially disease-free.
The state?s two largest ranching groups, the Montana Cattlemen?s Association and the Montana Stockgrowers Association, disagreed over the ?split-state? idea. MSA opposed it, saying the plan created a disease sacrifice zone; MCA supported it, arguing it would protect the vast majority of ranchers from a difficult to control disease.
For want of a consensus, Schweitzer said, he did not pursue the idea.
On Monday, Schweitzer said the blame belongs to the MSA.
?They were the roadblock,? he said. ?They need to take some responsibility for what occurred today.?
Errol Rice, executive director of the Montana Stockgrowers Association, disagreed.
Rice said that even if Schweitzer had moved forward with the idea, the state would not yet have its ?split-state? plan approved by the federal government and Monday?s brucellosis case would still cost the entire state its disease-free status.
Rice said the state should now focus on regaining its brucellosis-free status.
?We want to get that back as quickly as possible,? he said, adding that at this point, it was too early to tell how badly the downgrade would affect the Montana cattle industry.