Market Farming

["Rick Williams" <mrfarm AT frontiernet.net>]

I checked on Grazersedge and one of our "resident" DVM's, Lucky Pittman (who
is not only a DVM but a DVM pathologist), indicated that:

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This has long been a source of ongoing debate and controversy.

The bison are infected with Brucella abortus, the same species that infects
cattle - the bison (and elk) probably originally became infected by contact
with aborted fetuses/placenta/fluids from B.abortus-infected cattle.
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So I did a search and found that for the most part, the issue seems to be
that the government wants to protect the nearby ranches to Yellowstone
National Park by keeping a buffer zone outside the park. The opposing group
seems to want the buffs to be allowed to go into the nearby public lands. So
you can see that there is a serious potential for transmission.

Seems like it would not be difficult to do a few tests to determine whether
the strain of B. abortus is transmissible to cattle. You could take a
seropositive individual to extract the organism. It is a bit shocking, but
the buffs have an enormous infection rate of 50% in the YNP area.
Apparently, it is transmissible to elk and a reasonable person would have to
assume all ruminants until proven otherwise.

Although it almost seems that they are playing with fire, the good news is
that they have a newer vaccine that seems to have great potential for
treating the buffs. The disease can cause a lot of problems including
arthritis like symptoms. I was not aware of all the disease problems that
buffs have, but there are three main ones, brucellosis, tuberculosis, and
anthrax.

Incidentally, it is documented that humans have contracted brucellosis from
infected wild animals such as elk by contact.

Sincerely,

Rick Williams
Misty Ridge Farm
Dairy heifers and dairy beef graziers
Viroqua, WI

www.mistyridgefarm.com