There have been reports today of another possible case of brucellosis in two cattle from Daniel, Wyoming. The tests don’t confirm brucellosis infection, that will require a culture test to determine if the brucella abortus bacteria is present which will take another two weeks.
Wyo may have new brucellosis case
Casper Star Tribune
Here is the Wyoming Livestock Board Press Release
Brucellosis confirmed in Sublette herd
Cat Urbigkit, Pinedale Online!
Brian Ertz
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Notice the board’s comments that brucellosis is a “serious human health” disease. Laughable … fear, fear, fear.
I wonder how developments are going to unfold on this one!
Cat Urbigkit’s article seems to be fairly objective but I wonder where she really stands on the issue of bison. She is a rancher. It will be interesting to see her take on the history of wolves in her new book on that subject soon to be published.
There’s a little more on this in some more articles
6/13/08
Disease resurfaces in Wyo cattle
(by Chris Merrill Casper Star-Tribune)–check below for Cat Urbigkit’s story for more details; in Daniel, far from Yellowstone
6/13/08
Disease suspected in cattle at Daniel
(by Angus M. Thuermer Jr. Jackson Hole News and Guide)
whoops – the extra text is from my “newspaper”
Melin blames elk for transmitting the disease to cattle, saying they’ve been pushed into grazing pasture by wolves. He even had a photo on his cell phone of an elk calf born in a pasture near his house. It used to be, Melin said, that elk were never seen in the valley. Now, that’s the only place they’re found.
This is the local ranchers take on the cause of the brucelosis,,, had to be either wolves or bison fault,, looks like it is wolves this time,,
“With the introduction of the wolves, it’s pushed the elk out of the high country, and they’ve become plains animals,” Melin said. “This elk situation is kind of a tough deal. If things were done right, I think Fish and Game would depopulate the elk.”
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has struggled to bring elk populations down in certain areas of the state, but the agency is often often confounded by private landowners who don’t allow public hunting.
oops.. sorry, my comment is in the second paragraph,, i didnt move the cursor
What he seems to forget, is historically a good portion of the countries elk population WAS a plains animal!, based on my research on history of elk, they started to move into sheltered mountainous areas once the settlers started moving west…
Save Bears
Oops! Elk, as generalists, have occupied all kinds of habitat since crossing over from Berengia long before European settlers showed up to disrupt their distribution. We need to get away from this “plains animal” designation, which is used by multiple users to claim that elk aren’t native to mountains, a claim that is clearly nonsense, but I still hear it from time to time. From the standpoint of evolution, the wapiti was moving in the direction of becoming a “plains” animal, as exemplified by the bugle, as opposed to the roar of the red deer of the forest, but their evolution has been somewhat interrupted by the arrival of Europeans, with our belief that we know better how to manage wildlife than Nature does.
RH
Well Robert,
I beg to differ a small bit, as this was part of my final thesis when I earned my Masters Degree in Wildlife Biology…there were actually several subspecies of elk, (many of which are now extinct), and many of them were in fact plains animals, but I agree, they should not use the wolves as an excuse to say elk are becoming plains animals because the wolves are driving them out of the mountains. Elk are very adaptable animal and live in a wide variety of habitat.
Actually, isn’t that what I said?
I think you both said the same thing.
Robert,
As I read it again, it does sound like we said the same thing..
Sorry for the confusion..
LOL
We can call it a Camp Mackall Standoff; we both have our coins, so who buys the beer?
If and when we get a chance to meet, the first round is on me!
(c:
Sounds good to me.