Elk may be brucellosis culprit

[ELKCHSR]

Livestock head: Elk may be brucellosis culprit

HELENA, Mont. (AP) The director of the state Livestock Department says preliminary findings are pointing to elk as the possible source of a brucellosis outbreak at a Bridger ranch this spring.

Christian Mackay told the Environmental Quality Council today the possibility isn't definitive and quote "may never be definitive." A spokesman for the U-S Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service wouldn't confirm the possibility.

Larry Cooper says the agency is still investigating.

Brucellosis causes pregnant cows to abort their calves. It was detected at a Bridger ranch in May, and although subsequent testing has turned up negative the state could lose its brucellosis-free status if another case turns up in the next two years.

Mackay says just 19 more cattle will be tested in the coming weeks.

Another 850 cows mostly steers south of Bridger will be tested this fall.

 

[Curly]

Elk may be brucellosis culprit

Its probably from those damn game farm elk spreading it to wild elk.

 

[shoots-straight]

HELENA, Mont. (AP) The director of the state Livestock Department says preliminary findings are pointing to elk as the possible source of a brucellosis outbreak at a Bridger ranch this spring.

Imagine that, put the blame for the brucellosis outbreak on elk, what a joke, there really grasping on this one..Like elk come in contact with beef.

 

[Moosie]

ss, Are you saying that Elk and Cows don't mingle ever ?

 

[shoots-straight]

ss, Are you saying that Elk and Cows don't mingle ever ?

No I'm not saying that, but it's highly unlikly that they passed the desease on to cattle.. They'd have to of come in contact with after birth.

Do you think the Dept. of livestock is credible?

 

[1_pointer]

Do you think the Dept. of livestock is credible?

You don't like the BLM???

 

[Tom]

Here's an article about it in elk, its spread was related to the major piles of supplemental feeding over important times. If they let people supplemental feed a bale here a bale there all over the place, wouldn't that help prevent the spread? Like the baiting food down here, but for elk, during the winter only (i.e. the stress time up there), up there.

http://nrmsc.usgs.gov/products/Cross_et_al_draft2007.pdf

 

[Moosie]

Do you think the Dept. of livestock is credible?

S.S. I don't think anything starting with "Department of"..... is Credible ..

 

[Oak]

Just curious...anybody know if elk have always carried brucellosis?

 

[1_pointer]

Oak- IMO, that's the million dollar question when this topic comes up. One I'm sure many on both sides of the issue don't want answered...

 

[shoots-straight]

Just curious...anybody know if elk have always carried brucellosis?

I believe the answer to that is No. Even Tom's info states that the elk contracted it from cattle that were brought in at the beginning of the cattle industry in Montana and Wyoming.. Some how they grazed where the cattle had given birth, or maybe they ate the after birth..

 

[ELKCHSR]

and now it's a vicious cycle...

 

[1_pointer]

I believe the answer to that is No. Even Tom's info states that the elk contracted it from cattle that were brought in at the beginning of the cattle industry in Montana and Wyoming.. Some how they grazed where the cattle had given birth, or maybe they ate the after birth..

Funny how elk and cattle had co-mingled for more than 100 years in other parts of the country without the elk contracting the disease. I'd say the jury's still out and that it will never be 'known' which is right.

 

[MarvB]

This kinda deal?

 

[1_pointer]

That's funny!!!

 

[elk_hunter]

Funny how elk and cattle had co-mingled for more than 100 years in other parts of the country without the elk contracting the disease. I'd say the jury's still out and that it will never be 'known' which is right.

Exactly!

 

[Curly]

That is funny Marv. How did you find that?

 

[1_pointer]

Maybe at the web address below the cartoon? Just a guess though...

You are WH's twin aren't you...

 

[Lostagain]

why argue about how it got here, should be figuring out how to reallistically solve it.

 

[Curly]

1P - I didn't ask "where" I asked "how"...........