The Brucellosis Bacterium: Small but Mighty—An Infectious Animal Disease Decision Case (Abridged)

Abstract

ABSTRACTYellowstone National Park officials managed the park under a natural regulation policy for many years. The park's wildlife populations naturally increased, or declined, as food supplies and environmental conditions dictated. The winter of 1996 was extremely harsh for the park's bison, causing many to migrate from the park in search of forage. Livestock producers near the park feared infected bison would transmit brucellosis (Brucella abortus) to their cattle. The disease causes abortions and still‐born deliveries in cattle, as well as undulant fever in humans. Brucellosis became the focus of strict nationwide animal health control policies and federally enforced quarantines. Wyoming governor Mike Sullivan orchestrated the creation of a multiagency management committee entitled The Greater Yellowstone Interagency Brucellosis Committee, to be formed in addressing the disease in wildlife, namely bison and elk (Cervus elaphus). Its purpose was to establish a practical management plan to reduce migratory bison fatalities, preserve the park's natural regulation policy, and ensure the retention of adjacent states' brucellosis‐free status from the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Montana governmental agencies and area livestock producers feared economic difficulties for the cattle industry in that state due to a rescission of their federal brucellosis‐free status resulting from the park's bison intermingling with cattle. By late 1996, National Park Service employees hazed, corralled, and later shot bison in attempts to keep the animals from associating with Montana livestock. This case illustrates a multiagency management dilemma, interest group backlash, and the roles inadequate scientific knowledge and sensationalism can play in addressing a national controversy.