Main Street, Wyoming; 717; Bison II

- Transcript
Main Street Wyoming is made possible by Kennicott energy company proud to be part of Wyoming's future in the coal and uranium industries which includes exploration mining and production. And the Wyoming Council for the Humanities enriching the lives of Wyoming people through the study of Wyoming history values and ideas. There are those who call the American buys in our most enduring symbol but these days there's a raging war including lawsuits and headlines about these animals and a disease called brucellosis. Join us on Main Street Wyoming to hear the scientists the government officials and those who are fighting for their strongly held beliefs. You. Will use it. For over 10000 years buys in were the primary source of sustenance for Native Americans.
Every part of the bison was utilized in their culture for food. Even the tools of their daily lives were revered as the various tribes their lives of North America. With the transcontinental railroad in the settlement of the West the vast bison herds of the great plains were decimated in Wyoming a small herd of bison remained within the borders of Yellowstone National Park and the genetic stock literally got down to about 25 35 maybe even 40 nobody knows the exact number. Then they were protected. The Army had to move into Yellowstone to protect from poaching. Now in that protection they finally in Yellowstone itself begin to ranch bison. And they were selling the different products of bison through the years. The population's increased. It did not affect the bison at all. They had a small group of bison interbreeding. And today you have literally
hundreds and hundreds of bison from the original stock now they have brought bison from other places into the Great Plains. But in Yellowstone primarily the bison there. Were made to that area and it literally you know filled. Haydon Valley which is a grassland with them our valley which is a grassland and those bison are back probably about say three thousand head of mice in Yellowstone today I don't know the exact number but they're back and they're doing well. The Greater Yellowstone area which reaches into three states has around 40 400 free ranging buys and it has every mark of a modern success story. These animals which have been hunted to the point of eradication have been protected and returned to record numbers. But modern practices in our national parks have created a controversal an extremely difficult situation. It's a very difficult issue. It's a very divisive issue.
There are a lot of folks in Wyoming that don't think it's even a problem. And whenever you have a situation like that it's very difficult to get people to work together or to make compromises to work to a solution. The problem is a disease called brucellosis. Brucellosis is an important disease of domestic cattle. It's the target of a national eradication program that's been going on since about 1934 and this program has cost over three and a half million dollars. That's with a B and and the effort is to eradicate this disease from the United States. And the program has been very successful. You know you can't say enough to compliment the program. It's reduce the number of infections in herds almost insignificant at this time. It's reduced the number of human cases to almost insignificant at this time and it's very near its goal it's anticipated
that brucellosis will be eradicated from cattle by the end of 1998. But we haven't and bison and they are in the Greater Yellowstone area. We traveled to the state that Mary lab in Laramie to talk with scientists Dr Baf Williams. What is brucellosis. Well brucellosis is a bacterial disease that occurs in a whole variety of different species but primarily here in Wyoming we're concerned about brucellosis the bacterial infection that's caused by every cell of borders in wildlife including elk and bison. And then the potential for it spreading from those populations of of animals into our livestock and. And so because of the fact that it's a. Bacterial disease that can be transmitted there is concern that it can go back and forth between species. Can you describe how it works with. The bacteria gets into the individual animal. And it has a predilection that likes to grow and lymphoid tissue so and lymph nodes and then also likes to grow in
the reproductive tract. And when it does that it causes damage to the can cause damage to the fetus and can cause the cow bison to abort. When she works a lot of bacteria go out in the secretions and everything along with the fetus and then other BEISNER in the area and they tend to be because bison are herding animals. Then it's potentially possible for the. Other bison that maybe are infected to come over and see what's going on and lick on the calf lick on the fetus and by that method they pick up the infection. Another another round of infection that probably happens that hasn't been as well researched and studied. Is is transmission through the mail. And that's where the bacteria ends up going into the mammary gland and is transferred to the calf in the calf. Nurses on the calf and then the cap becomes infected and then that can be perpetuated such that when that calf grows up as a as a cow and has its first calf it could potentially abort and spread the bacteria around. Or it could spread to the next cat that has. And so it's maintained within the population.
And how many of those in there in the Greater Yellowstone area have. Do they have any idea how many of them. Have brucellosis. Well and based on the tests that are available they're not all perfect test but based on the testing that's primarily by doing blood sampling so take a blood sample from the bison that looks like in the range of say 50 to 60 70 percent of the bison have been exposed to the organism. OK so they've been exposed to bacteria at some time during their life. Some of those animals probably still harbor the bacteria maybe hidden away in the lymph nodes are hidden when a reproductive track or doesn't do very much harm other animals probably have a positive blood test but maybe no longer carrying the bacteria. So in terms of the animals that are exposed are probably looking at more than 50 percent of those animals. Brucellosis is a human pathogen that means humans can catch the disease. We call it underlip fever a serious disease that comes from unpasteurized milk
and undercut me harboring the bacteria. In America today. There are only 32 herds infected with brucellosis the US Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service or a fest is very close to its goal of eradicating the disease by 1998 except for the reservoir brucellosis in Wyoming's wildlife. Tom thorn represents Wyoming Game and Fish on the Greater Yellowstone interagency brucellosis Committee. Tom how long is Wyoming Game and Fish been involved brucellosis for actually for a very long time. Initially just doing occasional blood sampling or testing a free ranging wild life in primarily an elk in 1969 we began intensively sampling milk on one or two of our feed grounds especially the grazier feed ground and the national refused in relation to some nutrition studies we were doing
and we detected a high level of blood test positive animals for brucellosis as far back as Sam and we had known about brucellosis since as far back as 1930 on the National Opera from which we began our first research to find out the effects of brucellosis not on bison as we're concerned with on elk in 1071. And we have never gone a year without doing some fairly intensive work since 1971. So how does the agency view it as brucellosis the naturally occurring disease is it a threat to wildlife brucellosis is not a natural disease of bison or elk. In North America or in the United States or even in Wyoming it's a European disease of cattle that came to North America by way of cattle and through one method or another and it's irrelevant at this point. Got into both bison and elk and now exists and the bison populations. And then there are the greater Yellowstone area. And
because of the conflict between the disease in elk and bison and the eradication program it's a very very serious problem. As far as we are concerned as an agency are there certain characteristics that Mizen have that that affect how they have the disease. I said there are very closely related to domestic cattle and behaviorally. They're quite similar to domestic cattle. And the behavioral trait that makes brucellosis significant in Bison is the fact that they have a very strong herding instinct. They like to stay together in a fairly close knit although it's it's a trance in her you know members will leave and join another herd but they always are are fairly cohesive and fairly social animals and brucellosis is transmitted in relation to a birthing event either in abortion or the birth of a live cattle and bison. Typically not always but typically give birth to a calf or a borked prematurely in the presence of the herd. An example of contrast would be elk which rather than
staying within the herd when they calf or give birth they go into seclusion and hide and therefore they don't expose many other animals unless we have been concentrating on the ground in the winter when they might abort and that's that's why we have the problem. When you're looking for a solution do you look to bison behavior as long as we're going to have free ranging bison. They're going to maintain this herding behavior and the opportunity to transmit brucellosis from one animal to another. Their traditional way to solve the brucellosis problem in domestic cattle and ranch to bison and even some free ranging bison herds is is some form of a test and slaughter program. You blood test the entire herd you identify the animals that are blood test positive and then regardless of whether that blood test means they're actively infected or they just used to be infected you send in the slaughter and you get them out of the herd. The idea behind that is they don't transmit the disease to any other animals and you eventually get all the infected animals out of the herd in a
population that has a real. Heavy infection such as our two bison herds and wild in Yellowstone and Teton herds. You end up taking over half the animals probably two thirds of them out before this was done if you could even do it. And obviously especially with Yellowstone her and the free ranging nature that they have would be destroyed. Ron Michael is the director of the Wyoming Department of Agriculture. As you know the brucellosis issue is just became a major issue in the state of Wyoming and the governor asked me to become involved in this to make sure that it had cabinet level visibility in the state. Our goal in the whole entire issue is to maintain our
brucellosis free status in the state of Wyoming brucellosis free status means that our cattle can move between states without having to be tested for brucellosis that we have not had any brucellosis in the state and we've had that brucellosis free status for the last 10 years which means we have not had any livestock in the state that's had Bruce brucellosis. It's taken us almost 30 years to get that brucellosis free status and if we lose it it means that before ranchers can ship their cattle for to another state for example the cattle have to be bled and tested for brucellosis which is a very expensive operation and very time consuming and really limits the interstate commerce of agriculture industry. So my goal is to maintain that brucellosis free status. Ninety nine percent of Wyoming cattle producers bangs vaccinate. That is vaccinate for brucellosis. But the vaccine is only about 70 percent effective because of this. Other methods are used to keep out the disease.
We encourage the people to. Not only vaccinate but to test and slaughter. And we've had to test the slaughter program in the state. That is when cattle go to an auction and go to a slaughter facility they're actually back tagged in there is a random sample of the blood from those animals and then that can be traced back to the herd of origin again through years of testing a slaughter we have not had brucellosis in the state and we're very proud of that and it's been a very successful program. So there's lots of checks and balances but there's still a concern that despite all that effort. We do have a reservoir of brucellosis in this state not in cattle or not in sheep but in wildlife and that's where the that's where we get into the real problems. It's up to the other states to determine if Wyoming will keep its free status. And other states are saying we're not going to take the chance even though it's small. And even though it may not be a real strong strong possibility we're not
going to take the chance of jeopardizing our brucellosis free status when we can go anywhere else in the nation virtually and be relatively confident that our cattle are going to be clean. If we lose our brucellosis reste additive status it would be a significant impact on the on the agriculture community. There are only three counties where wildlife of brucellosis occur. The time Lincoln in subway. But the problem of brucellosis quarantine will impact every cattle producer in the state of Wyoming. The state that Marion's office is already receiving calls from other states in preparation for Wyoming. Potential quarantine. The question they're asking what are you doing to fix the problem. Bison are a natural resource. They're not a domestic resource. They're the property of all of us not the property of an individual. They are wild
animals. They're not in pens and captive and so forth. So we feel that they need different attention. They should not be treated the same as cattle. There's a great deal of pressure political pressure to resolve the brucellosis question the brucellosis eradication program has an objective of eliminating the disease by December 1998. And and. From the people who are managing or regulating the brucellosis program they wanted out of wildlife by 1998 also. And so that does put a tremendous amount of pressure upon us to resolve the problem. Realistically there's no way it's going to be solved in an bison or elk by 1998. It just can't be done when we talk about brucellosis with bison there are a lot of numbers that get thrown around in the Yellowstone herd. It's estimated that perhaps 50 percent of the animals 50 percent of the bison will show a serial positive reaction to brucellosis and that is
a result of a blood test and it's a very similar test that we would take if we were going to test people for example to exposure for exposure to measles or something. You could do the test draw some blood from people. We would show the anti body. But that doesn't mean we've ever had measles or certainly doesn't mean that we could pass it on to anyone. What it needs means is that we've either had the vaccination and have developed antibodies or have had the disease or been exposed to it and develop the antibodies. That's the same kind of test that's used on bison it just checks for the antibodies. OK so 50 percent of the animals in Yellowstone may be serial positive have the antibodies but when you go to testing the actual tissues to see if that little bacterial organism is there it's only about 11 percent. This disease is going to have to be managed on wildlife terms and not cattle terms and what I mean by that is the traditional way that the brucellosis has been dealt with in cattle is a test and slaughter type program where all the animals in a hurry
rounded up their blood tested the positive ones get killed and the negative ones go back in the herd till the next test and then you do repeat tests. That kind of approach isn't going to work with wildlife I don't think a slaughter of 50 or 60 percent of the also bison would be acceptable to very many people. But maybe over time with developing some of these vaccination techniques maybe ways to manage habitat or whatever so that the animals don't become infected maybe as readily as they do now there may be other ways that we can manage the disease that is appropriate for wildlife. And I still get the job done but it is going to happen overnight it's going to be a long term process and so I think that's something that the people of St.. History has taken. Over 700.
Across the country but. In the meanwhile are free of the disease to negotiate. As you know the state of Montana finally threw up their hands and went to court. The federal government they settled out of court in a very difficult situation of their of the slaughter of Buffalo. We decided as a state not to go to court did we. We would try to negotiate and we still think we can do that we think we can come to a solution. But ultimately I suppose if we have to go to court if we have to if we have to go that route we will we still have that option. The whole the whole point in the negotiations that we are carrying on right now is try to avoid litigation if we can do that.
Can we do it. I hope we can. But there are days are there days when you really wonder if there is a solution to this problem. The other free ranging her in Wyoming is located in the Grand Teton National Park and national ALC refuge. It presents a different set of management problems. Basically back in the 1970s the bison that used to winter up at Grand Teton National Park apparently went off on a little trip and found the felines on the Elk refuge and pretty much ever since that time they've been coming down here during the winter and in getting in on the alfalfa that we put out for the for the elk. Now I know that you've been trying to come up with a management plan. What are the most critical points of that do you think in terms of how you can be managing the bison in this area. Well at this point the per the preferred alternative calls for us to try to kind of set up an experiment to shortstop the alc up of the hundred Talbott area in
Grand Teton National Park. And we would do that by irrigating a portion of the park area that used to be old hay fields and Ranch area and then supplementing that with some additional feed to try to hold the bison. On the park during the winter instead of having them migrate you know here into the Refuge. We also want to limit numbers to about between 200 and 250. There is a proposal for a small public cut from five to 10 animals and we're also going to make some animals of vailable to the tribes in the area for various uses that they would have. The plan right now is it has some good points and it has some points that we're concerned with. One of the things we're concerned with is that it's looking at a top number of animals or the total number of animals that are around 250 between 200 250 animals. We feel that this area can support more
than that number. That number is also less than the 400 which another part of the very same management plan points out as being the minimum number for maintaining genetic viability here. The people that are writing the plan are getting around that by saying we're going to keep the number lower but we're going to do is bring in animals from outside populations to keep this mix of genetic material. Biologically that will probably work or that could work with others. It's up in the air as to whether that will or not. But it goes contrary to that one of the stated goals of the plan which is to have a free ranging and self-sustaining population by bringing animals in that's not self-sustaining that's that's a highly managed situation. So that's one of the problems we have with it. Another problem that we have with this ongoing plan is that there are. Basically extending the refuge up into the park by identifying a certain area of a
national park to be heavily managed and manipulated irrigated land and so forth and even baiting going on to hold the animals the bison away from the elk refuge. We don't see that that's a compatible use of a national park. That goes quite contrary to a national park. I think it's a good point I think the people who are concerned about the irrigation program in the park certainly have a valid point. National parks were set up to be as natural as possible. I think we have to recognize though in the Jackson Hole that we have basically a very unnatural situation let's face it we're feeding thousands of tons of alfalfa to elk and bison here in the Jackson Hole every winter. That's certainly not a natural situation where we're being pushed frankly by other states and by the federal government is that we have to do something with the infection in wildlife and of course
that's where the that's where the confrontation occurs. Well the brucellosis issue is certainly it's a very difficult issue. It's become a very divisive issue here in Wyoming. Down here at the south end of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem the presence of brucellosis and wildlife is due to the fact that we are feeding elk on feed lines. If you look at that our current winter ranges in other states where they're not fed you'll find that either brucellosis is entirely absent or less than 1 percent of the Elk carry brucellosis. If you look at Alki here for example on the national elk refuge about thirty nine percent of the females have tested positive and about 28 percent of the males. So there's a direct relationship between having Elke on supplemental feed and then the amount of brucellosis they have and that's probably because the animals are so concentrated during the winter months while they're being fed that they come into
contact with this disease. And you know there's been a lot of talk about the bison and stuff but in my opinion the real issue with brucellosis in the Jackson Hole is with elk and that's the that's the problem we need to solve is working with more. Much more so than with the bison. I think we have to understand the brucellosis problem. I don't think it's as big a problem as it's being made out to be. Here in Jackson Hole where we have ranchers we have over 7000 a uns. Our national park here on Grand Teton National Park which many of those overlap with bison we don't have a problem here. Cattle are not getting brucellosis. The ranchers here vaccinate their stock. They put on their animals a little bit later than when the bison are having their calves which is the time that they could perhaps you know exchange a disease. I think we have to understand that this is not a wildlife problem. It's a social problem. People
have to realize that it can be taken care of that way. It's not a biological problem in that sense ranching a few husbandry things can take care of it. The ranchers are going to be singled out here as the culprits for the rest of the state because they have cattle and bison overlapping and yet it's not a problem. The veterinarians he hear will say it's not a problem. From both or the wildlife perspective and the ranching perspective and the regulatory medicine perspective brucellosis is a problem. And there are some people from all of those perspectives that tend to not recognize it as a problem or say well it's only a wildlife problem or it's only a cow problem or it's only a regulatory problem it's everybody's problem and we need to recognize it as that and resolve the problem. The successful elimination of brucellosis in America's cattle herds has been based on science and it's science which is looking for new solutions for wildlife.
Whether it is viable it's injected an alkie for all vaccines placed on winter feed grounds researchers are searching for new answers. But research takes time. And time is running out. Part of the. Main Street Wyoming is made possible by Kennicott energy company proud to be part of
Wyoming's future in the coal and uranium industries which includes exploration mining and production. The Wyoming Council for the Humanities enriching the lives of Wyoming people through the study of Wyoming history values and ideas and buy Amoco and its employees who have contributed to Wyoming's history and continue to be active in Wyoming communities and in the state Amoco. You expect more from a leader.
- Series
- Main Street, Wyoming
- Episode Number
- 717
- Episode
- Bison II
- Producing Organization
- Wyoming PBS
- Contributing Organization
- Wyoming PBS (Riverton, Wyoming)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/260-182jm86k
If you have more information about this item than what is given here, or if you have concerns about this record, we want to know! Contact us, indicating the AAPB ID (cpb-aacip/260-182jm86k).
- Description
- Episode Description
- (Warning - contains graphic descriptions that may be upsetting to some viewers) This episode is the second of a two-part series recounting the story of the buffalo, also known as the American bison. Experts talk about ongoing lawsuits and headlines about the bison and brucellosis, a highly contagious disease that can be transmitted through animals and animal products.
- Series Description
- "Main Street, Wyoming is a documentary series exploring aspects of Wyoming's local history and culture."
- Broadcast Date
- 1997-02-20
- Broadcast Date
- 1997-00-00
- Asset type
- Episode
- Genres
- Documentary
- Topics
- History
- Local Communities
- Animals
- Rights
- Main Street, Wyoming is a production of Wyoming Public Television 1997 KCWC-TV
- Media type
- Moving Image
- Duration
- 00:30:14
- Credits
-
-
Director: Nicholoff, Kyle
Editor: Nicholoff, Kyle
Executive Producer: Nicholoff, Kyle
Host: Hammons, Deborah
Producer: Hammons, Deborah
Producing Organization: Wyoming PBS
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
-
Wyoming PBS (KCWC)
Identifier: 3-0342 (WYO PBS)
Format: Betacam
Generation: Master
Duration: 00:30:00?
If you have a copy of this asset and would like us to add it to our catalog, please contact us.
- Citations
- Chicago: “Main Street, Wyoming; 717; Bison II,” 1997-02-20, Wyoming PBS, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed July 25, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-260-182jm86k.
- MLA: “Main Street, Wyoming; 717; Bison II.” 1997-02-20. Wyoming PBS, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. July 25, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-260-182jm86k>.
- APA: Main Street, Wyoming; 717; Bison II. Boston, MA: Wyoming PBS, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-260-182jm86k