By T.J. GILLES

For The Outpost

After years of conflict and the eventual loss of the Montana cattle industry’s coveted status as free of brucellosis, state officials were somewhat taken aback when the U.S. Department of Agriculture quickly restored that status.

State Veterinarian Marty Zaluski told an Associated Press reporter he was both surprised and “thrilled” at the rapid designation. Continued ranking as non-free would have meant other states applying varying restrictions on the import of Montana cattle and added costs to producers.

“We’ve done over 165,000 brucellosis tests in the 12 months prior and we haven’t found the disease,” Dr. Zaluski said. “We’re going to keep looking for it,” especially in a targeted seven-county area for the next six months.

Before implementing its Brucellosis Action Plan May 15, the State Board of Livestock was divided on the issue, and it even spurred resignations over whether Montana should adopt a two-tier plan for management of the disease. As it was, ranchers in a seven-county area surrounding Yellowstone Park were targeted for special procedures for monitoring elk-livestock intermingling, as well as vaccination and testing requirements.

Infected livestock were found in Carbon and Park counties, resulting in the USDA pulling the state’s brucellosis-free status. Other counties adjacent to Yellowstone Park that were thrown into Region 1 for special treatment are Stillwater, Sweet Grass, Madison, Gallatin and Beaverhead.

The action plan will really swing into action this fall, when all mature, sexually intact cattle from that seven-county area will have to be tested before moving out-of-state or from the seven targeted counties.

“Cull cows will have to be tested, even if they’re going to slaughter,” said Travis Stanley, Montana State University Extension agent for Carbon County, one of the affected counties.

“They’ll be pulling samples right at the auction yards” and gearing for a 24-hour turnaround time on lab results, he said.

Jon Patterson, MSU Extension beef specialist, said, “I’d say our guys are pretty progressive” about brucellosis control.

Ironically, although Montana had been the only state not declared free from the disease until last Friday, it had been a leader in eradicating the disease up until it received its “free” status in 1985 after a 50-year effort.

Montana ranchers looked down their hat brims at producers in backward states such as Texas, Arkansas and Florida where careless cattle-handling and lax rules on livestock movement had them mired in second- or third-class status for decades.

While Dr. Patterson said Montanans have been almost religious about    vaccinating for the disease, he’s wary of the RB51 vaccine, which has been used for about 10 years.

“Is it 50 percent effective? Maybe not even that,” said Dr. Patterson. “Do we vaccinate our heifer calves and then when do we vaccinate again? Every year? Every two or three?” The scientific jury remains out on those questions, he said.

While the vaccine itself costs on $2 to $3 per dose, he said, shots must be administered by a licensed veterinarian and documented and recorded by metal tags placed in cattle’s ears.

The seven cases of brucellosis detected over the past few years in Wyoming,  Idaho and Montana all have been conclusively tied to transmission from wild elk. Those other states have regained their status as free of the disease, which can cause spontaneous abortion in livestock and can infect humans as undulant fever, a rare but potentially fatal disease.

Montana’s multi-million-dollar, multi-decade efforts have focused on bison migrating north out of Yellowstone.    Hazing, testing, slaughter and Montana’s firing-squad-like bison “hunts” of a few years back all have been taken in the name of keeping brucellosis out of neighboring cattle herds.

Although more than half of Yellowstone bison tested have been found to the carry the disease, there have been no proven cases – even in laboratory settings – that have linked the spread of the strain carried by the bison to livestock.

When the state Department of Livestock announced its Action Plan in May, it stated that the plan – which focuses not only on vaccination but on producers monitoring and documenting elk-cattle interactions – would continue for “at least six months” following the restoration of Montana’s brucellosis-free status,” which means at least until next January.

A keystone of the program for the seven counties is a documentation of elk-cattle interactions on a form provided by the department and available for print-out on the department’s Internet link.

Key mixing of the species occurs from January through June, especially when elk and cows share calving grounds or when hungry wildlife raid haystacks or cattle feeding grounds.

Dr. Patterson suggested that those who do the monitoring of those interactions may develop a keener awareness of that issue and inaugurate programs to reduce such intermingling, such as changing feeding locations and patterns or elk-proofing hay supplies or calving locations.

The monitoring program is “voluntary,” but those who didn’t volunteer may wish they had.If they’re not part of the solution, they may have a problem.

Dr. Zaluski said that if producers in the targeted counties do not document elk encounters and other management practices on the five-page risk-assessment form, they’ll have to have their entire herds tested for the disease by the end of the year before being allowed to move cattle out of Region 1.

The 2009 Legislature authorized $2.4 million to cover costs of testing and reimburse veterinarians and ranchers for their efforts rounding up and handling cattle.