Idaho, Wyoming Governors Urge USDA To Wait On Brucellosis Elimination Zone

May 6, 2009 -- CHEYENNE, Wyo. – The Governors of Idaho and Wyoming expressed their concern to the U.S. Department of Agriculture on what they say is an “ill-conceived and hastily contrived” approach to eliminate brucellosis.

Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter of Idaho and Gov. Dave Freudenthal of Wyoming wrote to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack regarding the proposed National Brucellosis Elimination Zone (NBEZ), which they say would further impede the progress of disease eradication.

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Brucellosis is a bacterial disease that causes pregnant cows and elk and wild bison to abort their fetuses. An aggressive eradication program has eliminated the disease in much of the United States. The only known reservoir of brucellosis infection left in the nation is in wild bison and elk in the Greater Yellowstone Area.

Governors Otter and Freudenthal say that the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) proposal does not address the root problem of brucellosis transmission in the Greater Yellowstone Area – wildlife.

“NBEZ seems to simply ‘fence’ the wildlife and livestock together, with no real wildlife management being required within the National Parks and on the National Elk Refuge,” they wrote. “While we have no interest in federal management of wildlife populations in our states, we are all too aware of the ‘hands-off’ management policies of the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”

“More concerning still is our perspective that the efforts of USDA-APHIS to address our states’ collective and individual concerns, at least thus far, have seemed superficial and non-engaging,” the Governors said. “To be blunt, the NBEZ process has been a top-down, formulaic federal effort.”

Inherent in the NBEZ proposal, they continued, is the idea that by setting aside this zone, USDA-APHIS can therefore declare the rest of the nation “free” of the disease and “walk away from the issue forever, with little likelihood or need for the agency to ever have to truly and fully address the problem going forward.”

As a result, the Governors say, “brucellosis, in a national and even regional sense, will simply fade from the public conscience with the states of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana being left to their own devices to deal with yet another unfunded federal mandate and the livestock producers in the Greater Yellowstone Area being forever handicapped at the marketplace not because of any actual persistence of brucellosis in their cattle herds, but because of some federally contrived ‘zone.’ Certainly, the markets already have provided some ‘zoning’ of sorts, but NBEZ seems to perpetually cement the area as somehow being tainted, with USDA-APHIS having no real, ongoing responsibilities in terms of funding or management.”

The Governors asked Secretary Vilsack to withhold action on the NBEZ proposal until they have had an opportunity to convey their preferred course forward.

“Our states know all too well the hardships of brucellosis,” they said. “While we very much appreciate the nearly century-long efforts of USDA-APHIS to eradicate the disease, the NBEZ proposal seems ill-conceived and hastily contrived when measured against the agency’s historic diligence in seeking the elimination of brucellosis.”

Source: Idaho Governor