2 Wyoming herds test negative for disease

State Veterinarian Walter Cook said the results showed the two herds near Cora in Sublette County to be free of the disease, which can cause pregnant cows to abort their calves. The disease occurs in elk and bison and can spread to cattle.

Wyoming and federal livestock officials are in the midst of an investigation to determine the extent of a brucellosis infection detected last month in a cattle herd near Daniel, located about 100 miles southeast of Yellowstone National Park.

"We've got a long way to go still," Cook said. "Those are two of the smaller herds. But it is good news."

Assistant state veterinarian Jim Logan said Thursday's results covered two of 13 herds that had contact with the infected herd. The two herds, which numbered 90 and 77 head, were kept on property next to the infected herd and could have had fence-line contact with infected cattle.

Also Thursday, Cook said the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has extended the state's 60-day deadline to test the 13 herds. Investigators now have until the end of October, which will allow them to test the herds after the cattle are rounded up from summer ranges.

Logan said it would be difficult to corral cattle that have already been released into the mountains. The cattle are accustomed to migrating up into grazing areas, he said.

"They'll know when it's time to come back, but if you try to move them when it isn't their idea it's going to be a hard thing to do," Logan said. "If we were to require people to go out and gather those cattle now it would really interrupt their management situation and cooperation would be difficult to attain."

Wyoming would lose its "brucellosis-free" status if investigators found another cattle herd to be infected with brucellosis before the Oct. 31 deadline. Without that status, testing would be required for all Wyoming cattle before they were sold or moved across the state line.

Wyoming also would lose its brucellosis-free status if the Daniel rancher with the infected herd--whose identity is protected by state law--refused to slaughter his herd within 60 days. Cook said federal officials denied a state request to extend the deadline for the rancher to comply with the so-called "depopulation" measure.

Some in Wyoming's livestock community have expressed support for the Daniel rancher, arguing that it wouldn't make sense for him to make a decision about eliminating his black Angus herd before the state determined that it would lose its brucellosis-free status anyway.

But with the deadline extension for the epidemiological probe, Cook said he expects only one or two more of the contact herds to be tested before September.

"The majority of them, it will be September and October before we have the results," Cook said. "He'll have to make his decision before we know how most of the herds will test."