Viewpoint: Elk, not wild bison, have passed brucellosis to cattle

Mike Garrity

With 2.1 million cattle in Montana, one might expect Governor Gianforte and our congressional delegation to know where cattle actually get brucellosis. But unfortunately, the governor and delegation appear locked into outdated, unscientific, and unsupported false assumptions that wild Yellowstone bison have transmitted brucellosis to cattle. They have not.

The grim result of these false assumptions is that thousands of our nation's last wild bison are slaughtered when they cross the invisible border of Yellowstone National Park, supposedly to prevent wild bison from infecting private cattle, which can cause cattle to abort.

That, however, is no longer accepted science. The US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service commissioned the National Ac