Montana releases plan to regain brucellosis-free status

By JESSICA MAYRER Chronicle Staff Writer

The state of Montana released a brucellosis action plan to a roomful of ranchers Tuesday, detailing steps cattle operators and the state will take to help Montana reclaim its brucellosis-free status.

“This is a template for us to increase surveillance,” said state veterinarian Marty Zaluski.

Zaluski said he hopes to reclaim the state’s brucellosis-free status by November of this year. Two Montana herds, one in Carbon County and another in Park County, have tested positive for the disease since May of 2007.

Elk were the likely culprit transmitting the disease, which causes cattle to abort, biologists have said.

And so, with the Montana Board of Livestock’s nod of approval Tuesday, ranchers in high-risk areas, Carbon, Stillwater, Sweetgrass, Park, Gallatin, Madison and Beaverhead counties are required, with exceptions, to test cattle for the disease to ensure it doesn’t spread.

Outside of the high-risk area, the state will concentrate on testing animals slated to be sold outside of Montana, Zaluski said.

The estimated $2.4 million price tag to test cattle will likely be picked up by the state, Zaluski said. If all goes as planned, vets will bill the state for testing and then be reimbursed. But as the legislature hashes out the upcoming budget, it’s not a sure bet just yet.

“The other big question sort of looming in our mind is a funding source,” said Errol Rice, executive vice president of the Montana Stockgrowers Association. “We’re going to have to fight and scratch and claw.”

Zaluski asks operators to fill out a risk survey available through the Montana Department of Livestock, which will oversee the plan. And while the intention is for all producers in the seven-county, high-risk area to fill out the assessment, it’s not mandatory.

“However, if you don’t,” Zaluski said, “you will be subject to more stringent testing.”

State experts will then evaluate risk, deciding if it’s necessary to test for the disease, based largely on potential exposure to elk, Zaluski said. Many ranchers, even in the high-risk area, will likely only have to test when they sell cows.

“It’s just going to depend,” Zaluski said. “We do not intend to ask producers to test again and again.”

It will cost $12 per head to test cattle on ranches and $7.50 for each animal tested at market, Zaluski said.

Here are some specifics:

* Operators in high-risk areas are required to test their entire herd, unless given an exception after filling out the risk assessment.

* If cattle ranchers tested their entire herd last year, they are not required to do it again in 2009.

* All bison or cattle in the seven-county high-risk area older than 12 months and sexually intact are to be given an official identification tag, available at the time of calfhood vaccination and through the United States Department of Agriculture to trace movement outside of high-risk areas.

* All sexually intact cattle or domestic bison older than 12 months being sold or moved from a high-risk area to a lower-risk area must be tested at least 30 days before being moved. Steers and spayed heifers are exceptions.

* Aborted fetuses should be tested according to best management practices.

* The plan also recommends vaccinating calves against brucellosis, building game-proof fencing around feed storage areas to deter elk.

Exceptions may be granted based on the risk assessment survey and must be approved by the Montana State Veterinarian.

If Montana regains its brucellosis-free status, officials will ease up on the action plan 180 days after the state gets a clean bill of health, targeting only very limited areas where exposed elk or bison are known to share landscape with cattle.

“This is a short-term plan,” Zaluski said. “If everything goes well, this plan really goes away.”

Jessica Mayrer can be reached at jmayrer@dailychronicle.com or 582-2635.

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