US may cull Yellowstone elks as suspected disease source

BEIJING, July 7 (Xinhuanet) -- U.S. federal officials are considering a tentative plan to reduce the numbers of elks in Yellowstone National Park as they suspect elks as the source of a serious livestock disease carried by animals in the area, according to media reports Monday.

More than 6,000 wild bison leaving Yellowstone have been culled over the last two decades to contain brucellosis, which causes pregnant cattle to abort their young.

However, cattle in parts of Wyoming and Montana where bison haven't roamed for decades are also being infected.

Livestock officials in both states are now targeting elks as the cause and say the infected elk herds around Yellowstone must be culled.

Outfitters and hunters oppose the prospect of killing elks, fearing that too much culling could shrink herds and suggest vaccinating cattle or eradicating the disease in bison.

There is no effective brucellosis vaccine for wildlife, and cattle vaccines are only 60 to 70 percent effective.

Humans are susceptible to the disease, but cases are rare and usually limited to those who work with infected cattle.

An estimated 95,000 elks populate the greater Yellowstone area in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. The Yellowstone region's 25 elk herds dwarf the three herds of bison. And unlike bison, which move in groups, elks move freely over the region's numerous mountain ranges, often alone or in small numbers.

A prospect to reach a regional brucellosis plan may be uncertain since differenct states of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana have divergent approaches to wildlife.

Wyoming has begun capturing elks and slaughtering any that show signs of the disease. And in Montana, state officials hope to increase elk hunting and hazing near Yellowstone and expand a testing program to gauge which herds are badly infected.