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Workshop
to Explore Brucellosis Vaccines and Diagnostics For Greater Yellowstone
Area Wildlife |
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Finding new solutions to an old problem is the goal of a summer workshop focusing on brucellosis in bison and elk in the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA). The August meeting at the University of Wyoming will bring together more than 50 top researchers from around the globe to identify alternatives to the vaccines currently available.
In the decades since 1917, when brucellosis was first detected in Yellowstone National Park bison, the disease has been virtually eradicated from the United States. The wild bison and elk in the GYA, however, stand as the last major reservoir for Brucella abortus in the Nation.
“Traditional techniques that successfully eradicated the disease in livestock are not as easy to apply in free-ranging wildlife,” said Bret D. Marsh, DVM, who serves as chair of the United States Animal Health Association (USAHA) special committee established in 2004 to plan and host the workshop. The United States Departments of Agriculture and Interior are providing the funding for the workshop.
He points to three focal points for the meeting:
By bringing together key individuals from federal, state, academic and private sectors, USAHA hopes to lay the foundation for an overall strategy to eliminate brucellosis from the Greater Yellowstone Area while maintaining wild and free-ranging wildlife populations. The
University of Wyoming’s Ruckelshaus Institute will moderate the
Workshop. All sessions, to be held August 16-18, 2005 will be open to the
public, with opportunity for public comment. A formal meeting for public
comment will be held from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on August 18 as part of the
workshop. Brucellosis is a bacterial disease that causes abortions and related reproductive problems in many species of mammals, including cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, swine, bison, elk and occasionally horses. While no longer a major human health issue in the United States, in much of the world, brucellosis presents a very important public health concern (known as undulant fever). The United States Animal Health Association (USAHA) is a 109 year-old science-based, national organization of state and federal governments, animal industry groups, universities, wildlife health experts, and other national organizations that address issues of animal health and disease control, food safety, public health, homeland security and animal welfare. USAHA serves as a forum for communication and coordination and a clearinghouse for new information and methods that may be incorporated into laws, regulations, policy and programs. USAHA acts to develop solutions to animal health-related issued based on science, new information and methods, public policy, risk/benefit analysis, and the ability to develop consensus with the goal to reach science-based consensus resolution to animal related issues/problems. The Ruckelshaus Institute was created at the University of Wyoming in 1994 to advance effective decision-making on environmental and natural resource issues through research, policy analysis, education and outreach.
Source: USAHA News Flash |