MFWP Kills Two Cow Elk in Dome Mountain WMA

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks officials today removed two radio-collared cow elk from the population near Gardiner that recently tested positive for exposure to brucellosis.The two elk are among 29 fitted with GPS collars and tested for brucellosis in February of 2008 as part of ongoing elk research. The GPS collars, which contain nearly a full year of elk-movement information, are set to fall off the animals later this month. Researchers will retrieve each discarded collar. The elk range from the Dome Mountain Wildlife Management Area in the Paradise Valley in winter to south-central portions of Yellowstone National Park, where they spend most of the spring, summer and fall. The brucellosis test results were delivered last spring.

"Our knowledge of brucellosis in these elk is derived from ongoing research that reveals the movement of the herd and the time of year elk can be expected to inhabit areas also used by domestic cattle," said Quentin Kujala, FWP’s wildlife management bureau chief in Helena. "Based on the distribution of the two elk, our data suggested the animals could come into proximity or contact with livestock this winter or early spring so we removed them now," Kujala said.

It is not the first time such efforts have been conducted. In 1988, five elk were removed from herds in the Madison Valley and Gravelly Range under similar circumstances, Kujala said. Kujala noted that FWP’s elk research in southwestern Montana is striving to learn more about minimizing interactions between cattle and wildlife during critical late winter and spring months when the potential for brucellosis transmission is highest, and not targeting brucellosis-positive elk for removal.

The concern stems from two different cattle herds in southwestern Montana that tested positive for brucellosis in 2007 and 2008. Test results from the National Veterinary Services suggested the brucellosis infection likely came from elk.

Because two such cases of brucellosis were found in Montana within 12-months, the U.S. Department of Agriculture revoked Montana’s 23-year-old brucellosis-free status, requiring all Montana’s livestock producers to test most cattle a month before interstate shipment. Since 1981 FWP has tested nearly 7,000 elk for brucellosis exposure, mostly in the Greater Yellowstone Area north and west of Yellowstone National Park.

The results of those tests show brucellosis exposure rates that range from 0 to 5.5 percent. Fewer than half of the elk that test positive for brucellosis exposure are actually infected with the disease.In 2006, FWP established a committee to expand and improve brucellosis surveillance programs across the state.

This year, FWP expanded efforts to collect blood samples from hunter-harvested elk in southwestern Montana, to further define the area of the disease in elk, complete elk and livestock risk assessments, and determine if elk or livestock management practices need adjustments. Results from this year’s surveillance efforts are expected this spring.