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Wyoming ranchers deal with brucellosis
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP)--Business is a bit leaner these days at Joe Fornstrom's feedlot.
Since the federal government imposed stringent testing requirements on Wyoming cattle in February after discovering a herd infected with the livestock disease brucellosis, Fornstrom has seen some customers take their money to feedlots in Nebraska or Colorado.
He can't put a dollar figure to it, but Fornstrom has lost several sales at his small Pine Bluffs feedlot after buyers learned that it takes days for the Wyoming cattle to be tested.
"A lot of buyers that come in, when they come in to buy cattle, they want to buy them that day. They don't want to wait," he said. "I've had buyers pass on Wyoming cows because of it."
Federal and state officials have worked since the 1930s to eradicate brucellosis from livestock. But from time to time, the malady, which causes cattle to abort their calves and humans to contract chronic flulike symptoms, resurfaces. In Wyoming, a herd of elk is suspected of infecting two cattle herds over the winter.
The federal government quickly lifted the state's "brucellosis-free" status and required extensive testing.
"When I sell a bull, he has to be brucellosis-tested if he goes out of state," said Mark Teichert, manager of the Wyoming Hereford Ranch east of Cheyenne. "And that's our primary source of income, is feed stock."
"It's just tightened all the controls on the interstate commerce where Wyoming cattle are concerned," he said. "There's more paperwork required, health permits, et cetera."
Bob Elliott, a Cheyenne livestock broker, said the new requirements are hindering his ability to sell Wyoming cattle through auction barns.
"If that animal is not brucellosis-vaccinated, the veterinarian there does an inspection and he limits the places we can go," he said. "The vet will say it can only go to a feedlot. It limits the scope of your marketability."
The requirements are a hassle but probably won't cripple any operation, said Bill Shane, a Pine Bluffs veterinarian.
"It shouldn't eliminate any movement. It shouldn't eliminate any sales, but it should result in some extra inconvenience and expense," he said.
Gathering and testing herds "puts stress on the cattle, stress on the people, increases labor, time," he said.
Stressed cattle tend to lose weight and don't fetch as much money, while ranchers incur higher transportation and equipment costs.
"Before, when we were a brucellosis-free state, we just did a visual inspection," Shane said. "We didn't have to do this testing."
Shawn Madden, co-owner of Torrington Livestock Commission, Wyoming's largest sale barn with 250,000 to 310,000 cattle per year, said his operation is testing substantially higher numbers.
"We were testing quite a few cattle before--the bred females that were going back to ranchers," he said. "Now we're into testing basically every animal that's test-eligible, every female over 18 months of age that's not going to slaughter."
He expects to test about 75,000 cattle this year compared to 25,000 in a normal year.
Madden applauded the Wyoming Legislature for allocating more than $1.6 million to pay veterinarians $3.50 per head tested.
"Now our vet's getting a raise (from $2.50)," Madden said. "He's real happy about it." But Madden worries some veterinarians will simply charge more since the state is anteing up extra dollars.
Madden said if he travels 30 miles to test one bull, $3.50 wouldn't be enough for his time. Overall, though, he said he expects the state reimbursement will take care of most ranchers' costs.
The Legislature also appropriated $220,000 for two new technicians at the State Veterinary Lab in Laramie to help with any brucellosis outbreak, and $125,000 for Gov. Dave Freudenthal's brucellosis task force, of which Madden is a member.
The goal of the task force is to find ways to prevent any more Wyoming cattle from contracting the disease, which will include an examination of state elk feedgrounds--some of which are near cattle ranches and attract elk known to carry brucellosis.
Madden would like the state to implement stricter testing requirements once its brucellosis-free status is restored, which could happen in February 2005 if no new cases are found.
"Before we weren't doing enough. Right now we're doing too much," he said. "We need something in the middle."
Date: 4/21/04
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