LANDER - There's a deep division between two federal agencies over eradication of brucellosis in the bison and elk of Yellowstone National Park.

That divide was the 800-pound gorilla for the Wyoming Governor's Brucellosis Coordination Committee here on Thursday.

{M3Bret Combs, the area veterinarian in charge of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's Veterinary Services, acknowledged that his group and the National Park Service "are not on the same page" regarding the eradication of brucellosis in Yellowstone wildlife. Combs also acknowledged that until that gap is closed, Wyoming's efforts to eliminate the disease in wildlife are likely doomed to failure.

John Keck, the Wyoming state coordinator for the National Park Service, didn't say much before the committee, but explained in a separate interview how complex the brucellosis problem looks from the Park Service's perspective.

Keck said the agency divide exists in part because the Park Service does not regard its wildlife as a form of livestock. Indeed, the "wildness" of elk and bison are valued, and Park Service leadership balks at the suggestion from APHIS and ranchers that elk and bison be rounded up and processed through a test-and-slaughter program.

"Twenty minutes after we announced such a program, we'd get sued," said Keck. The public outcry against a massive test-and-slaughter program in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks would be overwhelming, he warned.

The Park Service is putting its efforts and research into developing an effective vaccine against brucellosis in elk and bison, but there's a problem of delivering the vaccine without treating bison and elk like livestock, Keck said.

Brucellosis is a problem for the neighbors of Yellowstone and Grand Teton, but is not a problem per se for the Park Service, Keck said. Indeed, brucellosis acts as a soft brake to population growth, aborting elk and bison calves for one or two breeding cycles before immunities kick in and calves start surviving.

Brucellosis is a bacteria-caused disease that causes elk, bison and cattle to abort pregnancies. APHIS has a long-standing policy of eradicating the disease and is concerned that the only significant presence of the disease in the country now resides in Yellowstone elk and bison herds - a final reservoir that the agency would like to eradicate.

Wyoming livestock growers have had a few, isolated outbreaks of brucellosis in recent years, and have blamed the disease on livestock contact with infected wildlife. Wyoming lost its brucellosis-free status for cattle in 2004 and has had to institute a range of programs regarding livestock and wildlife alike to get disease-free status back. The northwest sector of the state's $980 million cattle industry is now absorbing costly testing expenses before cattle can leave for other states.

{M3Cattle herds in northwest Wyoming are tested and inoculated for and against the disease, while the Wyoming Game and Fish Department is two years into a five-year pilot program to see whether a test-and-slaughter program for infected elk can reduce the prevalence of the disease in herds.

Brucellosis is endemic in elk herds that use state and federal feedgrounds in the winter. Of the seven herds involved, management plans have been developed for six herds. Wyoming has 22 state-run feedgrounds south of Yellowstone National Park, in addition to the federally operated National Elk Refuge outside Jackson.

When the governor's task force was asked to choose between keeping the feedgrounds open or closing them, the majority voted to keep them open, saying closing the feedgrounds was not recommended in the foreseeable future. Yet when the task force was asked to consider the gradual phase-out or merger of winter elk feedgrounds, the majority said it should be considered.

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Green worries

Cathy Purves, a Trout Unlimited and conservationist group representative to the committee, said the long-term goal of APHIS and livestock interests is slaughtering every brucellosis-infected bison and elk in greater Yellowstone - as that's the only way APHIS has ever successfully eliminated a disease in livestock or wildlife.

Yet APHIS's Combs denies that the agency wants to take over wildlife. He said the presence of the disease in wildlife may or may not influence how APHIS treats states where brucellosis might reappear in the future.

That didn't sit well with Terry Cleveland, director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Cleveland said "the devil's in the details" and worried aloud that vague language in APHIS rules and regulations about wildlife reservoirs of disease could come back to bite the state, from one administration to the next.

Cleveland said he's received the personal, spoken assurance from USDA Chief Veterinary Officer John Clifford that Wyoming's brucellosis-free status will not be jeopardized because the state has free-ranging elk infected with brucellosis.

Combs said Wyoming may be the exception to the national brucellosis policy, simply because of the sheer size of Yellowstone wildlife herds, the size of the parks and the number of states and agencies that are involved.

"We're in a unique situation here," he said.

Combs said APHIS is looking at how and where it can concentrate its efforts in disease surveillance and monitoring. He said it doesn't make sense to test for a disease not seen in a state for 30 years.

APHIS has an in-house study on how to reallocate resources, said Combs. The picture isn't clear yet on what that will ultimately means to the greater Yellowstone brucellosis program.