Montana is expanding the area where cattle producers are required to vaccinate animals at risk for the disease brucellosis. The Montana Department of Livestock will travel the state this month to remind ranchers and address questions ahead of next calving season.
In a few weeks, Dr. Eric Liska will travel to Big Horn County to host his first of ten informational meetings about brucellosis regulations.
“It’s a reminder to make sure they set up with their veterinarian that next spring, after their cows calve, they have an opportunity to vaccinate before enforcement begins in 2021,” says Liska.
That’s when the grace period ends for requirements enacted last October.
Previously, only four counties in the Yellowstone area had to vaccinate cattle and domestic bison that were older than a year. Now those rules apply to another six: Big Horn, Broadwater, Carbon, Jefferson, Stillwater, and Sweet Grass C
Counties.
The vaccination requirements were expanded to include counties that contain or border on an area where infected wildlife have been found.
Dr. Liska says most of the infected livestock herds he’s worked with are believed to have been infected by wild elk.
He says most producers in the state of Montana already vaccinate their females.
“That said, some producers in the ten counties where the vaccination requirements exist, some of their older females might not be vaccinated already.”
He said that could be because of some misconceptions.
“If you vaccinate an older female that she will be positive for a test for brucellosis,” he says.
Dr. Liska says that’s no longer the case. Former versions of the vaccine used to give false positives but the current form does not.
It’s one of the misunderstandings he hopes to address as he speaks with ag producers from around the Yellowstone area August and September.
Dr. Liska will host an informational meeting in each of the ten counties where the vaccination requirements will be enforced.
The Department of Livestock will hold a series of public meetings about the new requirements:
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Olivia Reingold is Yellowstone Public Radio’s Report for America corps member.