© lissalou66 via FlickrPoor bison. Around 100 bison, which have been quarantined for four years after being separated from their Yellowstone National Park herds because of brucellosis, are still in captivity.
The decision to quarantine some of the bison, as opposed to outright slaughter, was credited as a move forward in brucellosis management. In fact, livestock owners were forced to test all cattle in May 2009 for the disease. The problem is that these bison, which seem to be treated and fed well, are still confined to a relatively small space, rather than the large, roaming fields they are used to.
So where can they go? Some potential new homes include a ranch owned by Ted Turner, American Indian tribal land at Fort Belknap, and several zoos across the country.
Why can’t the bison be returned to Yellowstone?????
They cant return to Yellowstone because they could potentially pass the disease to healthy bison in the park.
No no, quite the opposite. The Yellowstone herd is contaminated. They are part of an experiment to try to extract some genetic material from the Yellowstone herd without transmitting bruscellosis. If the young calves are taken right after birth, tranmission of the disease cannot take place (between mother and young). Then you test for several years to check that the disease is not still there latent. They still have 5 years to go for the testing etc.
Cheers