The Montana Department of Livestock is holding three public meetings this week to discuss updates to the state’s brucellosis designated surveillance area.
Ranchers, veterinarians, extension educators and other interested people are invited to meetings, which will review recent elk surveillance results and brucellosis regulations, and provide updates on market access points for cattle in the DSA.
The DSA is an area of Montana where cattle are at an elevated risk for brucellosis because of overlapping range with elk and bison, wildlife both known to carry the disease. Ranchers within the area, which stretches from west of Dillion to east of Gardiner and from Three Forks south to the Idaho border, are subject to additional testing and vaccination requirements to control the disease.
The meetings will be held Tuesday in Dillion at the Beaverhead County 4-H building at 1:30 p.m., and Wednesday in Three Forks at the Headwaters Livestock Auction building at 1:30 pm. There will also be a meeting in Emigrant next Tuesday at the St. John’s Episcopal Church at 6:30 p.m.
Presentations and a question and answer session for each meeting are expected to take around 90 minutes.
The meetings will be led by Department of Livestock veterinarian Marty Zaluski and brucellosis program veterinarian Brad De Groot.
“As the brucellosis program evolves, keeping ranchers and other industry stakeholders informed on any changes is vitally important,” Zaluski said. “We look forward to sharing developments on elk surveillance, export barriers, and changes in regulations.”
The last meeting the livestock department held in the DSA was before the COVID-19 pandemic, so it was time to bring people together to communicate some updates, Zaluski said.
For example, last year North Dakota removed a calfhood vaccine requirement and Texas a quarantine requirement for cattle imported from Montana. Both of those changes carry impacts to producers in the DSA, Zaluski said.
The meetings will also be a chance to introduce De Groot, who started with the Department of Livestock this fall.
The meetings will also go through the results from the elk surveillance program. Montana Fish Wildlife Parks samples elk in and around the DSA to gauge the prevalence of brucella each year.
The DSA boundaries have gradually expanded over the years to encompass the region of risk. Finding brucella-positive wildlife outside the DSA prompts the boundary expansion, Zaluski said.
Source: bozemandailychronicle.com
Photo Credit: Montana Department of Livestock
Categories: North Dakota, Government & Policy