Reznet

Hosts Sought for 50-100 Disease-Free Bison

By the Associated Press

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana wildlife officials seek proposals from Indian tribes, private groups and land-management agencies capable of caring for 50 to 100 disease-free bison.

The bison are part of a four-year-old research project directed by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The animals have been quarantined at a facility near Corwin Springs, north of Yellowstone National Park.

Officials are offering quarantined bison and their calves to an agency or organization capable of caring for the animals for five years.

The aim of the project is to capture, raise and breed bison calves from Yellowstone National Park that are free of brucellosis exposure.

Many Yellowstone bison are infected with brucellosis, a disease that causes some pregnant cows, including domestic cattle, to abort their young. The presence of brucellosis in the Yellowstone bison herd has been a source of concern for decades.

An earlier effort to relocate quarantined bison to the Northern Arapaho Tribe's Wind River Reservation in central Wyoming ended when tribal officials voted not to accept the bison.