April 12, 2011
 

US to have more stringent rule for brucellosis zone 

Worries in Colorado and Nebraska have caused Wyoming to accept a new rule for recognising cattle from an area where they might have been made vulnerable to brucellosis.

The Wyoming Livestock Board meanwhile has expanded the area around Yellowstone where cattle are subject to stricter testing and vaccination requirements for brucellosis, a wildlife disease that causes cows to abort their calves.

Wyoming's new rule requires all sexually intact cattle that ever have been inside the disease surveillance area to carry identification disclosing that fact.

Nebraska and Colorado officials worried that Wyoming required such identification only for cattle that had been in the zone as adults. The new rule applies also to calves from the zone.

Public meetings on the changes are planned in Kemmerer on Thursday (Apr 14) and Powell on April 20.