Yellowstone National Park officials have agreed to allow as many as 900 bison to be shot by hunters, sent to slaughter or placed in quarantine this winter in a program that seeks to prevent the animals from spreading a disease to cattle. An additional 200 bison among the park’s more than 5,000 bison could be captured or hunted in the late winter if those numbers are met, federal, tribal and state officials agreed in a meeting Wednesday.
Bison routinely leave Yellowstone and head north into Montana each winter, raising concerns that the animals could spread brucellosis to cattle. Brucellosis is a bacterial disease that can cause cows to abort their calves. The disease can spread to people but is rare in humans in the U.S.
While elk have spread the disease to livestock, there are no documented cases of bison spreading brucellosis to livestock in the wild, The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported.
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