Disease outbreak alarms Montana's ranchers

HELENA, Mont. — The future of Montana's cattle industry, some say, is in the hands of the federal government and a Bridger ranching couple.

Ranchers and livestock groups from the state and around the country are anxiously watching negotiations between Jim and Sandy Morgan and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service over the couple's quarantined cattle.

Seven cows from their ranch tested positive for brucellosis in May, and Montana could lose its coveted brucellosis-free status if the Morgans' herd isn't slaughtered within 60 days of that discovery — which is July 17.

Concerns are mounting that a deal won't be reached in time.

State Sen. Bob Story, R-Park City, raised the issue at an Environmental Quality Council meeting last week, and state Board of Livestock members peppered acting state veterinarian Jeanne Rankin with questions during a conference call Tuesday.

"We're looking at a timeline here, and the board needs to know what steps to take if negotiations fall apart," board chairman William Hedstrom told Rankin.

Board members plan to meet again this Wednesday for an update and to "take some kind of action" if a deal isn't brokered, he said.

"It's making me really nervous," Hedstrom said of the negotiations.

Hayley Carraway, communications manager for the Montana Stockgrowers Association, said the state's brucellosis-free status is critical to its livestock industry. Losing it would cost producers business in other states and subject them to expensive testing and vaccination programs, possibly for years.

Brucellosis, which causes pregnant cows to abort their calves, was widely eradicated from livestock last century but has persisted in wildlife such as elk and bison. Recent outbreaks in Idaho and Wyoming have cost livestock producers there millions of dollars.

Montana is now on probation for two years and will lose its brucellosis-free status if any further cases turn up during that time.

What's holding up the Bridger cattle herd deal is a price for the animals.

The Morgans did not agree with the government's initial herd appraisal, and commissioned their own estimation. The couple faxed an offer to APHIS on Thursday but had not heard back from the agency, said Sandy Morgan and her father, Bruce Malcolm, a rancher and state lawmaker.

APHIS spokeswoman Larry Cooper said officials were reviewing the offer Friday.

"It's all still up in the air," Malcolm said.

State and federal officials are still investigating the source of the outbreak, but many suspect the elk herds northeast of Yellowstone.