Local Pols Want Challenge
To Feds’ Wyoming Bangs Rule

RIVERTON, Wyo. —(AP)— Fremont County commissioners are urging the Wyoming Livestock Board to challenge a federal recommendation that cattle in several counties be tested for brucellosis.

"It is understood the board was put in a compromising position, but it may be time to start litigation and not take the USDA/APHIS recommendation as the final word," the commissioners wrote in a letter commenting on proposed state brucellosis testing rules.

The state livestock board has proposed the rules in response to recommendations from U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service officials. The rules, set to take effect Jan. 1, require all "test-eligible" cattle in Fremont, Teton, Sublette, Lincoln, Park and Hot Springs counties to test negative for brucellosis before being sold.

But commissioners say cattle producers have to take a stand or risk getting shoved out of the way.

"This whole problem may have been put in motion to try to get all domestic livestock out of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem," the letter states. "The cattle producers of our state cannot afford to sit on their hands while some sort of a government inquiry takes place to try and prove brucellosis is not transmitted from wildlife to cattle."

The agreement is aimed at reducing the potential of buffalo transmitting brucellosis to cattle.

Although Wyoming has been designated brucellosis-free for years, state officials said if they do not follow the recommendation, the state risks sanctions from other states on Wyoming cattle.

However, the livestock board should propose alternatives to the recommendation, rather than simply bowing to it, Fremont County Commissioners said, pointing out that the state's brucellosis program has proven to be "very effective."

"If some tightening of procedures at packing plants needs to be done, it would appear this could be done more economically than testing cattle all over western Wyoming," the commissioners wrote.

The commissioners also suggested the board should "force the National Park Service to control brucellosis in their bison and elk herds, by litigation if necessary."