News Release
June 16, 2008

Meeting to discuss brucellosis June 17 in Pinedale

A public meeting to discuss brucellosis and the new case in Wyoming is Tuesday, June 17, at the Pinedale High School auditorium. It begins at 7 p.m.

The meeting is in response to last week’s finding of brucellosis in two Black Angus cows from the same herd near Daniel, a small ranching community west of Pinedale.

Brucellosis was confirmed Monday, June 16, by the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory (WSVL), which is managed by the University of Wyoming’s Department of Veterinary Sciences, said Assistant State Veterinarian Jim Logan with the Wyoming Livestock Board (WLB).

Logan said official confirmation is pending with the National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa.

In addition to Logan, speakers at Tuesday’s meeting include WLB Director Jim Schwartz, WLB State Veterinarian Walter Cook, UW College of Agriculture Dean Frank Galey, WSVL Director Don Montgomery, Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Terry Cleveland and Bret Combs, a veterinarian with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in Cheyenne.

Cook said Wyoming will retain its brucellosis-free status if no additional cases are confirmed within two years. Brucellosis is a bacterial disease that can cause cattle, elk and bison to abort their calves and is also a serious human health disease, he said.

For additional information, contact Cook at (307) 777-6443 or Logan at (307) 857-4140.

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Contact: Robert Waggener, Editor
Phone: (307) 766-3571
E-mail: robertw@uwyo.edu

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