The most rigorous tissue analysis in America has revealed that 13 of the first 15 Yellowstone buffalo slaughtered this winter by the Montana Department of Livestock did not have the disease brucellosis. These 13 buffalo therefore posed no risk to cattle. They were killed needlessly. The lab results come from Ames, Iowa, where the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirms that a battery of tissue tests determined that 13 Yellowstone buffalo were "culture negative."

The tests showed that only 2 out of 15 buffalo--all of them slaughtered in January and February after wandering outside Yellowstone National Park's western boundary--were actually infected with the disease. Both infected animals were bulls which, because they cannot have abortions, pose no significant risk of introducing the disease into their environment.

"This is tragic news," said Mike Clark, Executive Director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. "Montana continues to needlessly slaughter one of our great symbols of the West. These studies conducted on the dead animals reveal that the state is killing off buffalo that are perfectly healthy; they posed no risk, yet now they are gone from America's first national park forever." Faced with rising public concern, the Montana Department of Livestock is now using a public relations firm to coordinate its news releases and to mislead the public about the risk of disease.

Since November 20, the agency has issued 18 news releases÷an average of one news release every five days--containing misinformation. For example, the agency has reported finding high percentages of captured buffalo testing "positive" for brucellosis, implying actual infection and threat of transmission. This implication has been misleading each time the Department of Livestock has repeated it. The agency's blood tests, administered in the field, reveal whether a buffalo is "positive" or "negative" for exposure to brucellosis, not for the disease itself. Only culture tests determine whether an animal was actually infected.

By failing to be clear about this critical distinction, the Montana Department of Livestock has deluded the public for three months, elevating the public's perception of a disease problem far beyond the facts and justifying its continuing slaughter of Yellowstone buffalo. "Now we know the truth," added Clark. "But the truth apparently does not matter to the Montana Department of Livestock. Where is the agency's news release now, reporting that it killed 13 buffalo that did not have brucellosis?"

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