Teddy Roosevelt, “the conservation president,” could not have anticipated the overlaps in wild herds and commercial livestock populations today. Nor could he have known that elk would carry brucellosis so well. One has to wonder about the elk herd expansion efforts taking place in the lower Missouri and Ohio drainages given these research findings.
Source: Drovers CattleNetwork, May 20, 2016.
Researchers say the study confirms previous findings that elk are the most likely source of B. abortus outbreaks in livestock. Over the past decade, they add, documented transmission events from elk to livestock have increased, after none were recorded in the previous decade.