Wyoming Game and Fish wildlife managers say they could start vaccinating a small number of bison as soon as this winter to reduce brucellosis in the local herd.

The Game and Fish Department released a new brucellosis management plan for the bison herd last week. Part of that plan includes inoculating bison with RB-51, a vaccine that has shown mixed results in experimental tests.

At a meeting Dec. 19, Game and Fish brucellosis biologist John Henningsen said wildlife managers would watch vaccination efforts in Yellowstone before initiating a program in Jackson Hole.

“We’re probably not going to implement it on a full scale right away,” he said.

However, Henningsen said officials are considering a small experimental vaccination program this year. He said officials haven’t decided on the details of the operation.  

“The recent [studies] have suggested that RB-51 is effective enough to justify its use,” Henningsen said.  

Game and Fish Regional Wildlife Supervisor Bernie Holz said any vaccinations implemented this winter would be delivered in a syringe dart, not a “bio-bullet” or through a capture and hand-innoculation program like some previous efforts in Yellowstone. Syringes, Holz said, likely wouldn’t work on a large scale.

“How many syringes would we be able to recover?” he said.

Even if the program goes forward this winter, Holz said, it might be hard to gather meaningful data.

“Then we probably won’t measure it in a meaningful way until we’re at objective,” he said, referring to a herd reduction program that would cull the herd from 1,200 to 500 animals.

Franz Camenzind, executive director of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, said vaccinating bison with RB-51 is dubious.

“Truly, this borders on a hoax,” he said. “Somewhere in the hierarchy there are decisions being made that will not give us information to hang our hats on. They honestly don’t know what they’re doing. They don’t know how [the operation will function], they don’t know when, and they don’t know how they’re going to measure the results.”

The new brucellosis plan also mentions efforts to keep bison from spreading the disease — which can cause pregnant elk, bison and cows to abort fetuses — to cattle. So far, bison and cattle intermingling hasn’t been a major issue in Jackson Hole because bison prefer to graze mostly in Grand Teton National Park and on the National Elk Refuge, according to officials.

The plan acknowledges that supplemental feeding on the National Elk Refuge contributes to an exceptionally high incidence of brucellosis in Jackson Hole bison and calls for carefully planned habitat enhancement projects that could provide more natural forage for the animals.

For a full copy of the proposed plan and instructions for submitting comments, go to http://gf.state.wy.us/wildlife/Brucellosis/index.asp.