GREEN RIVER - Since the outbreak of brucellosis in western Wyoming in 2003 that led to the loss of the state's brucellosis-free status, Game and Fish Department officials have been re-examining its feedground management program.

That's partly because some of the cattle that tested positive for the disease in 2003 grazed near the Muddy Creek feedground located southeast of Boulder. The Pinedale elk herd that used the feedground was suspected of spreading brucellosis to those nearby cattle herds.

A new brucellosis management plan for Muddy Creek and two other adjacent feedgrounds looks at that possible transmission scenario and makes a series of recommendations for lowering the risk of transmitting the disease between wildlife and livestock.

The department has released its first-ever individual feedground management plan that aims to reduce the risk of transmission of brucellosis between elk feeding at a state-run feedground and cattle that graze nearby.

The department's brucellosis management action plan for the Pinedale elk herd unit will be unveiled for public review today at a 6 p.m. meeting in Pinedale's Sublette County Library.

Many elk and bison in the Yellowstone National Park area are believed to be infected with brucellosis, which can cause cattle to abort their first calves and can cause undulant fever in rare instances of human infection.

The recommendations in the new plan were developed with advice from federal and state agencies and neighboring ranchers, Game and Fish Brucellosis Information and Education Specialist Chris Colligan said.

He said the plan was designed to identify what ranchers and wildlife managers can do to reduce brucellosis transmission among wildlife and from wildlife to livestock.

Colligan said nine options are presented in the plan that aim to minimize the risk of brucellosis transmission at three feedgrounds - Muddy Creek, Scab Creek and Fall Creek - that are used by the 1,850-animal Pinedale elk herd.

The options include continued implementation of a controversial "test-and-slaughter" pilot project that was conducted at the Muddy Creek feedground in late January and early February.

Other options include the elimination of feedgrounds where and when possible; reducing the numbers of elk on the feedgrounds through increased hunter harvest; and installing elk-proof fencing to prevent commingling between the two species.

The department's eventual goal is to complete brucellosis management plans for all of the state's 22 winter feedgrounds scattered across western Wyoming, Colligan said.

"Obviously … some of these options aren't going to be possible right now, but this is a template for all of these (planning) processes that are to follow," Colligan said.

Colligan said the Pinedale plan is a "final" document, and formal public comment will not be recorded at the meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to "simply inform the public of what efforts are planned," he said.

Southwest Wyoming bureau reporter Jeff Gearino can be reached at 307-875-5359 or at gearino@trib.com.