JACKSON - A new report shows the level of brucellosis exposure in Buffalo Valley elk has jumped during a period when emergency feeding of the animals took place.

Critics of elk feedgrounds say those two developments aren't coincidental. But the Wyoming Game and Fish Department isn't necessarily making the same conclusion.

The emergency feeding began several years ago when deep snow prevented elk from leaving the area near cattle and prevented managers from moving elk. Eric Keszler with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department said no permanent feedground is going to be established in the Buffalo Valley, located northwest of Jackson.

Low snow levels in northwest Wyoming this winter have allowed wildlife managers to haze elk away from cattle lines in the Buffalo Valley, and no emergency feeding has been necessary.

The new report examining abortion and birth rates in the brucellosis-endemic area of Wyoming said seroprevalence rates jumped significantly for elk in the Buffalo Valley. Seroprevalence shows an animal has been exposed to the brucellosis bacteria but does not necessarily have the disease, which can cause ungulates to abort.

Brucellosis exposure rates had been estimated to be just more than 2 percent in the Buffalo Valley elk, but recent surveys put the number at 20 percent. Game and Fish said the jump may be due to a variety of factors, including the idea that the elk tested may not have typically wintered in the Buffalo Valley, that animals in the area were fed in unauthorized activity in previous winters, and that there was emergency feeding in the year of the study.

Meredith Taylor of the Wyoming Outdoor Council said the fact that feeding was going on and seroprevalence rates jumped is not coincidental.

"If they start feeding elk, they are going to increase their brucellosis rates," she said.

Taylor said the state cannot continue the "status quo" regarding elk feeding and hope to maintain a brucellosis-free status for cattle - something the state lost several years ago, likely because of transmission of brucellosis to cattle from elk.

Taylor said the state needs to work to fence cattle away from wildlife, or have cattle winter outside of Teton and Sublette counties - ground zero for brucellosis.

Game and Fish representatives said they did not know whether cattle in the Buffalo Valley were going to be required to be fenced away from elk, and other representatives were out of the office for the holiday week.

Last year, emergency elk feeding began in February and ended in April.

NewsTracker

* Last we knew: The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has fed elk in the Buffalo Valley in recent winters because of deep snow and conflicts with cattle.

* The latest: While wildlife managers have been hazing elk away from cattle this year successfully because of low snow levels, the rate of brucellosis exposure in the elk has jumped.

* What's next: Managers hope they won't have to do any emergency elk feeding this year.

Click here for related story 'Disease spreads east of Sundance, to Muddy Gap'.

Click here for related story 'Muzzle wolf official?'.

Environmental reporter Whitney Royster can be reached at (307) 734-0260 or at royster@tribcsp.com.