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The Montana governor also suggested that the federal government give his state more flexibility with regards to its brucellosis-free status.
Currently if two herds turn up positive for the disease, the entire state would lose its status - that would cost Montana hundreds of millions of dollars annually, Schweitzer said.
"They are placing the two million head of cattle in Montana at risk of losing their brucellosis-free status over about 700 head of cattle that occupy this space some short periods during the year," he said.
Schweitzer proposed creating a buffer zone 30 to 50 miles north of the park, where all cattle would be tested for the disease. If there were positive tests, the state would still not lose its status, he said.
But the federal official in charge of the program rejected that idea.
"There is really no point changing the program that has been so effective for so many years," said John Clifford, deputy administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
Representative Rob Bishop, a Utah Republican, said the issue of bison leaving the park "is being used by some as a pretext to expand the park, acquire additional federal lands for habitat or control the already limited private property of the West."
Federal officials should more actively manage the bison herd, Rehberg said, calling for vaccinations and arguing that the winter migration is because of overgrazing in the park.
"Don't let diseased herds walk around the park," Rehberg said. "Where do we find the philosophy that allows the opportunity for your diseased herd to overgraze our park?"
But others said that rounding up and vaccinating the herd was impractical, noting that there is not an effective vaccine for bison.
"It is much more practical to vaccinate cattle," said Tim Stevens, Yellowstone Project Manager for the National Parks Conservation Association.
The migration of some bison out of the park during winter is natural, according to Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Suzanne Lewis.
"They are doing what they have done for centuries," Lewis told the committee. "It is not because the park is overgrazed. It is because it is winter and the ground is covered with snow."
Mike Soukup, associate director of the National Park Service added that maintaining the free-roaming herd is of "greater value" than making the herd brucellosis free.
That view drew a sharp rebuke from Bishop, who said "simple logic tells us" that a brucellosis-free herd should be the highest priority.
"And when you say that is not the highest priority there is something that is deeply wrong with the National Park Service," Bishop said.
Representative Raul Grivalva, an Arizona Democrat, disagreed.
"Effective disease control and free roaming bison are not mutually exclusive," according to Grijalva, who said the bison slaughter "must stop."
The issue is also clouded by a dispute about the extent of the risk to cattle from bison that carry brucellosis, which is transferred by the consumption of afterbirth from a mothering animal that is infected.
"The transfer of this disease from bison to cattle has never happened in the wild," Rahall said. "Never."
Clifford acknowledged the point, but said a transfer has happened in captive bison "which would not act any differently than captive bison."
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