Russians Join Fight Against Brucellosis in Yellowstone - WFED Helps Make It Happen

Early in 2001, WFED helped unite Russian and American researchers to begin fighting brucellosis in Yellowstone bison. The launch of this project represented a significant step towards finding a vaccine while furthering cooperative peaceful partnerships between the former Cold War adversaries.

American Background

Yellowstone National Park is home to the last -- and only -- wild free-roaming bison in the US. A century ago, America's largest land animal (and now symbol of US conservation work) was hunted to the point of extermination. The millions that once roamed North America were reduced to fewer than 50 animals that had found refuge at Yellowstone.

From those few remaining animals, the Yellowstone herd has now grown to several thousand. But the threat to America's historic wild bison is not over.

A few decades ago, Yellowstone's bison were identified as having a disease known as 'brucellosis.' This disease triggers abortions in infected animals and attacks many types of livestock including cattle. Since the 1930s, the US Government has spent more than $3.5 billion to eradicate brucellosis from America's domestic animals. However, no effective vaccine has been developed to combat brucellosis in wild free-roaming bison -- and brucellosis in these animals is seen by many as a threat to America's livestock industry.

In the winter of 1998-99, more than 1,500 Yellowstone bison were shot dead as they migrated from the national park towards their winter range across the border in Montana. The Yellowstone bison were killed because ranchers feared the disease could be transmitted from bison to cattle.

Many people felt the slaughter of Yellowstone's bison was not an acceptable risk-reduction approach and the ensuing battle over bison management at Yellowstone was the subject of bitter and costly feuds in federal court. In late 2000, a judicial settlement was reached that provides in part for development of a safe and effective brucellosis vaccine for Yellowstone's bison.

While experts agree that development of a brucellosis vaccine for free-roaming bison should be possible, no vaccine yet developed in the US has proven effective -- largely because there are relatively few wild bison left in the US and no vaccine research firm or government agency has been willing to make the investment required.

Russian Background

Ironically, during the Cold War, a great deal of research was done in the former USSR on brucellosis. The disease was identified as an important pathogen with potential use as a biological weapon. Soviet scientists were provided vast resources to study the disease -- as well as vaccines to fight it.

WFED, as a result of its Yellowstone work and expanding Russian contacts, was asked to explore whether any past Russian brucellosis vaccine development research might provide a path for speedier -- and more cost-effective -- brucellosis vaccine development for Yellowstone bison.

While visiting Russia in January 2001, WFED's Executive Director Preston Scott met with Dr. Roman Borovick (Director of the Research Center of Toxicology and Hygienic Regulation of Biopreparations) and was provided a summary of some of the Russian brucellosis research. His information suggested the existence of brucellosis vaccine strains previously unknown in the US. Dr. Borovick, whose institute is also part of the Center for Ecological Research and BioResources Development which WFED helped create, confirmed his willingness to explore the issue further.

The Project

This new information generated great interest at Yellowstone, and steps were taken to establish a joint US-Russian bison brucellosis vaccine development project. WFED encouraged the project in ways that would produce demonstrable environmental benefits for bison management at Yellowstone. It also would strengthen US-Russian cooperation in connection with development of valuable non-military uses of former Soviet bioweapons science -- a perspective applauded by all sides.

Working in cooperation with experts from the US Departments of Defense, Interior, Agriculture, and Energy, WFED helped organize and convene the first set of cooperative scientific meetings in Washington and at various institutes in Russia to advance the project. In March 2001, the first group of Russian experts traveled to Washington to meet with experts from Yellowstone and other US Government agencies to discuss the status of Russian brucellosis vaccine development as well as to learn more about the Yellowstone brucellosis problem.

In April 2001, WFED joined a US team led by Andy Weber and Jim Wolfram from the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency and traveled to Russia to meet with additional Russian experts (including experts from a former Soviet research institute not previously visited by any US officials). WFED participated in follow-up negotiations in Moscow in July 2001 with some of the top US brucellosis experts including Dr. Garry Adams, Texas A&M University; Dr. Steve Olsen, US Department of Agriculture; Dr. Ted Hadfield, Walter Reed; and Dr. David Hunter, Turner Enterprises.

In September 2001, the Russian scientific delegation returned to the US to visit Yellowstone and observe America's wild bison in the field. This was the group's first visit to the national park and Dr. Borovick summed up the team's reaction by remembering, as a boy, he had been amazed to see "a large green spot on a US map." He could not imagine that in his lifetime he would ever visit such a natural wonder in the heart of America.

The Future

While the project goal is the eradication of brucellosis in Yellowstone bison, success is not guaranteed. Nonetheless, the immediate and broader benefits of redirecting former bioweapons science into valuable non-military uses is widely recognized and respected.

WFED is proud to have played a key catalytic part in this challenging and potentially historic scientific project, and will continue to seek ways to stimulate creative approaches to biological resource management that generate demonstrable new benefits for society.