Bison death toll climbs to 80 in Flying D anthrax outbreak

 By Andy Malby, editor

Nearly 80 bison have succumbed in a rapidly spreading anthrax outbreak on Ted Turner’s Flying D Ranch in the Spanish Peaks, and officials are scrambling to contain the disease, a state livestock agent said Monday.

“We’re in the process of cleaning up,” Steve Merritt, a Montana Department of Livestock public information officer, told the Belgrade News. “The number of dead the last time I heard was approximately 80 animals.”

Gallatin County commissioners on Sunday closed Spanish Creek Road to make it easier for livestock officials to implement a quarantine of bison in the affected area, Commissioner Joe Skinner said. About nine miles of the road traverses the Turner ranch and parts of the affected area.

“The closure is in effect until further notice, until we get a handle on” the infection, Skinner said.

In addition to the quarantine of several thousand acres of Turner’s ranch, livestock officials are working to “clean up” the infected site, which entails gathering up the carcasses of fallen bison, burning and burying them, Merritt said.

Stephanie Nelson, Gallatin County’s health officer, said Monday the outbreak does not pose “a serious health risk” to humans, and that the county is working with the Department of Livestock to contain the outbreak and provide education.

“It’s very much a concern for livestock, but does not pose a serious threat to humans,” she said. “The health department is doing support (tasks) for the ranch and the DOL. We have provided educational information to the people on the ranch and are looking at the different exposures and making sure everybody knows this really is a low-risk situation for the general public.”

All animals in the “infected pasture” are under quarantine, Merritt said.

“We do have a quarantine in place,” he said. “The animals that were in the affected pasture have all been quarantined. Physically and geographically (the anthrax) has been contained within a certain area.”

That area, he said, is a single pasture of 13,000 acres, parts of which abut a nine-mile stretch of Spanish Creek Road.

The county closed the road to help “protect the integrity of the quarantine,” he said. “The purpose of the quarantine is to prevent any further livestock exposure.”

Meanwhile, Flying D personnel have worked to keep the bison contained.

“They have fenced a portion of that pasture to keep the animals inside a smaller portion,” Merritt said.

Anthrax is caused by naturally occurring bacteria, according to DOL. It is frequently present where cattle and other animals are found. Spores of the bacteria can lie dormant in the soil for decades then become active under certain climatic or ecologic changes such as heavy rains or flooding preceded by drought.

Animals are exposed to the disease by grazing, drinking water or eating forage contaminated with the spores.

Untreated animals may die within a day or two of exposure, and one or more animals are typically found dead without any recognition of early signs of the disease, which include labored breathing, staggering, unconsciousness and convulsions, according to DOL.

The bacteria is fragile and easily killed with common disinfectants or exposure to moderate temperatures, “and as such, poses virtually no risk to the food chain,” according to the DOL release.

As for livestock, vaccines work as a preventative measure and long-term antibiotics work when the disease has been confirmed or is suspected.

“Anthrax can pop up any place at any time, but this outbreak was in a remote, well-contained area,” Zaluski said Wednesday. “We’re fortunate that the land owner recognized the disease early and took the appropriate action.”

Turner, the media mogul who raises domestic bison on the ranch in the foothills of the Spanish Peaks, said Wednesday he and his ranch managers were working with state livestock officials “and following their protocol guidelines to control the disease.”

Turner stressed that his ranch is not unique in terms of anthrax outbreaks.

“I’m not the first rancher to deal with an anthrax outbreak, and certainly not the last,” he said. “Other outbreaks have been successfully managed throughout the U.S. and Canada, and I am confident we will do the same.”

Anthrax can spread from animals to humans, usually as a result of direct contact with infected animals or animal products such as wool, hides and horns.

However, Montana has not had a reported case of human anthrax since 1961 and Nelson said the present outbreak does not threaten the general public.

Big Sky News Service contributed to this report.