Abstract
The wildlife of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem carries brucellosis, which was first introduced to the area by cattle in the 19th century. Brucellosis transmission between wildlife and livestock has been difficult to study due to challenges in culturing the causative agent, Brucella abortus. We examined B. abortus transmission between American bison (Bison bison), Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni), and cattle (Bos taurus) using variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) markers on DNA from 98 B. abortus isolates recovered from populations in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, US. Our analyses reveal interspecies transmission. Two outbreaks (2007, 2008) in Montana cattle had B. abortus genotypes similar to isolates from both bison and elk. Nevertheless, similarity in elk and cattle isolates from the 2008 outbreak suggest that elk are the likely source of brucellosis transmission to cattle in Montana and Wyoming. Brucella abortus isolates from sampling in Montana appear to be divided in two clusters: one found in local Montana elk, cattle, and bison; and another found mainly in elk and a bison from Wyoming, which is consistent with brucellosis having entered Montana via migration of infected elk from Wyoming. Our findings illustrate complex patterns of brucellosis transmission among elk, bison, and cattle as well as the utility of VNTRs to infer the wildlife species of origin for disease outbreaks in livestock.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 339-343 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Journal of Wildlife Diseases |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 2017 |
Funding
We thank the National Park Service (especially P. J. White, John Treanor, and Katrina Auttelet), F. Gardipee, and C. Almendra for their advice and help with sampling. Funding was provided by Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto (CIBIO, UP), University of Montana, and research grants from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (PTDC/CVT/69438/2006, SFRH/BPD/ 26802/2006, and SFRH/BD30737/2006). M.P.O’B. was supported by the Sloan Foundation; G.L. was supported by grants from the Walton Family Foundation, the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) grant PTDC/BIA-BDE/65625/2006, and the US National Science Foundation Grant DEB 1067613 and DEB 074218; V.C. was a recipient of a PhD scholarship from the FCT (SFRH/BD/88129/2012) under the Programa Operacional Potencial Humano - Quadro de Referencia Estratégico Nacional funds (POPH-QREN) from European Social Fund (ESF) and Portuguese Ministério da Educação e Ciencia; and A.B.-P. was supported by an IF contract from FCT. The authors acknowledge FLAD (Fundação Luso- Americana para o Desenvolvimento) for travel funding and for promoting the collaboration between the University of Porto and University of Montana through the establishment of a TwinLab. Helpful advice and comments were provided by three anonymous referees, and F. W. Allendorf and L. S. Mills also provided general guidance on data interpretation and improving figures on earlier versions (pre-2013). The views and opinions in this article are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent any views, determinations, or policies of the federal agencies involved with this research.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| 1359324, DEB 1067613, DEB 074218, SFRH/BD/88129/2012 | |
| SFRH/BPD/ 26802/2006, PTDC/BIA-BDE/65625/2006, SFRH/BD30737/2006, PTDC/CVT/69438/2006 | |
| Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre | pre-2013 |
Keywords
- American bison
- Brucella abortus
- Cattle
- Cross-species transmission
- Elk
- Infectious disease
