The role of elk and bison in the acquisition of B. abortus to cattle located in the GYA.īrucella abortus continues to be an important veterinary pathogen in the United States, particularly among cattle ( Bos primigenius), elk ( Cervus elaphus), and bison ( Bos bison). This study indicates that elk play a predominant role in the transmission of B.

Additionally, isolates associated with cattle outbreaks in Idaho in 2002, Montana in 20, and Wyoming in 2010 primarily clustered with isolates recovered from GYA elk. Isolates from a 2005 cattle outbreak in Wyoming displayed VNTR-10 profiles matching those of strains recovered from Wyoming and Idaho elk. An isolate obtained from a feral sow trapped on property adjacent to the Starr County herd in May 2011 clustered with the cattle isolates, suggesting a role for feral swine as B. Cattle isolates from Texas segregated into three clusters: one comprised of field isolates from 1998 to 2005, one comprised of vaccination-associated infections, and one associated with an outbreak in Starr County in January 2011. Minimum spanning tree (MST) and unweighted-pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) analyses of VNTR data identified 237 different VNTR types, among which 14 prominent clusters of isolates could be identified. A variable-number tandem repeat (VNTR) protocol targeting 10 loci in the Brucella abortus genome was used to assess genetic diversity among 366 field isolates recovered from cattle, bison, and elk in the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA) and Texas during 1998 to 2011.

Elk lighting molecular