
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, August 26, 1995                   TAG: 9508280034
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Short

DISEASE AFFECTING HUMANS AND CATTLE NEARLY WIPED OUT

America's cattle ranchers are getting ready to say goodbye and good riddance to brucellosis, a stubborn disease that has devastated herds and sickened human beings over the years.

After 60 years of effort, the Agriculture Department says the disease is close to being stamped out in this country through a program of blood tests, vaccines and quarantines.

Back in 1957, nearly 124,000 livestock herds had to be quarantined because of brucellosis, according to the USDA. That number has been falling ever since and is now close to disappearing, with just 82 herds under quarantine.

``The brucellosis-eradication program has passed a real milestone by having fewer than 100 quarantined herds,'' said Claude Barton, program director for the USDA. The department hopes to eliminate the disease by 1998.

Brucellosis is a bacterial disease that causes cows to abort, decreases milk production, interrupts breeding cycles and can be spread to human beings as undulant fever through unpasteurized milk or contact with carcasses at slaughter.

``It's one of the reasons why we pasteurize milk,'' said Dr. Donald Evans, an epidemiologist for the USDA.

Undulant fever - marked by severe flu-like symptoms that can last for years if not treated - is now so rare in America that there are ``only a handful of cases,'' said Tom Skinner with the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

At least one especially troublesome pocket of brucellosis remains. The disease is found in bison, and the herds in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks are infected.

by CNB