Public policy should be made through a careful process of risk assessment. In reality, the risk of transmission is very low or non-existent. Transmission has never been demonstrated in wild conditions. The study does not necessarily apply to wild settings however because the cow and bison were in a small enclosed corral and the bison was shot up with extremely high doses of brucellosis. In addition, testing for brucellosis is terribly imprecise.
Current tests produce many false-positives as well as false negatives.
With such weak scientific information bison slaughter is not justified. In the past, Montana has argued that even though there is no documented-scientific risk and testing is imprecise, the safe policy is to kill the bison. This is a bizarre method to make public policy and most certainly reveals that the underlying agenda of the bison killing is really bison population control and Montana retaining control of federal lands outside the park. Scientific studies by impartial scientists must be conducted. Number of Cattle Around the Park.