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Wyoming offers guidance on anthrax with a possible new law to come

A black cow looks through a wire fence.
Caitlin Tan
/
Wyoming Public Media

Editor’s note: This post has been updated 1/07/25 to reflect that a bill outlining how the state will respond to an anthrax outbreak has been received by the state House for introduction.. Although the draft bill was initially thought to be moot, it was brought back and given a bill number Dec. 30. 

Wyoming has decided how it will deal with a future anthrax outbreak in livestock. For now, it’s coming in the form of a protocol, which doesn’t hold the weight of a new law.

Some ranchers are calling for legislative action, which is in the works after some back-and-forth.

The protocol from the Wyoming Livestock Board comes after an anthrax outbreak near Elk Mountain killed at least 50 cattle in 2024.

While the disease occasionally affects livestock across the U.S., Wyoming hadn’t seen anthrax in at least 50 years. So local ranchers, veterinarians and state agencies didn’t know exactly how to respond – and time is everything.

“It's a sudden death event in any livestock or wildlife or whoever or whatever gets it in most cases,” said Steve True, director of the Wyoming Livestock Board.

The board’s recently adopted protocol recommends vaccinations for animals in affected areas and quarantining those animals from slaughter for 42 days. Prior to this, anthrax was lumped in with other reportable diseases.

“We wanted to offer this out as something that our producers could look at and know what to expect,” True said. “They would know what the state's response is going to be, how the notification goes, how confidentiality is kept.”

True said for now, this takes the place of any rule making or legislation because it’s more flexible.

“Because each event is different,” True said. “We didn't want to go in a strict statutory reference that might put some sideboards on it and not allow the agencies that are responding to jump outside of those sideboards to do what they need to do.”

Prior to this protocol, draft legislation was being crafted by Rep. Bob Davis (R-Baggs). Davis worked with local affected ranchers to write language that would enforce state agencies to take specific action in the case of another anthrax outbreak. Initially he dropped the draft bill. .

“Usually you sponsor legislation to create an action,” Davis said. “Well, they've already created the action, so there's no reason to sponsor legislation.”

But that caused Joyce Menke some concern. She lost dozens of cows to anthrax this summer.

“They have no power to make us do any of this. So that leaves a real big open door in my mind,” Menke said.

Menke worried that since it’s a protocol, it’s less enforceable than law. For example, some ranchers might not report the disease so they wouldn’t have to quarantine their cattle, which could be dangerous for neighboring ranches.

“Until they make it so they can enforce it, it is just a recommendation,” she said. “And what are they going to do? Come onto my place and check it out? Who's going to report me?”

Menke said she likes the language in the protocol, but would like to see it as legislation.

In an interview on Dec. 5, True said Wyoming was likely going to stick with the protocol. He thought it’d suffice.

“There's always a risk that they may not report,” True said. “But I think in most cases, producers want to do the right thing, because they want to protect their neighbors and themselves.”

As of Dec. 30, Davis’ legislation came back to life. It received a bill number and a couple days later was assigned to the House for introduction. Davis didn’t respond for comment before publishing.

Anthrax spores are naturally occurring in the ground. Scientists say it might date back to westward expansion days. They don’t fully understand why it surfaces, but they think it’s related to extreme, alternating weather events, like drought and flood.

Caitlin Tan is the Energy and Natural Resources reporter based in Sublette County, Wyoming. Since graduating from the University of Wyoming in 2017, she’s reported on salmon in Alaska, folkways in Appalachia and helped produce 'All Things Considered' in Washington D.C. She formerly co-hosted the podcast ‘Inside Appalachia.' You can typically find her outside in the mountains with her two dogs.

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