A panel of experts assigned a task to help a federal agency to focus on its work to stop the spread of brucellosis in the Greater Yellowstone Area received a short lesson on Wednesday regarding the disease.

The panel learned about the conflicting management missions of the agencies, complexity of the problem and the vastness of the wild lands that have been affected by the disease.

Ten individuals from the National Academy of Sciences group heard different presentations from state and federal wildlife and livestock representatives as well as Yellowstone National Park officials at Montana State University.

The meeting will continue on Thursday morning as well. Thursday's meeting will contain more detailed information from wildlife biologists.

Three dates and locations have been finalized for the meetings. The June 2nd meeting was held at the Hilton garden Inn. Now June 3rd and June 4th meeting are scheduled to be held in Gardiner at the Gardiner School and West Yellowstone at the Holiday Inn, respectively.

All the meeting will run from 6 to 8 p. m. and will have identical agendas. The science panel was convened on request of the US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

APHIS is among one of the cooperating partners in the Interagency Bison Management Plan in Montana. It also helps to fund the Montana Department of Livestock's brucellosis management program.

It has been said the agency is also conducting research into using birth control and ways to reduce brucellosis transmission in bison.

Ryan Clarke, of APHIS, said, "We want you to . help us see a future path for actions we might take to address brucellosis in the Greater Yellowstone Area".