BILLINGS (AP) - Yellowstone National Park and two universities plan to collaborate in a program to track and study wildlife diseases.

Those of concern include chronic wasting disease in deer and elk; whirling disease in fish; hantavirus, which is spread by deer mice and has caused human fatalities; and mosquito-borne West Nile virus, found in humans and animals.

The Yellowstone Wildlife Health program spanning five years is intended to examine diseases already found among the park's animals and other disorders that appear to be edging close.

"What worked to its advantage for hundreds of years was (Yellowstone's) relative isolation, but that's just breaking down," said David Roberts, head of the ecology department at Montana State University. "You have all these organisms that are moving around much more than they used to."

MSU and the University of California at Davis will participate in the Yellowstone Wildlife Health Program.

The private Yellowstone Park Foundation hopes to raise $222,220 for the program to begin next spring, said Michael Cary, the foundation's director.

"Yellowstone offers what I characterize as America's largest Petri dish," Cary said.

Glenn Plumb, chief of the natural resources branch at the park, thinks in terms of preparedness.

Plumb said no one knows whether chronic wasting disease, for example, will end up in Yellowstone animals, but it is wise that park officials prepare for it.

"Health issues of wildlife are part and parcel of their ecology," Plumb said.

"The challenge is when wildlife diseases start to upset the ecology of the critters, or moves beyond that and becomes an issue that's damaging to the resources or setting it up for conflict."

The new program will aim to keep watch on diseases and their health effects in Yellowstone, and to limit transmission between domestic and wild animals.

Information from: Billings Gazette, http://www.billingsgazette.com