Tom Morang
03-31-2002, 07:36 PM
Disease's spread a 'nightmare'
CWD threatens wildlife, economy
By Theo Stein
Denver Post Environment Writer
Sunday, March 31, 2002 -
The discovery last week that at least one deer on the Western Slope is infected with a fatal brain disease made real the nightmare scenario feared by wildlife officials, hunters and wildlife lovers.
Chronic wasting disease has spread and threatens Colorado's premier game herds - as well as the Western Slope's economy.
Once thought limited to northern Colorado and southern Wyoming, the disease has leapfrogged across the North American heartland despite efforts to contain it.
In the last five years, CWD has turned up in wild or ranched deer and elk in eight states, two Canadian provinces and South Korea.
Friday's announcement that it had jumped the Continental Divide for the first time brought Coloradans face to face with some hard realities.
"This is our worst nightmare," said Russell George, director of the Colorado Division of Wildlife. "But there's a lot we don't know at this point. So we're just going to take it one step at a time."
If unchecked, CWD could exact a devastating toll on the hunting-dependent economies of countless small towns throughout the western part of the state. Each year, hunters and visitors attracted by the state's wildlife account for$3 billion of the state's $10 billion tourism economy.
The disease also could threaten the state's natural heritage.
"Colorado is a very special place because of our wildlife," Gov. Bill Owens said Friday at a hastily called news conference. "Colorado without deer and elk would be a very different place."
But the deadly effect of CWD now extends far beyond the state's borders. A beachhead established by CWD in a wild white-tailed deer herd in Wisconsin potentially puts 20 million Eastern deer at risome biologists believe.
"If this is really something that spreads no matter what anybody tries to do, you've got a major disaster, that's what you got," said Bob Saile, a contributing editor at Field & Stream magazine. "You're talking about the major big-game animals in North America. Millions of hunters and dozens of wildlife agencies build their entire year around these herds."
No one knows how to stop CWD, which eats holes in victims' brains and causes them to starve to death. There's no cure, no vaccine, no viable live test for the mutant protein thought to cause it.
Even though there's no evidence that CWD has infected any of the hunters who consumed venison shot in northeastern Colorado or adjacent Wyoming, Europe's experience with mad cow disease - related to CWD - has made public health officials cautious.
Wildlife experts acknowledge that their control efforts, which mainly involve killing exposed animals, are a big experiment.
Starting Monday, biologists will begin killing 300 deer within a 5-mile radius of the 6,000-acre ranch near Craig where the infected deer referred to Friday was found. Two others there are suspected to have the disease.
On Friday, CWD was making news across the continent. While grim-faced Colorado officials were making their announcement, Wisconsin biologists said they'd found two more wild white-tails with CWD, bringing the total number of sick animals found near Madison to five. In Alberta, provincial officials announced their first case of CWD, this one in a ranched elk. In Nebraska, officials said an unheard-of 51 percent of the deer trapped inside a fenced hunting ranch near South Dakota had CWD.
How CWD was able to travel so far from its High Plains stronghold without being detected is a matter of fierce debate. Game ranchers reject the suggestion that the movement of their ranched deer and elk has let the infectious genie out of the bottle. They blame years of inaction by Colorado officials, claiming the state is ultimately responsible for not controlling the epidemic in wild herds.
But Mike Miller, a Division of Wildlife veterinarian, says each of the outlying outbreaks of CWD is close to a game farm.
"Three of five can be explained most likely as spillover from game farms that we know were infected," he said, referring to the Saskatchewan, South Dakota and Nebraska outbreaks. "And in the other two cases, including the one near Craig, there are captive-game farms in the immediate vicinity."
Because CWD is no longer just a Colorado problem, several states are forging a regional control strategy. They will discuss the problem at an August symposium in Denver.
Efforts to control the disease are becoming costly.
Canada's cleanup of an outbreak at Saskatchewan game farms cost $20 million U.S. by one official estimate. In the last six months, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released $15 million to aid affected elk ranchers in Colorado, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kansas.
CWD threatens wildlife, economy
By Theo Stein
Denver Post Environment Writer
Sunday, March 31, 2002 -
The discovery last week that at least one deer on the Western Slope is infected with a fatal brain disease made real the nightmare scenario feared by wildlife officials, hunters and wildlife lovers.
Chronic wasting disease has spread and threatens Colorado's premier game herds - as well as the Western Slope's economy.
Once thought limited to northern Colorado and southern Wyoming, the disease has leapfrogged across the North American heartland despite efforts to contain it.
In the last five years, CWD has turned up in wild or ranched deer and elk in eight states, two Canadian provinces and South Korea.
Friday's announcement that it had jumped the Continental Divide for the first time brought Coloradans face to face with some hard realities.
"This is our worst nightmare," said Russell George, director of the Colorado Division of Wildlife. "But there's a lot we don't know at this point. So we're just going to take it one step at a time."
If unchecked, CWD could exact a devastating toll on the hunting-dependent economies of countless small towns throughout the western part of the state. Each year, hunters and visitors attracted by the state's wildlife account for$3 billion of the state's $10 billion tourism economy.
The disease also could threaten the state's natural heritage.
"Colorado is a very special place because of our wildlife," Gov. Bill Owens said Friday at a hastily called news conference. "Colorado without deer and elk would be a very different place."
But the deadly effect of CWD now extends far beyond the state's borders. A beachhead established by CWD in a wild white-tailed deer herd in Wisconsin potentially puts 20 million Eastern deer at risome biologists believe.
"If this is really something that spreads no matter what anybody tries to do, you've got a major disaster, that's what you got," said Bob Saile, a contributing editor at Field & Stream magazine. "You're talking about the major big-game animals in North America. Millions of hunters and dozens of wildlife agencies build their entire year around these herds."
No one knows how to stop CWD, which eats holes in victims' brains and causes them to starve to death. There's no cure, no vaccine, no viable live test for the mutant protein thought to cause it.
Even though there's no evidence that CWD has infected any of the hunters who consumed venison shot in northeastern Colorado or adjacent Wyoming, Europe's experience with mad cow disease - related to CWD - has made public health officials cautious.
Wildlife experts acknowledge that their control efforts, which mainly involve killing exposed animals, are a big experiment.
Starting Monday, biologists will begin killing 300 deer within a 5-mile radius of the 6,000-acre ranch near Craig where the infected deer referred to Friday was found. Two others there are suspected to have the disease.
On Friday, CWD was making news across the continent. While grim-faced Colorado officials were making their announcement, Wisconsin biologists said they'd found two more wild white-tails with CWD, bringing the total number of sick animals found near Madison to five. In Alberta, provincial officials announced their first case of CWD, this one in a ranched elk. In Nebraska, officials said an unheard-of 51 percent of the deer trapped inside a fenced hunting ranch near South Dakota had CWD.
How CWD was able to travel so far from its High Plains stronghold without being detected is a matter of fierce debate. Game ranchers reject the suggestion that the movement of their ranched deer and elk has let the infectious genie out of the bottle. They blame years of inaction by Colorado officials, claiming the state is ultimately responsible for not controlling the epidemic in wild herds.
But Mike Miller, a Division of Wildlife veterinarian, says each of the outlying outbreaks of CWD is close to a game farm.
"Three of five can be explained most likely as spillover from game farms that we know were infected," he said, referring to the Saskatchewan, South Dakota and Nebraska outbreaks. "And in the other two cases, including the one near Craig, there are captive-game farms in the immediate vicinity."
Because CWD is no longer just a Colorado problem, several states are forging a regional control strategy. They will discuss the problem at an August symposium in Denver.
Efforts to control the disease are becoming costly.
Canada's cleanup of an outbreak at Saskatchewan game farms cost $20 million U.S. by one official estimate. In the last six months, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released $15 million to aid affected elk ranchers in Colorado, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kansas.