Another Link between CWD and Game Ranches

[Benelli]

300 deer shot in Colorado to check wasting disease
Thursday, April 04, 2002
By Judith Crosson, Reuters

DENVER — State agents must kill 300 deer in western Colorado to check a dangerous disease that crossed the Continental Divide and jeopardizes the multimillion-dollar hunting industry, an official said Wednesday.
Last week Gov. Bill Owens said chronic wasting disease, a brain-rotting disease akin to mad cow disease, was discovered in western Colorado among wild deer. "This is potentially a very serious business for Colorado. Until now, one of our best weapons for containing the disease was the Continental Divide. Now that barrier has been broken," Owens said at the time of the announcement.
The news came as a surprise because until now the disease was believed confined to northeastern Colorado and southeastern Wyoming, at least 100 miles away. Officials have not yet figured out how the disease spread over the Continental Divide.
The disease has been present in other U.S. states over the years, but since February cases have been detected in Wisconsin and northwest Nebraska.
While there has been no evidence that chronic wasting can spread to humans, the World Health Organization has advised against eating venison or any part of an animal showing signs of the disease.
The disease, which causes its victims to grow thin, is similar to mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE, which has never been found in the United States but has been found in Europe.
HUNTING BIG BUSINESS
Big game hunting is big business in Colorado, accounting for around $600 million annually, and the announcement sent chills through the industry. The hunting and fishing industry overall is worth $1.7 billion each year, and when wildlife recreation including viewing and photography are added, the whole industry is worth $3 billion.
"The deer and elk are native species of Colorado who represent what's left of our wilderness," said Colorado Division of Wildlife chief spokesman Todd Malmsbury. About 500,000 deer and at least 250,000 elk, the biggest elk herd in the world, grace the Rocky Mountain state.
The disease was discovered in two wild mule deer — so called because they have big ears — in an elk ranch near Craig in northwestern Colorado.
Hunting elk is no easy task. Last year only 17 percent of the hunters out for elk were successful, Malmsbury said. So-called hunting ranches or pens have been set up to make it easier to shoot the animal, who cannot escape fences that surround the ranch, Malmsbury said.
Because there is no good live test for the disease, state officials immediately decided to kill at least 300 deer and about 30 elk just outside the ranch to keep the disease from spreading.
Carrying out the slaughter was one of the most heart-breaking duties wildlife officers have had to carry out. "These men and women have worked hard to help build wild herds and to have to kill large numbers has been very painful," Malmsbury said.
If positive test results show up on remains of animals killed in the past few days, then another slaughter round will take place and up to 1,000 animals might be killed, Malmsbury said.

[Tom Morang]

Rancher rips control efforts

Animals testing clean for CWD, but all to be killed

By Theo Stein
Denver Post Environment Writer

Friday, April 05, 2002 - The owner of a commercial elk ranch in western Routt County where two sick mule deer were killed by hunters last winter
said his facility is in complete compliance with state regulations on chronic wasting disease.

Wes Adams, a construction contractor from Las Vegas who owns the Motherwell Ranch, said the two mule deer killed inside an 1,800-acre hunting
pen constructed last summer at the ranch were so sick with the long-incubating brain ailment that they had to be infected before the pen was
built.

"It's unfortunate for everybody, because nobody gets to win," Adams said Thursday night. "But it is what it is. It's the deer that have the problem,
not the elk at this point in time."

Over the winter, hunters and biologists shot almost 300 wild deer that became trapped inside the hunting pen. State policy prohibits mingling wild
and domestic game because of the risk of spreading disease.

CWD, thought to be caused by a mutant form of a naturally occurring brain protein, makes its victims grow thin and die as it eats microscopic holes
in their brains.

There is no viable live test for CWD in elk, and no cure.

Its discovery west of the Continental Divide has cast a shadow of uncertainty across a region that is as dependent on elk hunting as Summit
County is on skiing.

Adams said he's bothered by news reports that imply his ranch is the cause of the problem, rather than a victim of it.

"I don't want to be made out like I'm pointing a finger, but Colorado is where the problem started, and Colorado has to do more about their
problem," he said. "I'm frustrated, and I guess you can hear it."

The elk introduced to the Motherwell came from as far away as Alberta, Canada, and Minnesota, and as close as next door, where rancher Lou
Wyman has maintained the oldest domestic elk herd in Colorado.

Adams bought the 6,000-acre ranch along the East Fork of the Williams Fork River in 1986 but didn't move elk in there until last year.

None of the herds where Adams purchased his elk has ever had a case of CWD, he said.

Agriculture officials said that brain samples from the dozens of elk that were shot or died on the Motherwell have been analyzed. None tested
positive for CWD, according to Linh Truong, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department.

"We're in compliance 100 percent," Adams said. "That's the bottom line."

Nevertheless, the state has placed a quarantine on the 100 elk that remain inside the 3-square-mile pen, which runs from a brushy bench above
the river up into a zone of spruce, fir and aspen at the edge of the Routt National Forest.

All elk will be killed and tested for CWD. But since there's never been a case of CWD in Adams' elk, it's unclear if he qualifies for federal assistance.

"We had one of the most premier facilities on the North American continent," he said. "Our clients probably killed more (trophy) bulls than any three
hunting parks combined."

[Tom Morang]

Group tests negative for CWD

By Tom Ross, Staff Reporter

Thursday, April 4, 2002

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS ? The results of lab tests on the first 86 of 300 deer destroyed near Pagoda this week have come back negative for chronic wasting disease.

Colorado Division of Wildlife Officer Dan Prenzlow broke the news to almost 100 people who packed into a meeting room at Yampa River State Park west of Hayden Wednesday night.

"That's the good news we just got back," Prenzlow told the gathering, which spilled out into the hallway.

Chronic wasting disease has been confirmed in two wild mule deer, which were inadvertently trapped last August behind a fence built to enclose a herd of domestic elk on the Motherwell Ranch southwest of Hayden.

Prenzlow said it is way too soon to speculate on the source of the disease; however, officials from the DOW, as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, wanted to meet with concerned locals as quickly as possible.

"There's misinformation out there and there are thousands of questions," he said.

Prenzlow said the number of deer killed this week was not pulled out of a hat; 300 is a number deemed to give sufficient data about how prevalent the disease might or might not be among the estimated 1,500 deer living in the area.

Prenzlow added the crews assigned with killing, tagging and shipping the deers' heads to a lab in Laramie were taking precautions not to spread the disease. They are using bleach to clean their vehicles, knives and clothing. They are even sprinkling bleach on the ground where the dead animals were handled.

Chronic wasting disease, which attacks the animal's brain stem, is not caused by a living microorganism but rather by a protein. As a result, bleach does not "kill" the source of the disease but neutralizes it.

Several people in the audience raised concerns about human health issues posed by CWD. Rick Kahn, who supervises terrestrial biologists for the DOW, said although hunters whose animals test positive for the disease are advised not to eat the meat, the chances of humans contracting CWD appears to be remote. In Northeast Colorado, where CWD is endemic in the mule deer population, hunters are advised to take precautions.

"If there was any inkling of human health risk, we wouldn't be hunting in Northeast Colorado," Kahn said. "We would have shut it down a long time ago."

Moffat County Sheriff Buddy Grinstead said he believes the state of Colorado, as owner of the big-game animals, should be doing more to reassure hunters the animals they harvest are disease free. Grinstead said the many businesses in Northwest Colorado who service hunters are like middle men in the big-game hunting industry.

"This is a product you're providing to these hunters and we're just waiters and waitresses," Grinstead said. "I think it should be up to the state to have an easy way to test the animals and get a result back in two days."

Tom Anderson echoed Grinstead's plea for a local testing lab.

"It could be done ? it just takes money, right?" Anderson said. After the meeting he said he has a specific concern about the potential for human health hazards associated with CWD.

"I'm eating elk this winter from an animal I killed two miles from that ranch. Would you want to come over and have dinner with me?"

Although this week's testing is focused on deer, both domestic and wild elk in Colorado have been known to contract CWD.

Kahn said he remains optimistic none of the deer killed outside the fenced enclosure on the Motherwell Ranch will test positive for CWD.

However, if significant numbers of diseased animals are detected outside the fence, the implications could be serious.

"There's a big mule deer management issue we need to get on top of, and we need to knock it down," Kahn said. If CWD were found in the free-ranging mule deer herd, and it was left unchecked, it could spread to 20, 30 even 40 percent of the population.

"That will devastate a deer herd," Kahn said.

In that scenario, Kahn suspects his agency would handle the disease differently than it does in Northeast Colorado. There, the goal is to contain the disease and not allow it to spread any further.

But on the Western Slope of Colorado, Kahn speculated, the DOW might attempt to eradicate the disease, which would mean destroying more animals in the affected area.

Kahn said he's hopeful the test result on the remaining 214 deer will be available as soon as Monday. He's also eager to receive the last test results on wild deer and elk harvested inside the enclosure on the Motherwell Ranch in January and February.

The test results could have much to say about the future health of deer and possibly elk herds in Northwest Colorado.