Two more CO deer found infected with CWD

[Tom Morang]

Two More Colorado Deer with Deadly Brain Disease
Tue Apr 9, 5:28 PM ET
By Judith Crosson

DENVER (Reuters) - Two more wild deer from western Colorado have tested positive for a deadly brain illness similar to mad cow disease, the state's governor said on Tuesday, adding that containing the disease may involve slaughtering hundreds of the animals.


The disease was first detected in two wild deer about 10 days ago in a captive elk facility in northwest Colorado, sending shockwaves through the state and prompting the immediate slaughter of 311 wild deer.

State wildlife officials had believed the Continental Divide was a strong barrier against the disease and would protect the lucrative multi-million dollar hunting business.

The infected deer so far account for less than 1% of the wild deer population, but the situation was serious enough to prompt Gov. Bill Owens to create a task force to find ways to make sure the disease does not put the entire herd in jeopardy.

"This is an aggressive disease with the potential to change the very characteristics of Colorado," the governor told reporters at the Division of Wildlife.

Big game hunting accounts for around $600 million in revenues annually, while the hunting and fishing industry overall is worth $1.7 billion each year. Wildlife recreation, including viewing and photography, bring in about $3 billion.

About 500,000 deer and at least 250,000 elk, the biggest elk herd in the world, grace the Rocky Mountain state.

Mule deer--the breed affected--make up part of the wildlife scene in western Colorado.

MORE SLAUGHTER THIS SUMMER

The director of the Colorado Division of Wildlife, Russ George, said he expects another 300 wild deer to be shot this summer and maybe even more in the fall during the hunting season because the wild deer in that area migrate.

State game agents used global positioning technology to track the deer. The latest two with the disease had been about one mile from each other.

The disease is highly contagious. When herds look for food there can be as many as 300 together, deputy director of the Wildlife Division Bruce McCloskey said.

Chronic wasting disease, which causes the deer to become emaciated and finally die, should not have any effect on cattle, George said.

"It does not jump species barriers, including humans," he said.

The World Health Organization (news - web sites) has advised against eating venison or any part of an animal showing signs of the disease and gaming officials in Colorado suggest hunters have an animal tested if it is shot in an endemic area in northeastern Colorado where the disease has existed for years.

Owens said he would write this week to governors in other states where the disease has been found to ask for help and offer assistance. He will also propose at the Western Governors conference in June that states work together to defeat the disease.

[Pinefarm]

This thing is going to spin out of control. Is there anything in the works that would make the people that own penned-in deer test their animals? Those places are just money making factories anyhow. They should have the burden of proving that their animals are disease free. Every penned-in deer farm should have to test their animals immediately!! And ban any and all imports!!

[Tom Morang]

CWD in W. Slope wild deer


Test results dash hopes disease confined

By Theo Stein
Denver Post Environment Writer

Wednesday, April 10, 2002 - Two wild deer shot by wildlife biologists
last week near a northwest Colorado elk ranch under quarantine for
chronic wasting disease tested positive for the fatal brain-wasting
malady, state officials said Tuesday.




The discovery dashed hopes that the disease, which makes its victims
grow thin and die as it eats microscopic holes in their brains, was
confined to the 6,000-acre Motherwell Ranch. Its appearance in wild,
free-ranging deer herds along the Williams Fork River drainage could
hamstring the hunting-based economy of the state's Western Slope and
beyond.

"This disease has the potential to change the very character of
Colorado," said Gov. Bill Owens at a press conference at the Division of
Wildlife's Denver headquarters.

Even as the governor pledged quick and unrelenting measures to control
the outbreak, rifle-toting biologists from the Colorado Division of
Wildlife were shooting 30 to 40 deer in the area where the two sick wild
deer were found. It's the same strategy the agency is using to eliminate
hot spots of infection in northern Boulder County.

The two new cases were found in a sample of 311 deer killed last week
within a 5-mile radius around the ranch.

State wildlife officials hope the relatively low rate of infection means
they still have a chance to slow the outbreak or even stop it.

"It's good we were able to find it early," said Mike Miller, the DOW's
wildlife veterinarian, who thinks the Western Slope's normally harsh
winters will act as a brake on CWD. "If we can get on top of it now,
knock deer numbers back and hope for a little more of a winter than we
had this year, we may have a chance."

But thousands of deer and elk will soon be migrating through the area to
higher elevations among the Flat Tops - seasonal movements that could
spread the disease.

"That's definitely a concern," said John Ellenberger, the wildlife
agency's big-game manager.

Herd migrations also make gauging the infection rate difficult. As the
winter's meager snows recede, deer and elk in the area will follow the
snow line into zones of aspen, spruce and fir, where they will summer.
Other deer wintering to the west of the area will move through on their
way to summer range.

This summer, the agency is planning to take another 300 deer in widening
concentric rings around the known cases to get a better handle on
infection rates. They'll also be working with hunters to sample deer
taken during the fall.

"Testing is such a critical part of this process that every time we get
a chance to test a head, we're going to," said DOW director Russell
George.

"We may have to do this for two or three years before we have a real
handle on it," said Miller.

At a press conference in Denver, Owens said U.S. Agriculture Secretary
Ann Venneman told him additional laboratory facilities would soon be
available to help process the thousands of wild deer and ranched elk
that have been slaughtered in five states to control outbreaks of the
disease.

Owens also said he'd sent a letter to eight Western governors calling
for a coordinated regional approach to CWD research and control.

Miller and other officials still don't know how the disease appeared
more than 100 miles west of the so-called "endemic area" of northeastern
Colorado and southern Wyoming.

"I don't think natural migration explains this one but again, you just
never know anymore," he said. "We looked hard in Middle Park. We've
looked hard in North Park. We just haven't found anything."

[Tom Morang]

How did CWD program slip up?


Wildlife officials look for answers

By Theo Stein
Denver Post Environment Writer

Thursday, April 11, 2002 - State agriculture officials said Wednesday
that 32 elk infected with chronic wasting disease were discovered during
a disease-control program that ended with the slaughter of 1,500 elk
this winter.
Officials also found that an additional 17 elk contracted the fatal
brain disease during an outbreak that smoldered for years on a Stoneham
ranch until veterinarians realized the extent of the problem in
September.

All told, 1,724 Colorado elk have been destroyed since last fall as
authorities have fought to contain the outbreak, agriculture department
spokeswoman Linh Truong said.

Animals killed for testing

Since there's no live test for the disease in elk, animals must be
killed and their brains tested for infection.

Of the 49 confirmed cases, four were in Nebraska and one in Kansas. The
44 Colorado cases were found on nine ranches. Agriculture officials said
only 2.5 percent of the herds were infected in the largest outbreak in
U.S. history.

Twenty-nine of the infected animals were found at Elk Echo Ranch in
Stoneham, which officials believe was the source of the outbreak.
Another 20 elk either were infected at Elk Echo before being moved to
other ranches, or they contracted the disease from infected elk that
were added to their herds.

Truong said officials are still trying to figure out why the state's
chronic wasting disease surveillance program, which started in 1998,
didn't identify the problem earlier.

Regulations require ranchers to submit the fresh brains of all dead
adult elk for lab analysis.

"It's too early to pinpoint where things went wrong," she said. "The
surveillance system worked because we caught all the positive animals.
Whether it worked the best it could have is something we're going to
look into. And the lessons we learn from these past nine months will be
used to improve the system in place."

Infection as early as '92

The first hint of a problem appeared in 1997, when a cow bought from Elk
Echo died on a Dalton, Neb., ranch. In a report last fall, state
veterinarian Wayne Cunningham said Elk Echo may have been infected as
early as 1992.

Elk Echo was first quarantined because of the Nebraska cases in June
1999. But the quarantine was lifted a month later after an examination
of the herd showed none of the elk had symptoms of the long-incubating
disease.

Elk Echo was again quarantined in April 2000 after a suspicious elk
death at the ranch one month earlier. Three spinoff ranches were
quarantined in September 2001 after an Elk Echo animal died of CWD in
the San Luis Valley.

Researchers believe chronic wasting disease is caused by abnormally
folded, naturally occuring brain proteins, which recruit other proteins
to adopt their malignant shape. Tiny holes form in parts of the brain as
the disease progresses, leading to emaciation, slobbering, poor
coordination and death.

Even though chronic wasting disease is related to mad cow disease, there
is no evidence that it can infect humans.

First discovered at a Colorado Division of Wildlife research facility in
1967, the disease was found to infect about 5 percent of wild deer
across a 15,000-square-mile area of northeastern Colorado, southern
Wyoming and the Nebraska panhandle. This year, tests have confirmed
chronic wasting disease in wild herds in South Dakota, Nebraska,
Wisconsin and Saskatchewan.