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CHRONIC
WASTING DISEASE: UPDATE APRIL 2001
***********************************************
A
ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail,
a program of the
International
Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>
[1]
Date:
29 Apr 2001
From:
ProMEDmail
Source:
Western Producer, Canada 15 Feb 2001 [edited]
USA
-- CWD becoming a threat in the wild
----------------------------------------------------
Chronic
wasting disease could devastate Wyoming's wild deer population, a [US]
state biologist has told Saskatchewan hunters. Terry Kreeger, the manager
of a Wyoming state wildlife research farm, said he not only believes CWD
can theoretically pass from farmed deer to wild deer across the fenceline,
but that this has probably already occurred in his state. Kreeger spoke
at the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation's annual meeting. He qualified
his remarks by noting that many important aspects of CWD are still not
understood or just barely understood, so few definitive answers about the
disease can be given.
CWD
exists in the wild in southeastern Wyoming, northeastern Colorado and the
extreme west of Nebraska. It was first spotted in animals in a Colorado
research facility, and then in the Wyoming research farm.
Wild
cases were only found later, but researchers believe the disease was probably
brought into the facilities by infected deer. If for every 5 CWD-infected
wild deer or elk another 6 were infected, "in about 35 to 50 years look
at what happens to the population -- they crash," he said, describing a
chart of projections. Only half the deer population would remain.
Wild
elk can carry the disease, but appear not to be as susceptible as deer.
Less than one percent of elk in the CWD hot zone have been found with the
disease. Up to 10 percent of deer in the same area are
infected,
he said.
Kreeger
said CWD has probably been carried north by elk and deer wandering from
Colorado into Wyoming, but he thinks the first cases discovered in his
state were caused by wild deer coming into contact
with
his CWD-infected facility. "They're all focused around our research facility."
Kreeger believes his facility was infected by deer brought in from the
infected Colorado facility.
(By
Ed White, Saskatoon newsroom)
*****
[2]
Date:
29 Apr 2001
From:
ProMEDmail
Source:
Western Producer, Canada 5 Apr 2001 [edited]
Canadian
cattle, bison killed as safety measure
---------------------------------------------------------
Cattle
and bison have been exterminated as part of the chronic wasting disease
cleanup. The animals grazed on the same pasture as elk infected with chronic
wasting disease. But Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials say there
is no evidence those species can contract the elk disease and the extermination
is just an act of supreme caution. "There is currently no scientific evidence
that chronic wasting disease affects cattle or bison," said CFIA official
George Luterbach. "There may be some people who would like to use this
in a
malaligned
(sic) way to suggest that chronic wasting disease is a disease of cattle,
or that the other livestock industries have been put at risk here. That
clearly is not our intention here," said Luterbach during the Saskatchewan
Elk Breeders Association convention.
The
CFIA has exterminated 259 cattle and 99 bison because they grazed on pastures
that had been used by infected elk on a Lloydminster farm. That farm is
considered the source of the outbreak in Saskatchewan.
The
CFIA considers that land so contaminated that it may permanently
be banned for elk. The cattle and bison were put down, not because the
CFIA thinks there is evidence they could have developed the disease,
but
because no one has yet proven cattle can't get the disease.
"Should
evidence come out 5 years from now I'm going to stand here and say that
it was a bit of a gamble and it cost a bit of money, but I think we did
the right thing," said Luterbach. The cattle, bison and
elk
industries all supported the slaughter.
The
CFIA has not yet ruled the CWD outbreak over. As testing expanded, it found
one more infected animal. The 400-head herd that the infected animal was
part of, as well as 32 animals sold from the herd to 10
other
farms, will be exterminated and studied to see if any carry the infection.
Luterbach said the outbreak is still limited to animals connected to one
herd that became infected in 1989-90. "There's no evidence that we have
a multi-source situation."
As
the traceouts have moved out from the original herd and closer in time
to when animals moved, the number of infected animals discovered has plummeted.
Luterbach doesn't expect to find more infected elk in
so-far
uninfected herds. "These animals (now being traced out) one could almost
assume will be negative because their exposure was for a relatively short
period of time."
(By
Ed White, Saskatoon newsroom)
--
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
..............................................tg/mhj/jw
[see
also:
Chronic
wasting disease, captive deer - USA (Nebraska) 20010125.0180
Chronic
wasting disease, captive elk - USA (Oklahoma) 20010209.0266
Chronic
wasting disease, cervid - USA: human risk? 20010126.0193
Chronic
wasting disease, cervids - USA (Colorado) 20010217.0314
Chronic
wasting disease, deer to cattle 20010314.0515
Chronic
wasting disease, elk: informing hunters 20010118.0141
Chronic
wasting disease, wild deer - Canada (SK) 20010409.0697
Chronic
wasting disease, wild deer - USA (Nebraska) 20010117.0140]
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