PRO/AH> Chronic wasting disease: update April 2001

[ProMED-mail]

CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE: UPDATE APRIL 2001
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[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]

[1]
Date: 29 Apr 2001
From: ProMEDmail
Source: Western Producer, Canada 15 Feb 2001 [edited]


USA -- CWD becoming a threat in the wild
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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)

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Here is the one that says not to eat the brain or spinal cord
of deer/elk: