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July 01, 2002
DOW taps hunters to test for wasting disease
Russell Smyth, Montrose Daily Press
MONTROSE - Colorado Division of Wildlife officials want hunters to help them test up to 50,000 deer and elk for chronic wasting disease this fall.
"We are right now building plans to do a huge amount of testing statewide," DOW Director Russell George told more than 30 people attending a local sportsmen's group meeting Saturday in the Delta-Montrose Electric Association meeting room.
Chronic wasting disease is a neurological disease that attacks the brains of infected deer and elk, according to the DOW. Infected animals become emaciated, display abnormal behavior, lose bodily functions and die. There is no known cure.
"Nothing seems to help," George said. "They appear to become undernourished. . . . Eventually they will just waste away."
Testing up to 50,000 animals would provide the "level of confidence statistically" that is needed to determine how far chronic wasting disease has, or has not, spread in Colorado, George said.
"What we're going to hope is we don't find many more positives," he said.
The Colorado Resident Hunters Equality Task Force held the meeting to discuss concerns about chronic wasting disease and about the number of resident versus nonresident hunters in Colorado with George.
Within the next few weeks, the DOW plans to start notifying hunters about ways they can drop off tissue samples to test for chronic wasting disease, George said.
A partial list of communities with drop-off points includes Montrose, Grand Junction, Gunnison, Durango, Meeker, Craig, Rangely and Del Norte.
The DOW may ask hunters to pay $25 to help cover lab costs for the chronic wasting disease tests, George said.
"It's either that or - we've got other budget problems," he said.
Officials will gather tissue samples beginning with this year's archery season and continuing through the rifle seasons, Ron Velarde, the DOW's west regional manager, said after the meeting.
"By December of this year, we're going to be confident about the prevalence of chronic wasting disease," Velarde said. "We are going to make statistical analyses so we are confident, for example, in Unit 61 (on the Uncompahgre Plateau) we don't have chronic wasting disease."
All tissue samples will generate from hunters unless the DOW does not gather enough from a particular area, Velarde said. Hunters will need to submit tissue samples from deer and elk tonsils, brains and lymph nodes.
Submitting tests will be optional for hunters on the Western Slope but mandatory for hunters in Colorado's endemic area for chronic wasting disease, he said.
In Colorado, most chronic wasting disease cases have occurred in an endemic area that encompasses approximately 7,000 miles, according to the DOW. The area extends roughly from Boulder north to Wyoming and in a twisted arm that stretches past Greeley and Sterling to the state's northeast corner.
The discovery of chronic wasting disease on Colorado's Western Slope earlier this year ignited fear about the disease's potential spread. In late March, lab tests revealed one confirmed and two suspected cases of chronic wasting disease in wild mule deer killed on the Motherwell Ranch, a privately owned, captive-bred elk facility between Craig and Meeker, according to the DOW. Prior to the discovery, chronic wasting disease was not known to occur in free-roaming wild animals outside the endemic area.
DOW officials don't know how chronic wasting disease spreads or how it was transmitted from the Front Range to Western slope of the Continental Divide in Colorado, Mike Miller, the DOW's state veterinarian, has said.
Testing more than 1,000 deer and elk killed within and near the Motherwell Ranch eventually yielded 10 positive mule deer, six from outside the facility and four within it, but no positive elk, according to the DOW.
Attendees at the meeting also discussed the impact captive-game ranches have on the prevalence of chronic wasting disease.
The disease has surfaced at some Colorado elk ranches, and 19 states have received approximately 262 elk from positive herds in Colorado, according to the DOW. Officials have killed at least 2,900 elk from captive herds this year to test for chronic wasting disease.
"I wish you would just use all your persuasion power to go to the governor and get them to outlaw game farms," said Steve Phare, a Naturita sportsman.
Jerry Perkins, a board member of the Colorado Elk Breeders Association and owner of Perkins Elk Ranch near Delta, asked Phare how he would feel if people tried to shut down his business.
George said chronic wasting disease can be found in higher concentrations in the wild than it has been found in captive-game facilities.
"We've found hot spots in the wild that have been as high as 22 percent," he said. "I don't think we've found an elk farm that's been near that."
Concerns about eating animals with chronic wasting disease also arose during the meeting.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment have not found a link between chronic wasting disease and any neurological disease affecting humans, according to the DOW. However, health officials advise hunters not to eat meat from infected animals.
"What I've been told by scientists is the disease has never been detected in the meat," George said. "It shows up in the nervous system. I've never known anyone to eat the brain tissue of wild deer anyway."
The DOW director also discussed media coverage during the discussion of chronic wasting disease.
"Bear in mind you can't get your news from the media," he said, noting journalists have to learn about chronic wasting disease from scratch.
Journalists also may bias their coverage, George said.
"Reporters have a purpose," he said. "It isn't always to find out what the truth is and report it."
DOW taps hunters to test for wasting disease
Russell Smyth, Montrose Daily Press
MONTROSE - Colorado Division of Wildlife officials want hunters to help them test up to 50,000 deer and elk for chronic wasting disease this fall.
"We are right now building plans to do a huge amount of testing statewide," DOW Director Russell George told more than 30 people attending a local sportsmen's group meeting Saturday in the Delta-Montrose Electric Association meeting room.
Chronic wasting disease is a neurological disease that attacks the brains of infected deer and elk, according to the DOW. Infected animals become emaciated, display abnormal behavior, lose bodily functions and die. There is no known cure.
"Nothing seems to help," George said. "They appear to become undernourished. . . . Eventually they will just waste away."
Testing up to 50,000 animals would provide the "level of confidence statistically" that is needed to determine how far chronic wasting disease has, or has not, spread in Colorado, George said.
"What we're going to hope is we don't find many more positives," he said.
The Colorado Resident Hunters Equality Task Force held the meeting to discuss concerns about chronic wasting disease and about the number of resident versus nonresident hunters in Colorado with George.
Within the next few weeks, the DOW plans to start notifying hunters about ways they can drop off tissue samples to test for chronic wasting disease, George said.
A partial list of communities with drop-off points includes Montrose, Grand Junction, Gunnison, Durango, Meeker, Craig, Rangely and Del Norte.
The DOW may ask hunters to pay $25 to help cover lab costs for the chronic wasting disease tests, George said.
"It's either that or - we've got other budget problems," he said.
Officials will gather tissue samples beginning with this year's archery season and continuing through the rifle seasons, Ron Velarde, the DOW's west regional manager, said after the meeting.
"By December of this year, we're going to be confident about the prevalence of chronic wasting disease," Velarde said. "We are going to make statistical analyses so we are confident, for example, in Unit 61 (on the Uncompahgre Plateau) we don't have chronic wasting disease."
All tissue samples will generate from hunters unless the DOW does not gather enough from a particular area, Velarde said. Hunters will need to submit tissue samples from deer and elk tonsils, brains and lymph nodes.
Submitting tests will be optional for hunters on the Western Slope but mandatory for hunters in Colorado's endemic area for chronic wasting disease, he said.
In Colorado, most chronic wasting disease cases have occurred in an endemic area that encompasses approximately 7,000 miles, according to the DOW. The area extends roughly from Boulder north to Wyoming and in a twisted arm that stretches past Greeley and Sterling to the state's northeast corner.
The discovery of chronic wasting disease on Colorado's Western Slope earlier this year ignited fear about the disease's potential spread. In late March, lab tests revealed one confirmed and two suspected cases of chronic wasting disease in wild mule deer killed on the Motherwell Ranch, a privately owned, captive-bred elk facility between Craig and Meeker, according to the DOW. Prior to the discovery, chronic wasting disease was not known to occur in free-roaming wild animals outside the endemic area.
DOW officials don't know how chronic wasting disease spreads or how it was transmitted from the Front Range to Western slope of the Continental Divide in Colorado, Mike Miller, the DOW's state veterinarian, has said.
Testing more than 1,000 deer and elk killed within and near the Motherwell Ranch eventually yielded 10 positive mule deer, six from outside the facility and four within it, but no positive elk, according to the DOW.
Attendees at the meeting also discussed the impact captive-game ranches have on the prevalence of chronic wasting disease.
The disease has surfaced at some Colorado elk ranches, and 19 states have received approximately 262 elk from positive herds in Colorado, according to the DOW. Officials have killed at least 2,900 elk from captive herds this year to test for chronic wasting disease.
"I wish you would just use all your persuasion power to go to the governor and get them to outlaw game farms," said Steve Phare, a Naturita sportsman.
Jerry Perkins, a board member of the Colorado Elk Breeders Association and owner of Perkins Elk Ranch near Delta, asked Phare how he would feel if people tried to shut down his business.
George said chronic wasting disease can be found in higher concentrations in the wild than it has been found in captive-game facilities.
"We've found hot spots in the wild that have been as high as 22 percent," he said. "I don't think we've found an elk farm that's been near that."
Concerns about eating animals with chronic wasting disease also arose during the meeting.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment have not found a link between chronic wasting disease and any neurological disease affecting humans, according to the DOW. However, health officials advise hunters not to eat meat from infected animals.
"What I've been told by scientists is the disease has never been detected in the meat," George said. "It shows up in the nervous system. I've never known anyone to eat the brain tissue of wild deer anyway."
The DOW director also discussed media coverage during the discussion of chronic wasting disease.
"Bear in mind you can't get your news from the media," he said, noting journalists have to learn about chronic wasting disease from scratch.
Journalists also may bias their coverage, George said.
"Reporters have a purpose," he said. "It isn't always to find out what the truth is and report it."
