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Quarantine, CWD test may affect hunters in Colorado.
Mark Henckel, Billings Gazette
2/3/02
No Chronic Wasting Disease has ever been found in the wild deer or elk of Montana. It has been found in elk, which were later destroyed, at a game farm at Philipsburg.
But the threat of CWD, a fatal brain disease in deer and elk, continues to haunt the West and the impact on hunters may become greater in the future – particularly in Colorado.
Since the 1960s, the disease was known to exist in the southeastern corner of Wyoming and northeastern Colorado. It has since shown up in game farm animals in South Dakota, Montana, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado and Saskatchewan. And in recent months it has been diagnosed in wild deer in both Saskatchewan and Nebraska.
But the state of Colorado announced last week that it is considering a quarantine and testing program for all hunter-killed deer and elk in northeastern portions of the state until the carcasses test negative for CWD.
The area affected by the quarantine would include everywhere from Fort Collins to the Nebraska border and from the Wyoming border to the South Platte River.
Hunters would have to wait for test results before they could move deer or elk they shoot out of the area, with enforcement of the quarantine falling on the shoulders of Division of Wildlife officers at check stations.
One of the key components of the proposal would be some new testing techniques that would be administered at the check stations. One new CWD test takes 24 hours to produce results. Another test would take just four hours.
Current CWD tests go through laboratories at the University of Wyoming and Colorado State University and can take up to six to eight weeks because of the number being requested and the method of the test.
Before such a quarantine and mandatory testing would be implemented, it still has to go through a review process with personnel from Colorado’s agriculture and wildlife departments and the commissions for both agencies.
CWD is considered a type of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, a disease similar to scrapie in sheep, mad cow disease in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. It attacks an animal’s brain and is fatal.
According to the Colorado State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, the most common symptoms from this disease are behavioral changes, emaciation, excessive salivation, ulcers, pneumonia, and weakness. Deer and elk die from it. It has never been positively identified as being passed on to humans.
No similar mandatory quarantines or testing is required in either Montana or Wyoming, but wildlife officials in both states continue to be vigilant in searching for new cases, or new areas where the disease might be found.
In an unrelated announcement last week, the USDA said it will release $12.5 million for a national CWD Eradication and Control Program. The funds will be used to cover the costs of animal disposal and testing, as well as payment for losses to game farms that have to kill their animals.
Mark Henckel, Billings Gazette
2/3/02
No Chronic Wasting Disease has ever been found in the wild deer or elk of Montana. It has been found in elk, which were later destroyed, at a game farm at Philipsburg.
But the threat of CWD, a fatal brain disease in deer and elk, continues to haunt the West and the impact on hunters may become greater in the future – particularly in Colorado.
Since the 1960s, the disease was known to exist in the southeastern corner of Wyoming and northeastern Colorado. It has since shown up in game farm animals in South Dakota, Montana, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado and Saskatchewan. And in recent months it has been diagnosed in wild deer in both Saskatchewan and Nebraska.
But the state of Colorado announced last week that it is considering a quarantine and testing program for all hunter-killed deer and elk in northeastern portions of the state until the carcasses test negative for CWD.
The area affected by the quarantine would include everywhere from Fort Collins to the Nebraska border and from the Wyoming border to the South Platte River.
Hunters would have to wait for test results before they could move deer or elk they shoot out of the area, with enforcement of the quarantine falling on the shoulders of Division of Wildlife officers at check stations.
One of the key components of the proposal would be some new testing techniques that would be administered at the check stations. One new CWD test takes 24 hours to produce results. Another test would take just four hours.
Current CWD tests go through laboratories at the University of Wyoming and Colorado State University and can take up to six to eight weeks because of the number being requested and the method of the test.
Before such a quarantine and mandatory testing would be implemented, it still has to go through a review process with personnel from Colorado’s agriculture and wildlife departments and the commissions for both agencies.
CWD is considered a type of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, a disease similar to scrapie in sheep, mad cow disease in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. It attacks an animal’s brain and is fatal.
According to the Colorado State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, the most common symptoms from this disease are behavioral changes, emaciation, excessive salivation, ulcers, pneumonia, and weakness. Deer and elk die from it. It has never been positively identified as being passed on to humans.
No similar mandatory quarantines or testing is required in either Montana or Wyoming, but wildlife officials in both states continue to be vigilant in searching for new cases, or new areas where the disease might be found.
In an unrelated announcement last week, the USDA said it will release $12.5 million for a national CWD Eradication and Control Program. The funds will be used to cover the costs of animal disposal and testing, as well as payment for losses to game farms that have to kill their animals.
