Multidigits
09-11-2005, 11:27 AM
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050911/SPORTS09/509110448/1038
CWD turns up in West Virginia
Kentucky biologists worry about deer
By Gary Garth
Special to The Courier-Journal
The news that a roadkill deer in Hampshire County, W.Va., tested positive for chronic wasting disease has sent an uneasy ripple through Kentucky's wildlife managers and hunters.
"Certainly the deer that was found in West Virginia alarms us," said Jim Lane, a biologist who recently was named director of wildlife for the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. "The simple fact that it's another border state where CWD has been found (Illinois is the other one) is a concern. But we feel quite confident that we don't have it."
"It's pretty scary," said Kent Cooper, the 3rd district director for the League of Kentucky Sportsmen. "We now have it in states bordering each side of us. I hope that the deer in West Virginia will be an isolated case, but I don't think it will be."
Game managers and hunters alike fear chronic wasting disease, which has now spread into 14 states and two Canadian provinces since its discovery in a captive Colorado deer herd in 1967. The disease attacks the brain of deer and elk and is always fatal.
Paul Johansen, a wildlife biologist with the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources, said officials there regularly use roadkill deer as part of their CWD surveillance protocol. The 2˝-year-old Hampshire County buck was checked as part of that routine monitoring.
West Virginia officials received word on Sept. 2 that the deer was infected, and they immediately initiated their CWD Instant Response Plan.
"That includes determining the prevalence and distribution of the disease in West Virginia," Johansen said, adding that this will be done by increasing the number of animals tested, both through roadkills and collecting by conventional means.
He stressed said his agency is making every effort to communicate and coordinate its response plan to the public.
"We consider this a serious wildlife disease issue," he said. "But this is not the time to panic. The sky is not falling. We want to get as much factual information about the disease and the situation as we can to hunters and landowners."
West Virginia has no plans to alter its 2005-06 deer hunting seasons or regulations. However, depending on if and where other infected animals are found, Johansen didn't rule out sweeping preventive measures, including emergency management to hem in cervid ranching and baiting for deer, both of which now are legal in that state.
He declined to speculate on how CWD arrived in his state, adding that the Hampshire County deer apparently was a free-ranging animal and not part of a captive herd.
Game managers have always been uneasy about baiting and cervid ranching because deer and elk feeding in close proximity are more susceptible to the spread of disease.
"Any time you concentrate animals, whether it's baiting or feeding, you're asking for trouble," Johansen said. "(Baiting and ranching) are some of the things we'll be looking closely at."
The same two issues are on the minds of Kentucky's deer managers and hunters.
"(CWD) has been shown again and again to travel through captive cervids," Lane said. "It travels on the backs of trucks."
Precautions have been taken. In 2002 a moratorium was placed on the importation of captive cervids into Kentucky. According to the Fish and Wildlife Department, there are 88 licensed cervid ranches in the state. Animals can be moved from one ranch to another, but only by permit.
Cooper said that in light of the CWD threat, such game-farming operations put Kentucky's $409 million deer hunting industry at unnecessary risk. He said baiting probably also should be banned.
"I've never been a big fan of cervid ranching," he said. "And I won't say that I haven't dumped a bag of corn on the ground while deer hunting, but it wouldn't break my heart to have (baiting) outlawed."
State game officials have a CWD response plan should the disease be discovered in Kentucky. Lane noted that wildlife managers learn something more about how to control the disease with nearly every new outbreak. That's why the response plan is in perpetual draft form.
"There are so many unknowns about how to manage the disease that the document changes as we learn more," he said. "But if CWD were found tomorrow in Kentucky, that draft would become policy."
The first step, he said, would be educating and informing the public about what had happened and what the agency intended to do about it.
Officials then would increase the surveillance area to remove and test a percentage of the deer in the infected area. Any captive cervid operation within a 50-mile radius of where the disease was found probably would be included.
Baiting likely would be banned, at least around the CWD site.
Lane said the agency is "quite comfortable" that Kentucky is currently free of the disease. But with the recent news from West Virginia, that comfort level is waning.
For more information on the outbreak in West Virginia, go to wvdnr.gov and click on "current news." For more on CWD preventive measures in Kentucky, go to fw.ky.gov and click on "hunting," then "chronic wasting disease."
CWD AT A GLANCE
What is it?
Chronic wasting disease is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, a fatal neurological disease that affects deer and elk. There are several forms of the disease that affect different species. These include scrapie, common in sheep and goats, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow disease. The TSE that affects humans is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Can humans be infected?
There is no evidence that it can be spread from deer and elk to humans or to domestic livestock or other animals.
What causes CWD?
Researchers aren't certain, but the most widely accepted theory points to a prion as the disease agent. A prion is a mutated protein that causes other proteins to fold abnormally, resulting in sponge-like holes in the brain. Prions are concentrated in the brain, spinal cord, lymph glands, tonsils, eyes and spleen.
What are the symptoms?
In the later stages of infection, deer and elk lose weight, salivate and urinate excessively and exhibit confused or depression-like behavior. CWD is always fatal, but animals can be infected for months or years before showing outward signs of the disease.
How is CWD transmitted between animals?
The exact method is unknown, but researchers strongly suspect it's passed through body fluids such as feces, urine and saliva. Animals that are crowded or confined have a greater chance of encountering the body fluids of other animals and therefore are more likely to become infected if the CWD prion is present.
What is the infection rate?
It varies widely. In infected areas of Colorado and Wyoming the disease occurs in less than 5 percent of wild deer populations and about 1 percent of wild elk populations. In an infected area in Nebraska, nearly 37 percent of deer, both inside and outside a fenced enclosure, had CWD. Infection rates within captive facilities can exceed 50 percent.
How are animals tested for CWD?
A microscopic examination of the brain is required. There is no live animal test.
Is it safe to hunt deer and elk in Kentucky?
State game officials say they have no reason to suspect that CWD is present in Kentucky's deer or elk herds. Normal safety and health precautions should be followed, including wearing latex gloves when field-dressing an elk or deer and not using household utensils. However, if you harvest or observe a deer or elk that appears sick or is acting abnormally, note its location and contact the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.
Will the Fish and Wildlife Department pay to have my deer or elk tested for CWD?
No. The department randomly selects approximately 2,500 deer annually to be tested for CWD, and it does pay for those tests.
Can I bring deer or elk meat and antlers into Kentucky if the animal has been killed in a state were CWD has been found?
The meat can be returned to Kentucky only if the quarters or other portions have no part of the spinal column or head attached or if the meat has been boned out. The following can be brought into Kentucky from a deer or elk taken from a state where CWD has been confirmed: antlers, antlers attached to a clean skull plate, a clean skull, clean upper canine teeth, the hide and a finished taxidermy product.
There are no restrictions on transporting harvested deer or elk into Kentucky from a state that is not CWD-positive.
Source: Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources
CWD turns up in West Virginia
Kentucky biologists worry about deer
By Gary Garth
Special to The Courier-Journal
The news that a roadkill deer in Hampshire County, W.Va., tested positive for chronic wasting disease has sent an uneasy ripple through Kentucky's wildlife managers and hunters.
"Certainly the deer that was found in West Virginia alarms us," said Jim Lane, a biologist who recently was named director of wildlife for the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. "The simple fact that it's another border state where CWD has been found (Illinois is the other one) is a concern. But we feel quite confident that we don't have it."
"It's pretty scary," said Kent Cooper, the 3rd district director for the League of Kentucky Sportsmen. "We now have it in states bordering each side of us. I hope that the deer in West Virginia will be an isolated case, but I don't think it will be."
Game managers and hunters alike fear chronic wasting disease, which has now spread into 14 states and two Canadian provinces since its discovery in a captive Colorado deer herd in 1967. The disease attacks the brain of deer and elk and is always fatal.
Paul Johansen, a wildlife biologist with the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources, said officials there regularly use roadkill deer as part of their CWD surveillance protocol. The 2˝-year-old Hampshire County buck was checked as part of that routine monitoring.
West Virginia officials received word on Sept. 2 that the deer was infected, and they immediately initiated their CWD Instant Response Plan.
"That includes determining the prevalence and distribution of the disease in West Virginia," Johansen said, adding that this will be done by increasing the number of animals tested, both through roadkills and collecting by conventional means.
He stressed said his agency is making every effort to communicate and coordinate its response plan to the public.
"We consider this a serious wildlife disease issue," he said. "But this is not the time to panic. The sky is not falling. We want to get as much factual information about the disease and the situation as we can to hunters and landowners."
West Virginia has no plans to alter its 2005-06 deer hunting seasons or regulations. However, depending on if and where other infected animals are found, Johansen didn't rule out sweeping preventive measures, including emergency management to hem in cervid ranching and baiting for deer, both of which now are legal in that state.
He declined to speculate on how CWD arrived in his state, adding that the Hampshire County deer apparently was a free-ranging animal and not part of a captive herd.
Game managers have always been uneasy about baiting and cervid ranching because deer and elk feeding in close proximity are more susceptible to the spread of disease.
"Any time you concentrate animals, whether it's baiting or feeding, you're asking for trouble," Johansen said. "(Baiting and ranching) are some of the things we'll be looking closely at."
The same two issues are on the minds of Kentucky's deer managers and hunters.
"(CWD) has been shown again and again to travel through captive cervids," Lane said. "It travels on the backs of trucks."
Precautions have been taken. In 2002 a moratorium was placed on the importation of captive cervids into Kentucky. According to the Fish and Wildlife Department, there are 88 licensed cervid ranches in the state. Animals can be moved from one ranch to another, but only by permit.
Cooper said that in light of the CWD threat, such game-farming operations put Kentucky's $409 million deer hunting industry at unnecessary risk. He said baiting probably also should be banned.
"I've never been a big fan of cervid ranching," he said. "And I won't say that I haven't dumped a bag of corn on the ground while deer hunting, but it wouldn't break my heart to have (baiting) outlawed."
State game officials have a CWD response plan should the disease be discovered in Kentucky. Lane noted that wildlife managers learn something more about how to control the disease with nearly every new outbreak. That's why the response plan is in perpetual draft form.
"There are so many unknowns about how to manage the disease that the document changes as we learn more," he said. "But if CWD were found tomorrow in Kentucky, that draft would become policy."
The first step, he said, would be educating and informing the public about what had happened and what the agency intended to do about it.
Officials then would increase the surveillance area to remove and test a percentage of the deer in the infected area. Any captive cervid operation within a 50-mile radius of where the disease was found probably would be included.
Baiting likely would be banned, at least around the CWD site.
Lane said the agency is "quite comfortable" that Kentucky is currently free of the disease. But with the recent news from West Virginia, that comfort level is waning.
For more information on the outbreak in West Virginia, go to wvdnr.gov and click on "current news." For more on CWD preventive measures in Kentucky, go to fw.ky.gov and click on "hunting," then "chronic wasting disease."
CWD AT A GLANCE
What is it?
Chronic wasting disease is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, a fatal neurological disease that affects deer and elk. There are several forms of the disease that affect different species. These include scrapie, common in sheep and goats, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow disease. The TSE that affects humans is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Can humans be infected?
There is no evidence that it can be spread from deer and elk to humans or to domestic livestock or other animals.
What causes CWD?
Researchers aren't certain, but the most widely accepted theory points to a prion as the disease agent. A prion is a mutated protein that causes other proteins to fold abnormally, resulting in sponge-like holes in the brain. Prions are concentrated in the brain, spinal cord, lymph glands, tonsils, eyes and spleen.
What are the symptoms?
In the later stages of infection, deer and elk lose weight, salivate and urinate excessively and exhibit confused or depression-like behavior. CWD is always fatal, but animals can be infected for months or years before showing outward signs of the disease.
How is CWD transmitted between animals?
The exact method is unknown, but researchers strongly suspect it's passed through body fluids such as feces, urine and saliva. Animals that are crowded or confined have a greater chance of encountering the body fluids of other animals and therefore are more likely to become infected if the CWD prion is present.
What is the infection rate?
It varies widely. In infected areas of Colorado and Wyoming the disease occurs in less than 5 percent of wild deer populations and about 1 percent of wild elk populations. In an infected area in Nebraska, nearly 37 percent of deer, both inside and outside a fenced enclosure, had CWD. Infection rates within captive facilities can exceed 50 percent.
How are animals tested for CWD?
A microscopic examination of the brain is required. There is no live animal test.
Is it safe to hunt deer and elk in Kentucky?
State game officials say they have no reason to suspect that CWD is present in Kentucky's deer or elk herds. Normal safety and health precautions should be followed, including wearing latex gloves when field-dressing an elk or deer and not using household utensils. However, if you harvest or observe a deer or elk that appears sick or is acting abnormally, note its location and contact the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.
Will the Fish and Wildlife Department pay to have my deer or elk tested for CWD?
No. The department randomly selects approximately 2,500 deer annually to be tested for CWD, and it does pay for those tests.
Can I bring deer or elk meat and antlers into Kentucky if the animal has been killed in a state were CWD has been found?
The meat can be returned to Kentucky only if the quarters or other portions have no part of the spinal column or head attached or if the meat has been boned out. The following can be brought into Kentucky from a deer or elk taken from a state where CWD has been confirmed: antlers, antlers attached to a clean skull plate, a clean skull, clean upper canine teeth, the hide and a finished taxidermy product.
There are no restrictions on transporting harvested deer or elk into Kentucky from a state that is not CWD-positive.
Source: Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources