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01-14-03
I think I mentioned in one of my previous emails that the "cat is out of the bag" so to speak in the WI outbreak. Below is the newest CWD findings from WI, bringing the total to 55, 5 of which are outside their eradication zone.
The new findings also include a new County in WI as positive (Richland). As you might imagine the findings are creating further controversy. The WI DNR is still proceeding on an eradication paradigm, while others argue there is no reason to do so now and that funds should be put into research and better control strategies. Still no word on confirmation of the Grant County ELISA findings. In the game farm situation, 3 herds have been depopulation (2 with confirmed CWD cases). In the Walworth Co confirmed positive herd, a single whitetail buck (ear tagged so identification confirmed) had escaped in March 2002 and was killed in October 2002. This animal has been confirmed CWD positive, thus providing an interface with free-ranging deer for at least 7 months.
I've also included a report on new findings in mule deer in Nebraska. Note, these are mule deer, in counties previously known affected but mostly with white-tailed deer.
Thomas J. Roffe, PhD, DVM
Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center
USGS-BRD
FWP Bldg, 1400 S. 19th Ave.
Bozeman, MT
T: 406-994-5789
F: 406-994-4090
Cell: 406-539-4955
Supporting Documents:
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 17:43:57 GMT-3
Source: Associated Press Newswires 2003/01/13 [edited]
2 more deer in Nebraska test positive for disease
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2 mule deer killed this fall in Nebraska's Panhandle have tested positive for chronic wasting disease. The discoveries bring to 17 the number of wild deer in Nebraska that have been confirmed as having the fatal disease in the past 4 years. All the deer were killed by hunters in the Panhandle. The 2 most recent cases involved bucks, both about 30 months old and killed in areas where infected deer have been found, said Bruce Morrison, assistant chief of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission's wildlife division. One of the bucks was killed in the south west corner of Kimball County. The other was killed in northern Sioux County. They are the first positive tests from 1844 deer tested so far since the fall hunting seasons by the University of Nebraska's Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. About 2000 deer from central and western Nebraska remain to be tested. All of the 846 deer tested from eastern Nebraska were negative, along with 305 deer tested that were killed by hunters in central Nebraska, Morrison said. Nearly 700 deer have been tested from the Panhandle. In Colorado, it has been detected in 233 deer and elk killed by hunters, vehicles, and culling this season alone. The disease first appeared in Nebraska in 1999 in a wild deer in Kimball County. 2 more cases were found in that county in 2000, as well as one in neighboring Cheyenne County. Last year [2002], 10 wild deer in northern Sioux County and one in Scotts Bluff County tested positive for the disease.
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 18:16:08 GMT-3
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Source: Wisconsin State Journal 2003/01/11
[edited]
5 CWD deer killed outside "the zone"
5 deer have been found with chronic wasting disease outside the boundary of an area Wisconsin wildlife experts had hoped limited where the disease would be found, the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said on Friday. The newest cases -- bringing to 55 the number of deer with the fatal disease -- show the disease is now in a new county, Richland. The 5 new diseased deer were killed in what the DNR calls a buffer area around a 411 square mile area of Dane, Iowa, and Sauk counties, where the first 50 deer with the disease were found, including 3 discovered last February [2002] in an area just west of Mount Horeb. The 5 positive tests were from deer found in the management zone, an area that extends 40 miles from where the DNR first detected deer with the disease. The 5 new cases are "geographically close" to the so-called eradication zone, where the DNR wants all the deer killed to wipe out the disease from the herd. Tom Hauge, director of the DNR's Bureau of Wildlife Management, said the agency's wildlife experts expected the disease to show up in areas adjacent to the eradication zone. He said computer models showed the disease has probably been in the area as long as 5 years, and that's long enough for deer to spread the disease beyond places it originally appeared. "That kind of dispersal is well within reason," Hauge said. "We're disappointed, but from a scientific perspective, this is very expected."
So far, laboratory experts have examined tissue samples from 9064 of the 38 241 deer heads submitted by hunters for testing. The DNR has tested 2199 samples from areas outside the management and eradication zones, and all were negative for CWD. The 5 infected deer in the management zone were detected among 4554 deer tested so far from that area, the DNR said. Hauge said the finding will not alter the DNR's plans to combat the spread of CWD by killing all the deer - -- about 25 000 -- inside the eradication zone.
But some argue that the appearance of CWD outside the eradication zone is reason enough for the DNR to change its approach. A group called Citizens and Landowners for a Rational Response said last week that the agency should drop the eradication plan in favor of thinning the herd and devoting more money to research on the disease. "There is no way they are going to kill all the animals in that area," said Mark Peck, a member of the group. But Hauge said that efforts to kill more deer in the eradication zone are necessary regardless of the presence of the disease.
U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
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