Moribund. wasting and salivation are symptoms of chronic wasting disease in elk.
veterinary officials in Colorado impatiently trying to curb an outbreak of chronic wasting disease (CWD), a fatal disease that affects deer and elk and is linked to encephalopathy bovine spongiform (BSE) disease or "mad cow". After alarming as elk from an infected farm have been shipped to more than a dozen states, some fear that the disease can spread through the United States.
CWD let deer and elk listless, emaciated, and finally death. The cause is considered an aberrant protein called prion, which can be spread by direct contact between animals or soil contamination with the prion protein. There is no evidence that the disease can spread to humans - such as BSE, which can cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease - or bovine ( Science , June 1, p 1641). However, this possibility has not been excluded.
The disease is endemic for decades in wild populations of deer and elk in northeastern Colorado, southeastern Wyoming, and a small part of neighboring Nebraska. Since 1997, however, there arose 15 elk farms in five states. And since only August, the Colorado officials found six infected elk, five of which were from a single ranch elk in Stoneham. The farm, one of the largest in the country, has delivered some 0 animals in other parts of Colorado and more than 0 elk farms in 15 states is as far as Pennsylvania, said Colorado State Veterinarian Wayne Cunningham .
Now, it is feared that the elk could infect wild elk and deer across the United States. It would deal a blow to the hunting industry, especially in Eastern European countries, which have huge populations of deer, says Michael Miller, a veterinarian with the Ministry of Natural Resources of Colorado. CWD could also ruin the elk industry, raising animals for their meat and velvety woods, a popular ingredient in dietary supplements. "If it is not treated, the industry is doomed to failure," said Cunningham.
In late September, US Department of Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said the emergency, a measure that allowed her department to spend $ 2.6 million to launch an aggressive eradication campaign. currently, farmers are often not fully reimbursed when their cattle are confiscated, leaving them little incentive to report sick animals. the new campaign would implement active surveillance, paying farmers a fair price for their animals, and also pay for the destruction of carcasses and decontamination of their farms.
Related Sites
Information on Chronic deer from the US Department of agriculture, including emergency
Statement by the Colorado Division of Wildlife Information
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