Published Date: 2002-04-05 23:50:00
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Chronic wasting disease - USA (Colo, Neb, Wis)
Archive Number: 20020405.3888
CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE - USA (COLO, NEB, WIS)
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See Also
Chronic wasting disease, cervids - USA (Colo.) (04) 20020401.3859Chronic wasting disease, cervids - USA (Neb., Wisc.) 20020401.3860
Chronic wasting disease, cervids - USA (Colorado) (03) 20020316.3755
Chronic wasting disease, cervids - USA (Colorado) (02) 20020314.3747
Chronic wasting disease, cervids - USA (Wisconsin) 20020309.3717
Chronic wasting disease, cervids - USA (Nebraska) (04) 20020219.3586
Chronic wasting disease, cervids - USA (Nebraska) (03) 20020201.3455
Chronic wasting disease, cervids - USA (Colorado) 20020131.3452
Chronic wasting disease, cervids - USA (Nebraska) (02) 20020126.3402
Chronic wasting disease, cervids - USA (Nebraska) 20020124.3374
2001
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Chronic wasting disease, cervids - USA (Nebraska) 20011228.3123
Chronic wasting disease - USA: test 20011223.3102
Chronic wasting disease, cervids - USA (Colorado) (04) 20011029.2670
Chronic wasting disease, cervids - USA (Colorado) (03) 20011025.2635
Chronic wasting disease, cervids - USA (Colorado) (02) 20010924.2317
Chronic wasting disease, cervids - USA (Colorado) 20010217.0314
Chronic wasting disease, captive deer - USA (Nebraska) 20010125.0180
1997
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Chronic wasting disease, deer & elk - USA (Colorado) (02) 19971113.2296
Chronic wasting disease, deer & elk - USA (Colorado) 19970601.1122
Date: 2 Apr 2002
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Source: NY Times [edited
<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/02/science/02DISE.html>
DENVER, 1 Apr 2002: New discoveries of diseased wildlife in Colorado,
Nebraska, and Wisconsin are raising fears throughout the middle of
the country that a problem state officials once thought to be
relatively isolated may be far more widespread.
In all 3 states, recent tests have produced positive results for
chronic wasting disease (CWD), a fatal neurological disorder, in wild
animals outside areas where the disease was already known to exist.
While similar to mad cow disease, which is blamed for the deaths of
more than 100 people in Europe, chronic wasting disease has so far
not proved to be harmful to humans, although wildlife experts
discourage people from eating affected animals. The disease attacks
the animal's brain, causing the animal to become emaciated and lose
bodily functions.
The latest test results indicate, however, that the disease is
spreading, causing new concerns about how it moves and what its
financial impact might be on rural communities that rely heavily on
hunting for their economic stability.
Lynn Creekmore, a veterinarian with the Animal and Plant Heath
Inspection Service of the United States Agriculture Department, said
the discovery of new cases in Nebraska represented a spreading of the
disease. But in Wisconsin and Colorado, Ms. Creekmore added, "we
don't have a clear explanation of how it got there." In all three
states, officials are alarmed.
"We're in a crisis mode," said Sarah Shapiro-Hurley, a deputy
administrator for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
"Hunting is a big thing here. People come from all over the country
to hunt deer in Wisconsin."
The visitors spend lots of money, especially the 600 000 hunters who
descend on Wisconsin for the 9-day deer season in late November. Ms.
Shapiro-Hurley says deer hunting has become a $2.6 billion industry
in Wisconsin, where chronic wasting disease was unknown until an Iowa
laboratory in February 2002 completed tests on samples collected over
the previous few years.
The results stunned state officials, Ms. Shapiro-Hurley said, showing
that 3 of the first 82 tests from animals southwest of Madison, the
capital, were positive, making them the first animals with CWD ever
found east of the Mississippi River. Last week, 2 more tests proved
positive, and more examinations are under way.
In Colorado, Gov. Bill Owens said last week that state officials for
the first time found a diseased wild deer on the western side of the
Continental Divide, near Craig, a discovery that stunned state
officials and put at risk dozens of small towns that rely on the
millions of dollars generated in the fall hunting season. Today, a
second test proved positive.
In an interview, Mr. Owens said state officials always regarded the
Rocky Mountains as "a natural barrier" to keep diseased wildlife
within the eastern half of the state. That theory, he said, no longer
works, but no one knows how the deer or the disease moved 100 miles
west.
Further, he said, the discovery of diseased deer threatens an area of
the state where hunting is common. Small towns, like Craig, depend on
hunters to keep hotels, restaurants and ammunition shops open.
"All states in the Rocky Mountains depend upon tourism," Mr. Owens
said, and wildlife is an important part of Colorado's economy and
ecosystem.
In Nebraska, officials found an alarming number of diseased
white-tail deer last month at a private hunting preserve in the
northwest corner of the state. Bruce Morrison, assistant
administrator for the Nebraska Department of Wildlife, said tests on
69 deer, more than half the 126 tested, showed evidence of the
disease. Tests continue, Mr. Morrison said, "and they will go on
until we're satisfied we've got this stopped. That could take another
year or two," he said.
Dr. Creekmore said that wasting disease in wild animals was first
recognized by the federal Agriculture Department in 1981, and that
since then, thousands of animals had been killed as part of the
effort to test for the disease and prevent its spread.
So far, the new discoveries have not only added substantial numbers
to the overall total of affected animals but also raised concerns
that state officials have not tracked the disease as closely as they
might have thought. The potential for problems is rising, especially
in Wisconsin, where Ms. Shapiro-Hurley said deer and elk populations
are denser than in Colorado and Wyoming.
"It's very alarming," she said. "But the results of our sampling may
give us a better sense of whether we should be worrying about the
entire southwest of Wisconsin or something bigger."
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