BOARD TAKES NEW STEPS TOWARD PROTECTING STATE FROM CWD

HARRISBURG - As the agency works to collaborate with the state Agriculture Department to implement actions under the Pennsylvania CWD Response Plan, the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners today gave preliminary approval to a measure granting certain emergency authorities to the executive director to prevent the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD), if it is discovered in or near the state or poses a serious threat to the Commonwealth's deer and elk populations. 

If approved by the Board at the October meeting, the regulation would grant the executive director the authority to prohibit feeding of deer in the containment area if the spread of CWD poses a threat to human safety, farm animals, pets or wildlife in the Commonwealth, and to ban the importation of certain high-risk deer or elk parts, such as lymph nodes, brain and spinal cord.

"While current state law and regulation prohibits the feeding of elk and bears, we recognize that many Pennsylvanians enjoy feeding other wildlife, and we do not anticipate prohibiting those feeding activities unless or until CWD poses a threat to our deer and elk," Ross said.  "However, if the Board approves this measure in October, we fully expect to implement the ban on importing certain high-risk deer and elk parts as soon as possible as a means of preventing hunters from unintentionally bringing back to our state material that could potentially cause the introduction of CWD into our state.

"As CWD is found in more and more states, most recently in New York, we have a responsibility to do everything we can to protect our wild deer and elk, as well as the captive deer and elk herds, from being exposed to this disease."

First identified in Colorado in 1967, CWD is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) that affects members of the deer family (cervids), including white-tailed deer and elk. It is a progressive and always fatal disease, which scientists theorize is caused by an unknown agent capable of transforming normal brain proteins into an abnormal form.  Once the abnormal form is created, it changes the shape of adjacent proteins and causes holes to form in brain tissue.

There currently is no practical way to test live animals for CWD, no cure for animals that contact the disease and no vaccine to prevent an animal from contracting the disease.  Clinical signs include poor posture, lowered head and ears, uncoordinated movement, rough-hair coat, decreased appetite, weight loss, increased thirst, excessive drooling, and, ultimately, death. 

There is no scientific evidence of CWD being transmitted to humans or to other non-cervid livestock under normal conditions.

Deer or elk harboring CWD may not show any signs of the disease for the first year or so, however, death normally follows within a year of when symptoms begin.

Those states where CWD has been found in wild or captive deer or elk herds are: Colorado; Wyoming; Montana; Utah; New Mexico; New York; South Dakota; Nebraska; Kansas; Oklahoma; Minnesota; Wisconsin; and Illinois.  In addition, CWD has been detected in wild or captive deer and elk in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

This year, as in previous years, the Game Commission collected samples from hunter-killed deer during the two-week rifle deer season and samples from hunter-killed elk for CWD testing.   This marked the fourth year for testing hunter-killed elk and the third year for testing hunter-killed deer.  In total, 162 elk have been tested and 6,259 deer have been tested.  So far, all samples collected have been negative.

"The test results are good news," Ross said.  "Although CWD has not been found in Pennsylvania, we must continue to be vigilant in our CWD monitoring efforts.  The surveillance information we are gathering is important for the early detection of CWD.

"We already are planning to continue random testing of hunter-killed deer and elk during the 2005-2006 seasons, and we are pleased that the Pennsylvania and U.S. departments of agriculture will continue to play an important role in this disease surveillance program."

In March, the Game Commission and other members of Pennsylvania's CWD Task Force went on increased alert when it was announced that test results showed one captive white-tailed deer on each of two different farms in Oneida County, New York, were infected with CWD.

In April, New York officials announced that CWD was found in two wild deer in the vicinity of the infected farms.  Also, their investigation into the possible source of introduction of CWD into New York was most likely one of the deer farmers who also was a taxidermist and rehabilitator.  Records indicate that deer and elk heads were mounted from CWD-positive states, and rehabilitated deer were raised in the taxidermy studio, directly exposing the deer to infected waste.  Rehabilitated deer were kept in captivity and others were released into the wild.

The Game Commission, the Governor's Policy Office, state Department of Agriculture, state Department of Health, the state Department of Environmental Protection, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture completed a CWD response plan for Pennsylvania nearly two years ago.  The interagency task force focused on ways to prevent CWD from entering the Commonwealth and to ensure early detection should CWD enter the state, and has laid out a comprehensive response plan to contain and eradicate CWD should it be found within the state.

In light of recent events in New York, and that new knowledge has been acquired in the past two years, the CWD response plan currently is being updated and will be finalized in the next few months.