CWD Update
December 12, 2005
Tests have confirmed
presence of chronic wasting disease in two free-ranging elk in New Mexico. New Mexico Veterinary
Services Laboratory performed testing, and the positive tissues were
re-tested and confirmed by National Veterinary Services Laboratories.
For New Mexico, these are the first elk in which
CWD has been confirmed. Both elk were from the Sacramento Mountains, Game Management Unit 34, and
within 12 miles of Timberon, NM where a mule deer was confirmed
with CWD earlier this year.
One elk was a mature, asymptomatic
bull harvested in Wayland Canyon by a hunter on 3 October. The hunter has
been notified. The other elk was a
yearling female found sick, in poor body condition, and unable to
stand. Department staff collected this elk on 1 October in Hughes Canyon.
The
Colorado Division of Wildlife announced that a mule deer buck taken by a
hunter in game management unit 102 has tested positive for chronic wasting
disease. This is the first case of CWD to be found in GMU 102, which is
located in southern Yuma County, which is in the eastern part of
the state, adjacent to both Kansas and Nebraska. The deer was
taken near the headwaters of Black Wolf Creek. Tissues from the animal were
submitted by the hunter to the DOW as part of the DOW’s
CWD surveillance program. Both the initial test and a second test conducted
to confirm the deer had CWD were performed at Colorado State University’s Veterinary Diagnostics
Laboratory.
The South Dakota Department of Game,
Fish, and Parks reports the results of CWD Surveillance during the period of July 1, 2005 to December 2,
2005 with a
total of 2,391 samples. They have sampled 563 elk with 1 positive,
16 pending and 545 not detected, 597 mule deer with 1 positive, 421 pending,
and 175 not detected; and 1,231 whitetail deer with 1 positive, 626 pending,
and 604 not detected. The positive
mule deer was from Fall River County; the whitetail was from Custer County, and one elk from Fall River County and one from Pennington County. The elk
were hunter harvested and both deer were exhibiting clinical signs and were
collected for testing.
Alberta has recorded its first
case of chronic wasting disease in a wild deer killed by a hunter in the
province. This brings the total to four cases of CWD confirmed in wild deer
in Alberta. The federal Canadian Food Inspection Agency
confirmed this latest case December 9. The
hunter-killed mule deer was harvested 15 km south of Empress during the
regular hunting season in wildlife management unit (WMU) 150, along the
Alberta-Saskatchewan border. This location is in close proximity to the
previous cases of CWD in wild cervids in Alberta. Alberta recently established three quota hunts to
enlist hunters to help limit the potential spread of CWD. Quota hunts
continue until December 20, but are only one of a number of actions the
province is taking to combat the disease. Alberta will continue to use various methods to reduce
deer populations in areas where the disease is found. The province considers
CWD to be a serious threat to wild deer populations.
The New York Department of
Environmental Conservation reports that since April 1, 2005 that they have tested approximately 7,500 wild
deer statewide, and has non-detect results back on about 6,300 with another
1,200 pending at the lab. There have been no additional positives since the 2
found last April in Oneida County. Within the containment area (numbers
included in the statewide totals above), they have tested nearly 1,900 wild
deer, and currently have only a couple dozen at the lab pending results.
Their seasons are still open (last weekend of the firearms season in the
southern zone is Dec. 10-11, to be followed by 9 day late archery and muzzleloading season), but collections are nearly done
and the lab is returning a couple hundred results a day.
Saskatchewan
Environment reports finding another 12 confirmed cases of CWD and an
additional 2 cases pending from their hunter surveillance samples for
2005. All cases are within proximity
of at least one other known case in free roaming deer and the majority of
them are in the South
Saskatchewan River Valley in the Swift Current area. Specific sex, age,
and species information is unavailable at this time.
A major international
conference on Prion Diseases of Domestic Livestock
will be help in London, United Kingdom May
28-30, 2006. The Veterinary Laboratories Agency, the
International Forum for TSEs and Food Safety, and
the OIE Reference Laboratories for Switzerland & Japan are sponsoring
this conference. Although specific to prion disease in domestic livestock, it will present
interesting information on TSE diseases.
The web site for the conference contains additional information and
can be found at: http://www.eventsforce.net/eventsdynamic/frontend/frontEndFrameset1.csp?eventID=12
The West Virginia DNR reports that a 7
1/2-year-old Hampshire County whitetail doe that was found alive but weak and
disoriented was confirmed to have chronic wasting disease, bringing to five
the number of infected deer within the county. The location is
seven miles from the location of the first positive deer, a road kill near Slanesville, and three miles from the scene of the other
diseased deer that were later discovered after agency shooting teams killed
and checked more than 200 animals. It is also just four miles from the Virginia state line.
Wisconsin DNR reports that as of
December 9 they had sampled 21,535 deer with results from 8,394
received. They have detected 32 new
positives, all whitetails, with 27 from the disease eradication zone and 5
from the herd reduction zone.
