Colorado to kill elk exposed to wasting disease
Date: 10-Oct-01
Country: USA
The elk will be put down at a Colorado State University laboratory facility in Fort Collins, starting in about two weeks, spokeswoman Linh Truong said. Researchers will test brain samples from each animal for signs of the disease.
"A lot of people have concerns about us having to kill so many animals, but unfortunately there is no way to find out whether an animal has it or not unless we are able to take a part of their brain for testing," Truong said in an interview.
Chronic wasting disease, or CWD, is in the same family of fatal brain-wasting ailments as mad cow disease. However, unlike mad cow, CWD has not been linked to human illness. CWD has been present in U.S. deer and elk for decades, mostly in western states.
Five captive elk from Colorado ranches have tested positive for CWD since September, Truong said. The state has identified about 150 elk, known as "traceouts," that came in contact with the five. Those animals are under quarantine, along with roughly 1,300 elk on seven Colorado ranches that came in contact with the "traceout" animals. All will be destroyed, Truong said.
Last week the state adopted emergency measures to halt the spread of CWD through its elk farms, including a 30-day moratorium on the movement of all domestic elk in Colorado.
The Colorado Department of Agriculture has begun the process of appraising the doomed elk so that the owners can be paid for them, Truong said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on September 27 that it had authorized $2.6 million for a CWD surveillance and indemnity program, but Truong said the USDA had not yet determined how the funds will be allocated among states affected by the disease.