New CWD study raises concerns

A new study shows chronic wasting disease can spread through environmental contamination and not just animal-to-animal contact, a finding that could change the way experts fight the ailment that afflicts deer and elk.

The study, published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, also suggests that chronic wasting outbreaks could last longer than previous models projected.

The study confirms a long-held theory that deer and elk can contract the fatal disease through land contaminated by the carcasses or excrement of infected animals.

“The experimental findings show that we need to consider several potential exposure routes when attempting to control this disease,” said University of Wyoming professor Elizabeth Williams, report co-author.

Chronic wasting creates sponge-like holes in the brains of deer or elk, causing the animal to grow thin, act abnormally and die. It is a prion disease, similar to mad cow disease.

There never has been a known case of it being transferred to humans or livestock, but people are cautioned not to eat the brain, nervous tissue or lymph glands of the animals.

Meanwhile, chronic wasting disease recently was documented in a mule deer for the first time in the Colorado Springs area, the southernmost advance of the ailment in Colorado.

The disease first appeared at a Colorado wildlife research facility in 1967. CWD surfaced in the wild in Wyoming in 1981. Since then, it’s been found in Illinois, Montana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and Wisconsin.

Testing of wild deer or elk killed by hunters has yet to detect the disease in Idaho or Washington, according to state wildlife agencies.

In Washington, brain tissue samples from 2,511 animals have been collected over the three-year period, with 672 of those taken during 2003 fall hunts. All tested samples were negative for chronic wasting disease, Department of Fish and Wildlife officials report.

About 280 of the samples could not be tested because the wrong portions of the animals’ brain stems were collected in the field.

The state began testing for CWD in 1995 and initiated more intensive tests of hunter-killed animals in 2001 when the disease began appearing in deer and elk in other states outside its previously known range.

Some states are diverting funds and juggling personnel to monitor chronic wasting disease and need more money from the federal government, experts told Congress during winter.

The Bush administration devoted $18.5 million to combat the malady in fiscal year 2004 — about the same amount as states collectively spent.

But while $23.1 million has been requested for fiscal year 2005, some senators say the $4.2 million earmarked for wasting disease monitoring and research is insufficient.

Tom Thorne, wildlife disease consultant for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, told a Senate subcommittee that chronic wasting disease is drawing department personnel away from other priorities.

“Probably a multitude of programs are suffering,” he said. CWD monitoring is very manpower-intensive. They had to call on game wardens and hatchery personnel… to pitch in.”

Some states are also siphoning money away from other programs to combat the disease, Montana Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance project leader Gary Wolfe said.