- Hello, Jeff - It is obvious that 'Chronic Wasting Disease'
is simply Mad Cow Disease of Deer, Elk and Moose. As for eradicating the
disease by killing off all animals within a "kill zone"...it
doesn't work. It does show desperation and futile attempts to contain the
disease.
-
- Patricia
-
- Date: 29 Apr 2003 From: A-Lan Banks <A-Lan.Banks@derwent.co.uk>
Source: Newsday [edited] http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny--
- wastingdisease0418apr18,0,7755322.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire
-
- Another 49 deer with chronic wasting disease have been
found in Wisconsin, all within the area where the brain disease was discovered
a year ago, reported the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
-
- The new cases bring the total number of diseased deer
found in the Mount Horeb area to 190, about 2 percent of the deer that
were examined, the agency said. All but 2 of the diseased deer were killed
in Dane and Iowa counties.
-
- The disease that threatens the state's $1 billion hunting
industry had never been found east of the Mississippi River until it was
detected 13 months ago near Mount Horeb in southwestern Wisconsin.
-
- Scientists have tested the brains of 39 012 of the 40
111 hunter-killed deer statewide and donated for analysis for chronic wasting
disease, in an unprecedented attempt to determine how far the disease had
spread into a whitetail herd estimated at 1.6 million deer, according to
the DNR.
-
- The ailment creates sponge-like holes in a deer's brain,
causing the animal to become thin, act abnormally, and die. Scientists
believe it is spread by animal-to-animal contact. There is no scientific
evidence it can infect humans, but people are advised not to eat an infected
deer.
-
- Of the diseased deer found so far, 99 were in Iowa County,
89 were in Dane County, one in Richland County, and one in Sauk County.
Only 6 deer with the disease have been found outside the 411-square-mile
eradication zone around Mount Horeb where the DNR wants all the deer killed
to try to wipe out the disease from the herd. Those 6 were found in the
so-called management zone nearby and suggest that the rate of the infection
in that area is 0.10 percent, the DNR said.
-
- Wildlife officials will make no decision on whether to
expand the eradication zone to include land near those deer until the state
Natural Resources Board acts on some proposed permanent regulations concerning
the disease, DNR spokesman Bob Manwell said.
-
- The Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Madison
had reported it had analyzed all deer samples for the disease. Manwell
said getting the final test results may take another week or 2. The results
so far are positive because the disease seems clustered in a fairly small
area, Manwell said.
-
- "We have not found those outliers way out that everybody
was kind of fearful of," he said. "Some of our fears are beginning
to lessen a little bit." The DNR still does not know how the disease
got into the herd, Manwell said.
-
- "We are not anywhere near saying we got this thing
in hand or under control," he said. "Granted, it is a relatively
low prevalence in the overall population. We are going to be watching it
carefully over the years to come."
-
- [Byline: Robert Imrie]
-
- -- ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
-
- [Although the Wisconsin DNR is to be commended for its
desire to eradicate the disease, it seems inappropriate to attempt to eradicate
all the animals within a certain designated area. The animals are known
to travel some distances and to jump fences and would not recognize a man-made
designated area. A survey might seem appropriate, but the eradication attempt
does not seem well thought-out, especially in view of the low percentage
of positives. - Mod.TG]
-
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD Please visit my "Emerging
Diseases" message board at: http://www.clickitnews.com/emergingdiseases/index.shtml
Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa Go with God and in Good Health
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