>Status: U
>Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2001 13:48:07 -0500
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>From: bdnow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: OFF: elk and deer disease from Beborah Bryon
>
>
> Kansas elk found with brain-damaging
>disease USA: December 13, 2001 TOPEKA,
>Kan. - Kansas officials have determined that
> a captive Kansas elk has tested positive for a disease
> similar to mad cow, spurring concerns that the illness
> could spread among the state's wildlife.
>The disclosure comes a week after Nebraska officials said
> that four whitetail deer had tested positive for chronic
>
> wasting disease. The fatal ailment damages portions of
>the
> brain and is similar to bovine spongiform encephalopathy
>
> (BSE) or mad cow disease, which has been found in cattle
>
> in Europe. More than 100 people in
>Europe have died from a human
> variant of mad cow disease. "This is not
>a time for panic, but it is a time for
> precautions," Lloyd Fox, a biologist with the Kansas
> Department of Wildlife and Parks, told Reuters in an
> interview. "There is so much unknown about this series
>of
> disease." Officials said the captive
>herd exposed to the infected elk
> has been quarantined and will likely be killed. The
>single elk
> that has so far tested positive was shipped into Kansas
> from a Colorado herd. Chronic wasting is
>a spongiform disease affecting mule
> deer, white-tailed deer and elk. It has been identified
>in wild
> deer and elk in northeastern Colorado, southeastern
> Wyoming and southwestern Nebraska.
>Though uncommon, the disease appears to be increasing in
> the United States, according to health and wildlife
>officials,
> who say they know little about how it is transmitted or
>how
> long an infected area remains contaminated even after
>the
> sick animal is removed. In October, the
>Colorado Department of Agriculture said it
> would destroy about 1,450 ranch-raised elk that may have
>
> been exposed to chronic wasting disease.
>The disease is in the same family of fatal brain-wasting
> ailments as mad cow disease. Unlike mad cow, however,
> CWD has not been linked to human illness. CWD has been
> present in U.S. deer and elk for decades, mostly in
> Western states. The U.S. Department of
>Agriculture said on Sept. 27 it had
> authorized $2.6 million for a CWD surveillance and
> indemnity program. REUTERS NEWS
>SERVICE
