- ALBUQUERQUE - A New Mexico
game park imported captive elk from an out-of-state elk ranch where a potentially
devastating wildlife disease was recently found, according to the state
Game and Fish Department.
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- An elk at southern Colorado's Top Rail Ranch has tested
positive for chronic wasting disease, which attacks an animal's brain and
causes it to become emaciated and stagger.
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- Officials with the New Mexico Game and Fish Department
confirmed Friday that 21 elk were imported from the Top Rail Ranch to the
Red Canyon Ranch near Clines Corners in 2001. The agency is investigating
whether any of those animals have since been transferred to other facilities
in the state and is trying to determine the scope of possible exposures.
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- Fences around the state's game parks are also being inspected
to ensure that potentially infected animals are contained.
- "We are taking reasonable and sensible precautions
to protect the health of the state's wildlife and also to protect the commercial
game park operations," agency director Bruce Thompson said Friday
in a statement.
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- The disease has been found in both wild and captive deer
and elk in eight states and two Canadian provinces.
- Game and Fish said no deer or elk in New Mexico have
been diagnosed with the disease since 2003, when the last of seven wild
deer in the Organ Mountains of southern New Mexico tested positive for
chronic wasting disease.
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- New Mexico currently bans the importation of all hoofed
game animals from infected areas. The elk identified by the current investigation
were brought in before the ban took effect, officials said.
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- As the investigation continues, the department may consider
halting all intrastate transfers of live deer, elk and other hoofed game
animals and restricting the removal of animal carcasses or parts from game
parks.
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- Other options to protect the state's deer and elk include
mandatory testing inside game parks, sample testing outside the parks and
additional game-park fencing requirements.
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- Copyright © 2004 Silver City Sun-News, a Gannett
Co., Inc. newspaper.
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