- Hello Jeff:
- Two more deer positive for the disease. New Mexico officials
do not know how CWD got to New Mexico as mentioned in the article below.
Excerpt:
-
- New Mexico officials are not sure how the disease arrived
at White Sands. "You'd think this (question of transmission) would
be the easiest question to answer, but the fact is, we don't know,"
Mower said Saturday. "It's just very baffling."
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- Patricia Doyle
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- The Santa Fe New Mexican - New Mexico (edited)
-
- Chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been diagnosed in 2
deer killed during a hunt in the Organ Mountains east of Las Cruces, state
officials say.
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- New Mexico now has recorded 6 cases of the disease, all
in deer. The malady is always fatal to deer or elk.
-
- The other cases occurred on White Sands Missile Range,
adjacent to the mountains in southern New Mexico, where the first case
was detected in June 2002 in a mule deer. The latest 2 cases were confirmed
among 7 deer killed during the January hunt. The infected animals were
shot on the western slope of the Organ Mountains, where the deer population
has plummeted in recent years, said Kerry Mower, a wildlife disease specialist
with the state Department of Game and Fish.
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- The cause of the population plunge is not known, he said.
State officials will try to establish, through random testing of deer during
the next 12 months, the prevalence in the small herds on the missile range
and in the Organ Mountains, Mower said.
-
- State officials will then have to determine if and when
to pursue a herd eradication effort, he said. "We haven't discussed
it enough for me to give you an answer," Mower said. "But that
question is uppermost."
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- CWD creates sponge-like holes in a deer's brain, causing
the animal to grow thin, act abnormal, and die. The disease is similar
to mad cow disease (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, BSE). There never
has been a known case of CWD being transferred to humans or livestock.
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- Once found only in small areas of Colorado and Wyoming,
the disease has spread to elk ranches and wild deer herds as far away as
Wisconsin.
-
- New Mexico officials are not sure how the disease arrived
at White Sands. "You'd think this (question of transmission) would
be the easiest question to answer, but the fact is, we don't know,"
Mower said Saturday. "It's just very baffling."
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- http://santafenewmexican.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=214
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- 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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