- Hello Jeff - These deer are from samples turned in by
legitimate hunters. What about the poached deer? What about deer
illegally harvested and eaten?
- Also, I wonder how many hunters wait to have results
before butchering, and eating their deer harvest? I'll bet zero.
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- Patty
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- 3 Decatur County Deer Confirmed Positive For CWD
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- CWD contingency plan includes further sampling
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- PRATT--Three white-tailed deer taken by hunters in Decatur
County have tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD), according
to the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks.
- Dr. Ruby Mosher, KDWP's wildlife disease coordinator,
said the initial screening tests performed by Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic
Laboratory have been confirmed by the National Veterinary Services Laboratory
in Ames, Iowa. All three deer were taken by hunters along Sappa Creek in
central Decatur County, north of Oberlin, which is in the northwest corner
of the state.
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- Testing is still to be completed on approximately two-thirds
of the samples collected by KDWP for testing. The samples from northwestern
Kansas are given priority since they are from deer that have a higher known
risk of being exposed to CWD than those in the rest of the state. As results
are returned over the next 6 to 8 weeks, regular updates will be posted
on the KDWP website
- http://kdwp.state.ks.us/news//hunting/big_game/chronic_wasting_disease
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- CWD has been detected twice previously in Kansas. The
first case was in 2001 in a captive elk herd in Harper County. The other
occurred during the 2005 hunting season in a wild whitetail doe harvested
in Cheyenne County.
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- Last month, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission reported
a CWD-positive deer from an area just a few miles north of Decatur County,
in Red Willow County, Nebraska.
- Wildlife biologists from Kansas and Nebraska plan to
sample more deer in the vicinity in February to help determine the prevalence
of the disease in the area.
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- Tissue samples from more than 2,200 deer taken by hunters
during the most recent Kansas hunting season have been submitted for lab
analysis. The three affected deer from Decatur County were among those
samples, and the hunters who shot those deer have been notified.
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- KDWP biologists have conducted annual sampling of hunter-harvested
and road-killed deer since 1996.
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- Although research is underway, there is currently no
vaccine or other biological method of preventing CWD. The only tool is
to prevent the spread of CWD to new areas, because once the infective particle
(an abnormal prion) is deposited into the environment -- either through
an infected carcass or from a live animal -- it may exist for a decade
or more, capable of infecting a healthy deer.
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- Despite the recent occurrences, the likelihood of finding
CWD in a wild deer harvested in Kansas is small. That small likelihood
decreases even more the farther from northwestern Kansas the deer lived.
In recent years, numerous cases of CWD have been documented in neighboring
areas of Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming.
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- While CWD is fatal to infected deer and elk, humans have
never been known to contract the disease. CWD is a member of the group
of diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). Other
diseases in this group include scrapie in sheep and goats, bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE or mad cow disease) in cattle, and Cruetzfeldt-Jacob
disease in people.
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- CWD is a progressive, fatal disease that results in small
holes developing in the brain, giving it a sponge-like appearance under
the microscope. Decreased brain function causes the animal to display neurological
symptoms such as depression, droopy head, staggering, loss of appetite,
and a lack of response to man. The continuing deterioration of the brain
leads to other symptoms such as weight loss, drooling, and excessive thirst.
Caution is advised because of unknown factors associated with prion diseases,
but no human health risks have been discovered where CWD occurs.
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- The symptoms of CWD include loss of body weight, stumbling,
holding the head at an odd angle, circling, non-responsiveness to people,
and pneumonia. Any sick deer or elk should be reported it to the nearest
KDWP office or the Emporia Research Office, 620-342-0658.
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- Hunters can help protect the health of the Kansas deer
herd by taking the following steps to avoid accidentally introducing CWD
to a new area in Kansas:
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- · do not transport deer carcasses far from the
area where the deer lived, especially from areas where CWD has been detected,
such as northwestern Kansas; and
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- · if a carcass is transported, the hunter should
make sure that carcass waste is not dumped into the environment where local
deer or elk can come into contact with it. Carcass waste can be disposed
of by double-bagging it and taking it to a landfill.
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- The Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance maintains an online
clearinghouse of information about the disease ( <http://kdwp.state.ks.us/news/www.cwd-info.org>www.cwd-info.org).
More information is also available on the KDWP website (enter "CWD"
in the search box at the KDWP website: <http://www.kdwp.state.ks.us>www.kdwp.state.ks.us).
Contact Bob Mathews at KDWP's Pratt office (620/672-5911) for more information.
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- B
- Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD
- Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics
- Univ of West Indies
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- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at:
- http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php
- Also my new website:
- http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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