Chronic Wasting Disease Found in one New York Deer

[Animal 0]

USA: April 1, 2005


WASHINGTON - The first case of chronic wasting disease outside the US Midwest or Rocky Mountain region was confirmed in a white-tailed deer in New York State, the state's agriculture department said on Thursday.


Chronic wasting disease, which is not believed to harm humans, is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, part of a family of central nervous system diseases that include scrapie and mad cow disease.
"This is not a public health threat, but it is a slow-moving animal health threat," said Bruce Akey, New York's assistant state veterinarian.

The New York Agriculture Department said the animal that tested positive for CWD was a 6-year-old white-tailed doe that was slaughtered from a captive herd in Oneida County.

The disease, which is not believed to harm other domestic livestock, has been found in a dozen US states in the Midwest and Rocky Mountains.

"So far, there is no known connection with any previously identified CWD positive herds or areas in the United States," Akey told reporters.

New York officials said they quarantined the herd where the infected deer was found, and would kill the remaining animals to test their brains for the disease. The state also quarantined other herds associated with the infected animal.

Symptoms of the disease, which has a long incubation period, include weight loss, stumbling, tremors, lack of coordination and listlessness, according to the US Agriculture Department.

Scientists do not yet know how the disease is transmitted among animals.

The disease has been found in Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

The US Centers for Disease Control advises consumers to avoid eating venison from any deer that might be infected with the disease as a safety precaution.

However, New York State Health Commissioner Antonia Novello said there were no cases of humans falling ill from eating suspect deer meat.

"We feel very comfortable saying there would be no public health risk to consuming venison," she said.



Story by Randy Fabi


REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

[Animal 0]

Deer wasting disease surfaces in state test

1st discovery of neurological ailment in East draws call for calm

By MATT PACENZA, Staff writer
First published: Friday, April 1, 2005

ALBANY -- A white-tailed deer on an Oneida County farm tested positive for chronic wasting disease, the first such case in the East for an illness that has threatened deer and elk in the Midwest and West.
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The fact that chronic wasting disease was found in New York could damage the state's venison farming and deer-hunting industries, but state officials said Thursday there was no cause for panic.

The disease was discovered last week in a 6-year-old, white-tailed doe during a state program that randomly tests both wild and farm-raised deer. It was confirmed Wednesday at a federal testing facility in Ames, Iowa.

The animal showed no signs of the illness before it was slaughtered in early March, said Bruce Ache, a state Department of Agriculture and Markets veterinarian.

Chronic wasting disease, a neurological ailment, is part of the same family of illnesses as mad cow disease. There is no evidence, however that people can become ill by eating meat from an animal infected with chronic wasting disease.

"We want to alert people that venison in the state of New York has no potential for harm," said state Health Commissioner Antonia Novello.

State wildlife pathologist Ward Stone said the Oneida County case is cause for a stepped-up testing and eradication effort, but deer are in little danger.

"Even in the places where it's been established, it has not decimated populations by a long shot," Stone said.

Officials would not identify the farm where the deer lived, saying only that the owner had 18 deer, which he sometimes sold as breeding stock. They will be killed and tested. In addition, officials will look closely at six other deer farms that bought deer from the Oneida County farmer. Animals at those farms may also be slaughtered. Farmers are compensated when their deer are killed.

State officials do not yet know whether the deer that tested positive for the disease was imported from another state or born locally.

"We're dealing with the owner and his recollection of the origin," Ache said.

Raising deer for meat, breeding stock or game animals is a growing industry in New York, with at least 200 farms statewide.

"I can make money doing this on a small farm," said Byron Ellis, who has about 100 head at the Alta Crest Red Deer Farm in Oswego County. "You don't have the overhead and the feed bills."

Deer farms can be quite large. Brian and Martha Goodsell raise 2,000 deer for meat at their 400-acre Fallow Hollow Deer Farm in Tioga County. Because the species they raise, European fallow deer, is not believed to be susceptible to wasting disease, Goodsell is not too concerned about the health of their herd. "But people may overreact," he said.

Other New York deer farmers are also worried the Oneida County case will hurt their business.

"That's not good," said Diane Conely, owner of Lomita Deer Farm in Saratoga Springs, upon hearing the news. Conely, who has about a dozen deer that she raises for sale to hunting preserves, also raises fallow deer.

A leading deer farmer in Wisconsin -- which has wrestled with the wasting disease issue in deer both on farms and in the wild since it was discovered in that state in 2002 -- said the biggest problem isn't the disease, but how the government reacts to it.

"The politics and the regulations have had a greater impact than the disease itself," said Gary Nelson, president of the North American Deer Farmers Association.

Wild deer populations are continuing to grow in Wisconsin, Nelson said, but farmers have found it hard to make money because of sharp restrictions on how they can buy and sell breeding stock.

A concern is that chronic wasting disease will spread to wild deer herds. New York requires deer farmers to use game fencing that is about 7 feet high to keep farmed deer from coming into contact with wild herds. Several farmers said those fences work, but a 2003 survey from Wisconsin environmental officials found that at least 436 deer had escaped from the state's farms, according to a report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"White-tailed deer can jump over those fences," Conely said. Her deer have escaped only once. "The state of New York vet left the gate open, and our breeder buck ran down the driveway," she said.

Chronic wasting disease has been detected in wild and farm-raised deer and elk populations in 11 states besides Wisconsin: Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. It also has been found in Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada.

Scientists don't know how the disease is transmitted among animals.

New York has been randomly testing both farm-raised and wild deer for three years, examining tissue from the brain stems of dead deer. At least 3,500 wild deer have been tested, including 40 in Oneida County. Not one was found to have chronic wasting disease before this month's case.

The state has also restricted where deer can be imported from in order to keep local herds healthy.

Those efforts will be stepped up, said Denise M. Sheehan, acting commissioner of environmental conservation. "Staff are already on the ground taking the necessary steps to ensure that (chronic wasting disease) doesn't spread to the wild herd," Sheehan said.

But even if it has, or does, the public shouldn't panic, officials said.

"People who eat deer meat should take heart from the fact that it's been in the western United States for four decades, but there hasn't been a single case of anyone getting sick," Stone said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.