During a ten year period in Wisconsin CWD (closely related to Mad Cow Disease) the incidence of CWD in deer increased from 1/2% to 5%. And that was after the state spent millions killing deer in an attempt to reduce the disease. These types of diseases, prion diseases, are not well understood. There is some evidence that the disease may survive for many years in the soil after contamination, and that fires are not known to eliminate it. This epidemic is rapidly spreading and is the result of wildlife management based upon maximizing species for sport hunting and the elimination of predators.
http://wyomingwildlifeadvocates.org/tyu
Wyoming Wildlife Advocates
A new analysis and map created by Wyoming Wildlife Advocates indicates that the always-fatal Chronic Wasting Disease that infects deer, elk and moose has spread perilously close to Yellowstone National Park.
The map, based on data from Wyoming Game and Fish Department and several scientific sources, clearly shows the expansion of the disease during the last 14 years. During that period CWD has advanced across the state at an average of 1.8 million acres per year.
The map indicates the presence of CWD in WGFD designated hunt areas. Once an infected animal is detected in any of the state’s hunt areas, that area becomes part of the endemic zone, which now overlaps portions of 21 of Wyoming’s 23 counties.
The map also shows the proximity of the endemic zone to Yellowstone National Park and the state-operated elk feedgrounds. In 2014, an infected deer was found in a hunt area only 32 miles from the southeast corner of Yellowstone. Infected animals recently have been found in hunt areas as close as 35 miles from a state elk feedground southeast of Pinedale.
CWD is a fatal, neurodegenerative disease affecting mule deer, white-tailed deer, moose and elk. The disease is infectious between and among deer, elk and moose. It is similar to Mad Cow Disease and has no known cure. It is capable of significantly reducing deer and elk herds.
Biologists fear that once the disease reaches any of the state’s 22 elk feedgrounds or the National Elk Refuge, it could spread rapidly with potentially devastating results.
"If CWD became established in Western Wyoming. . . . the potential effect would be greater . . . where large numbers of animals are concentrated on feedgrounds,” the Bridger-Teton National Forest recently stated. Even while allowing winter elk feeding on Forest Service lands they admit that, “the loss would be irretrievable because, in addition to always being fatal to infected animals, chronic wasting disease contaminates the environment for long periods of time."
Conservationists have long urged the agencies to phase out artificial winter feeding, including on the National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole. However, the refuge is concentrating and feeding 8,390 elk this winter (2014-2015) in defiance of the advancing lethal threat of CWD.
The 2007 NER and Grand Teton National Park 15-year plan to manage bison and elk on the refuge calls for reducing the number of elk fed to 5,000 and bison to 500. Now eight years into the plan, the agencies have actually increased the number of animals fed, according to NER and WGFD numbers.
Experts counsel that spreading out the deer and elk herds naturally, and allowing predators to attend the game herds and cull the sick animals, is the best path forward to manage for healthy free ranging wildlife.
"Predation by large carnivores can effectively, naturally, and cheaply control the spread of disease among prey species,” according to David Mattson, a former research scientist with the US Geological Survey.
“Mountain lions are known to selectively kill mule deer and elk infected with CWD. Grizzly bears and wolves likely do the same,” Mattson said.
WWA urges quick action to address the looming CWD issue.
“If we want to minimize the effect of CWD on the Greater Yellowstone herds, the time to act is now,” WWA Executive Director Kent Nelson said. “Failure to do so risks very real damage not only to wildlife but also to the tourism- and wildlife-dependent economies of the area”
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