| Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) was first recognized as a clinical disease in 1967 in Colorado. As of july 2012, CWD has been found in 20 states and 2 Canadian Provinces: Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Virginia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. CWD has NOT been detected in Kentucky. |
| 150.720 Administrative regulations relating to cervids -- Costs resulting from importation of diseased animal. (1) The Department of Agriculture in cooperation with the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources shall promulgate administrative regulations pertaining to health requirements, eradication of diseases, importation and unique individual identification, including visual identification tags, of privately owned and farm raised cervids maintained for the production of meat and other products. Nothing in this section shall limit the authority of the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources to regulate the unique individual identification, including visual identification, of captive cervids that are not privately owned and farm-raised cervids maintained for the production of meat and other products. The Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, in cooperation with the Department of Agriculture, shall promulgate administrative regulations pertaining to the holding of cervids. (2) If any person imports a diseased animal into the Commonwealth in violation of the statutes and administrative regulations, then that person shall be responsible to the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources for all costs incurred in the investigation, response, and eradication of that disease. Effective: June 25, 2009 History: Amended 2009 Ky. Acts ch. 62, sec. 2, effective June 25, 2009. -- Created 2002 Ky. Acts ch. 88, sec. 1, effective March 28, 2002. |
| 301 KAR 2:095. Importation of cervid carcasses and parts. RELATES TO: KRS 150.180, 150.280, 150.290 STATUTORY AUTHORITY: KRS 150.025(1), 150.720(2) NECESSITY, FUNCTION, AND CONFORMITY: KRS 150.025 authorizes the department to promulgate administrative regulations reasonably necessary to carry out the purposes of KRS Chapter 150. KRS 150.720(2) authorizes the department and the Department of Agriculture to hold a person responsible for all costs incurred in the investigation, response, and eradication of a disease if the person imports a diseased animal into the Commonwealth. This administrative regulation establishes procedures for the importation and possession of whole cervid carcasses or carcass parts from states that have known cases of chronic wasting disease. Section 1. Definitions. (1) "Cervid" means a member of the family Cervidae. (2) "Chronic wasting disease" or "CWD" means a fatal disease affecting the brain of cervids which belongs to a group of diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. (3) "Clean" means having no meat matter or tissue attached to the carcass part. (4) "Importation" means the transportation of a cervid carcass or carcass part into the Commonwealth. (5) "Infected state" means a state that has a known case of chronic wasting disease. (6) "Whole" means the entire carcass whether eviscerated or not, prior to the carcass being processed. Section 2. Importation and Possession. (1) A person shall not import or possess a whole cervid carcass or carcass part from an infected state without first converting the carcass or part, pursuant to subsection (2) and (3) of this section. (2) A person may import a cervid carcass or a carcass part from an infected state if the carcass or carcass part does not have any part of the spinal column or head attached; (3) A person may possess the following inedible parts of a cervid carcass lawfully taken from an infected state: (a) Antlers; (b) Antlers that are attached to a clean skull plate; (c) A clean skull; (d) Clean upper canine teeth; (e) A finished taxidermy product; or (f) The hide. (4) A licensed taxidermist may accept a cervid head with an intact skull originating from an infected state if the taxidermist: (a) Contacts the department within forty-eight (48) hours after receiving the cervid head; (b) Provides to the department the hunter’s name and address; and (c) Transfers the skull with the intact brain to the department once the skull plate has been removed. (29 Ky.R. 3001; eff. 8-13- 03; 37 Ky.R. 2682; eff. 8-4-2011.) |
| Interesting read on Wisc CWD issue -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CWD Advisory Board reject DNR's 10 year plan « on: February 13, 2009, 10:50:10 AM » -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The vast majority of the CWD Advisory Board commissioned by the state of WI to formulate recommendations for a management plan to deal with CWD in the deer herd has come out in opposition to the DNR's 10 year plan. more than 75% (12 of the 15 active members) who attended the required meetings drafted a letter to the Secretary of the DNR, rejecting their plan. This letter was also forwarded onto the Governor, Members of the legislature and the Natural resources Board. The CWD Advisory Board was made up of a varied cross section of members representing a variety stakeholders with an interest in formulating solutions to the CWD issue. Those members rejecting the plan represented: Out-state Landowners & Hunters, CWD area Landowners & Hunters, Deer Hunters New to Wisconsin, The Conservation Congress, Sporting Good Retailers, the WI Wildlife Federation; Farmed Cervid Producers, WI Hunters Rights Coalition and the WI Bowhunters Association. The group rejects the DNR's CWD plan for a variety of issues contained in a 14 page document delivered on Jan. 21st. The document is viewable below The Complete CWD Advisory Board Letter can be accessed below http://www.wisconsinoutdoor.com/cwdreport.htm |
| National News : Species Barrier May Protect Macaques from Chronic Wasting Disease Date: July 29, 2009 Source: National Institutes of Health (NIH) Contacts: Ken Pekoc 406-375-9690 Data from an ongoing multi-year study suggest that people who consume deer and elk with chronic wasting disease (CWD) may be protected from infection by an inability of the CWD infectious agent to spread to people. The results to date show that 14 cynomolgus macaques exposed orally or intracerebrally to CWD remain healthy and symptom free after more than six years of observation, though the direct relevance to people is not definitive and remains under study. Cynomolgus macaques often are used as research models of human disease because they are very close genetically to humans and are susceptible to several forms of human brain-damaging disease. Thus, it was decided to see whether exposure to CWD could induce disease in the macaques. The study appears online in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. CWD is a type of brain-damaging disease known as a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) or prion disease. CWD primarily affects deer, elk, and moose. Other TSE diseases include mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle, scrapie in sheep, and sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. Humans are not susceptible to sheep scrapie, but BSE appears to have infected about 200 people, primarily in Europe in the 1990s. Those findings provided the rationale for the present CWD-macaque study, which began in 2003. "We plan to continue this study for at least several more years because, although the risk to macaques so far appears to be low, we know that these diseases can take more than 10 years to develop," says Bruce Chesebro, M.D., chief of the Laboratory of Persistent Viral Diseases at Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) in Hamilton, Mont. RML is part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The RML group is leading the study with collaborators from the Colorado Division of Wildlife; State University of New York Downstate Medical Center; New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities; American Red Cross; and the University of Wyoming. The findings by the RML group support published field studies done by others in regions of Colorado and Wyoming where CWD is endemic. Between 1979 and 2001, there were no significant increases in human TSE diseases despite the likelihood that hunters in those areas were exposed to CWD through contact with infected animal tissue and contaminated hunting tools such as knives and saws. Extensive laboratory data also supports a human species barrier against CWD. Notably, the RML study also included identical testing in squirrel monkeys, which are genetically less similar to humans than macaques. Of 15 squirrel monkeys exposed orally to CWD, two displayed disease symptoms 69 months after infection. Of 13 squirrel monkeys exposed intracerebrally to CWD, 11 displayed symptoms between 33 and 53 months after infection. In symptomatic animals, the presence of the CWD agent was confirmed in brain, spleen and lymph nodes. The results in squirrel monkeys were not surprising because a study elsewhere in two squirrel monkeys yielded similar results. The study by the RML group was different, however, in that it tested oral exposure to CWD and also studied eight CWD samples from different areas of the country. The results in squirrel monkeys confirmed that disease progression in that species appears consistent with disease progression in deer and elk, where severe weight loss is nearly always present. "The fact that the squirrel monkeys, like the deer and elk, suffered severe weight loss suggests that chronic wasting disease might affect a common region of the brain in different species," notes Dr. Chesebro. NIAID conducts and supports research — at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide—to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit the NIH website. |
| Wyoming : Ongoing CWD Study Gives Researchers a Glimpse Into How the Disease Affects Elk Populations Date: October 15, 2008 Source: Wyoming Game and Fish Department Contacts: Wyoming Game and Fish Department CHEYENNE-- A long-term study looking at the effects of Chronic Wasting Disease on elk populations suggests the always-fatal disease may not cause precipitous declines in those populations. Researchers at the Wyoming Game and Fish Department's Tom Thorne/Beth Williams Wildlife Research Center at Sybille have been looking at the long-term effects of CWD on an elk population since 2002. "Though the study is not yet complete, there has been significant public interest in the study and what it might tell us about how CWD could affect overall populations of elk, especially elk that are artificially concentrated on Wyoming's winter feedgrounds," said Eric Keszler, WGFD's Public Information Officer. "We know that CWD is always fatal to individual animals, but we also know that animals may be infected for five years or more before they succumb to the disease, so they have a chance to reproduce multiple times. There has never been any research to look at how these factors might affect overall elk population trends in the presence of this disease. Our researchers did some preliminary estimates on the data we have so far to help give the public at least some initial ideas about what this study is telling us." In 2002, 40 elk calves were captured at the National Elk Refuge and brought to Sybille for additional brucellosis research. Because of new federal regulations restricting research on brucellosis at that time, researchers decided to instead use the elk for a long-term CWD research project. CWD has existed at Sybille for almost 30 years and most, if not all, elk and deer housed at Sybille eventually contract CWD, either from the environment or from other infected animals. CWD affects elk in the wild differently, and experts do not yet understand why some wild elk contract CWD and some don't-- or why some elk contract CWD before others. Researchers designed this study to allow the elk to live at Sybille until they became infected with CWD and died; document each animal's age, cause of death, and other data; and then develop models to help predict how elk populations might rise or fall as a result. "We assume that the CWD mortality rates observed at Sybille would represent the most extreme exposure to the CWD infectious prion, because the elk would be exposed to the prion continuously throughout their lives," said Terry Kreeger, Veterinary Services Supervisor for the WGFD. "Thus, this research would be used to design a model to predict the effects of CWD on a wild elk population representing a worst-case scenario. Thirty-one of the 40 original elk in the study have died so far, all from CWD. But most of the elk had one or more calves (not all of the elk were allowed to be bred every year). Researchers have used this data to estimate any future changes for this population of elk. "Accounting for calf production and recruitment and using simple life-table analysis, we estimate there would have been a 47-percent increase in this population," said Kreeger. "That is, there would be 59 elk surviving today from the original population of 40." Kreeger warns that these data are preliminary and that it would be speculative at this point to try and extrapolate these data to any wild elk populations. Once all of the elk in the original study population have died, WGFD researchers will use data from wild elk populations to account for additional factors such as predation mortality, hunting mortality, production, and recruitment to model what effects CWD would have on a free-ranging population using state or federal feedgrounds, where elk are concentrated during the winter. According to WGFD Assistant Wildlife Chief Scott Talbott: "Based on these preliminary data and our life table analysis, in the presence of CWD it appears the elk in this study would maintain a stable or increasing population." |
| links for CWD info and infected States http://fw.ky.gov/cwdfaq.asp http://www.kyagr.com/statevet/cervids/program.htm |
| CWD Information |
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| CWD found in central Nebraska deer for first time The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission has confirmed that chronic wasting disease has been found in three central Nebraska counties for the first time, with 26 deer carcasses taken during the November firearm hunting season in Buffalo, Custer and Holt counties testing positive for the disease |