FWP sets meetings on the Hi-Line about chronic wasting disease

Staff and wire report

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has set meetings in Chester and Havre next Thursday to talk about chronic wasting disease, as the state also is asking Wyoming to change its policy of feeding elk due to concerns it could increase the disease’s spread.

A mule deer buck shot about 30 miles north of Chester Nov. 12 tested positive for the fatal, contagious wasting disease.

That followed deer harvested south of Billings previously testing positive for the disease. FWP reports the Chester-area deer is the seventh case discovered this year.

Chronic wasting disease was discovered in an elk in a game farm near Philipsburg in 1999, but this year marks the first time the disease has been found in wild game in Montana.

The disease is known to exist in wild animals in Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada and in Wyoming and North and South Dakota.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the disease affects deer, elk, reindeer, sika deer and moose.

It may take over a year before an infected animal develops symptoms, which can include drastic weight loss, stumbling, listlessness and other neurologic symptoms. CWD can affect animals of all ages and some infected animals may die without ever developing the disease. CWD is fatal to animals and there are no treatments or vaccines.

While no cases of the disease infecting people have been reported, it is recommended to never ingest meat from animals that appear to be sick or are known to be CWD positive. The CDC recommends hunters who have harvested a deer, elk, or moose from a known CWD-infected area have the animal tested prior to consuming it. If hunters harvest an animal that appears to be sick, the best thing to do is contact FWP and have the animal inspected, a FWP release about the meeting says.

Thursday’s meetings are set for 7 p.m., Dec. 21, in Chester and Havre. The Chester meeting will be in the town’s high school auditorium, 511 Main St. The Havre meeting will be at the Hill County Electric Co-operative Building at 2121 U.S. Highway 2 NW.

At both meetings, FWP officials will present a background on the disease, what is known about the disease along the state’s northern border and what the department’s CWD draft management plan identifies for actions and management in the future.

The Associated Press reports that Montana wildlife officials are asking their Wyoming counterparts to stop feeding elk following the discover of the disease in Montanan.

The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission sent a letter last week to the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission, saying its elk feeding practices could accelerate the spread of the fatal, contagious disease.

In the Montana letter, officials said they respect how Wyoming handles its affairs, but management of chronic wasting disease in Montana is affected by what happens in the neighboring state.

“As a commission, we believe that we cannot successfully address CWD without Wyoming’s help. As your neighbor, we ask you to begin the process of closing these feedgrounds,” the Montana commissioners wrote.

Wyoming maintains 22 feedgrounds, which Montana officials said could be an incubator of the disease because elk become concentrated at these sites.

The letter is not a demand, but a request for the state to consider phasing out the feedgrounds, said Dan Vermillion, the chairman of the Montana commission.

“It’s a big sacrifice for the people of Montana to make,” Vermillion said. “If those feedgrounds are still out there, that will counteract any progress we make potentially down the road.”

Wyoming Game and Fish commissioner Mike Schmid said he had not seen the letter as of Wednesday.

“Wyoming’s been feeding elk for many years, and in a lot of ways it’s been beneficial to the state,” Schmid said. “I think there’s got to be a lot more discussion before I could say one way or the other if there’s a potential for reducing feeding of the elk.”

To minimize risks of coming in contact with the disease, FWP recommends people take some simple precautions when field dressing wild game, including

• Wearing rubber gloves and eye protection when field dressing;

• Minimize the handling of brain and spinal tissues.

• Wash hands and instruments thoroughly after field dressing is completed.

• Avoid consuming brain, spinal cord, eyes, spleen, tonsils and lymph nodes of harvested animals. (Normal field dressing coupled with boning out of a carcass will essentially remove these parts.)

For more information on CWD and FWP’s response, people can look online at http://www.fwp.mt.gov/CWD. People can send emails to [email protected].