Wind Cave elk capture project to limit spread of disease
Project to evaluate success or failure of population management and disease mitigation in elk population
December 7, 2018 John Conway
WIND CAVE NATIONAL PARK, S.D. – In temperatures of about 12 degrees above zero, a crew of three researchers took off in a helicopter from Wind Cave National Park’s Wildlife Capture Facility Friday.
The team was on a two-day mission as part of a larger research project to locate and capture about 28 cow elk in the park and fit them with tracking collars.
“In 2016 we took a management action which was to reduce the number of elk within the park,” said Greg Schroeder, chief of resource management at Wind Cave National Park. “We’re hoping that that reduction in the number of elk will help reduce the prevalence rate and allow more elk to survive. So, this research captures that information to let us know if our management action was successful.”
Schroeder was talking about the prevalence of chronic wasting disease (CWD), a neurological disease related to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease.
Three years ago, park officials reduced the elk population after CWD became common in the population.
The tracking collars will track elk movement and send email messages with location information to researchers. After locating elk using the system, they can find the animal and perform tests for CWD. This information will help park managers determine how effective the program was at stemming the spread of the disease, which can be devastating to an elk herd.
“Once elk have this disease and once they acquire it either through contact with other infected elk or picking it up from the environment, these elk will die, it’s only a matter of time,” said Schroeder.
CWD thrives in dense populations of elk.
Not long ago, Wind Cave National Park had an elk population estimated to be as high as 900. Glen Sargeant, research wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, explained how that population contributed to increased infection.
“If you’re dealing with a population at as high density as was the case at Wind Cave, and you don’t reduce it and you let nature take its course and let the population decline gradually, all that while the environment is becoming progressively more contaminated with more risk of infecting more animals down the road,” Sargeant said.
Deformed proteins in the nervous system called prions cause CWD.
Prions are difficult to destroy and can be passed along from eating infected meat, or from animal waste.
The population reduction program has reduced the elk population to about 240, near the goal of 230.
“The question is whether we can reduce the accumulation of prions in the environment,” Sargeant said. “To possibly bring about a reduction in infection and lead to a sustainable population of lower density rather than trying to sustain a high-density population where disease plays a larger role.”
While there have been no human cases of CWD, officials urge all hunters to have their game animals tested.
“Honestly all people should get their animals tested if they are in an area that’s known to have it so you know you have that extra information out there,” Schroeder said. “The state is also encouraging people to get their animals tested.”
Wind Cave National Park officials expect the research project to be completed by 2022 or 2023.
Categories: Local News, South Dakota News Tags: chronic wasting disease, elk, Glen Sargeant, Greg Schroeder, National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey, wildlife population management, Wind Cave National Park
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Planned elk drive from Wind Cave National Park raises question about spread of disease
snip...
just when you think it can’t get worse, dumb and dumber step up to the plate. this is about as dumb, if not dumber, than the blunder at Colorado Division of Wildlife Foothills Wildlife Research Facility in Fort Collins, where cwd was first documented. sometimes, you just can’t fix stupid. ...tss this should never happen!
i have followed the mad cow follies every day for...well, it will be 21 years December 14, 2018.
i lost my mother December 14, 1997, to the Heidenhain Variant of Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease hvCJD, confirmed, just another name for the same gd disease.
i was told back in 98, that mad cow disease would never take hold here, because the usda inc would not let that happen, that our mad cow disease would be in cervid. all one has to do is look here;
COLORADO THE ORIGIN OF CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD TSE PRION?
*** Spraker suggested an interesting explanation for the occurrence of CWD. The deer pens at the Foot Hills Campus were built some 30-40 years ago by a Dr. Bob Davis. At or abut that time, allegedly, some scrapie work was conducted at this site. When deer were introduced to the pens they occupied ground that had previously been occupied by sheep.
IN CONFIDENCE, REPORT OF AN UNCONVENTIONAL SLOW VIRUS DISEASE IN ANIMALS IN THE USA 1989
ALSO, one of the most, if not the most top TSE Prion God in Science today is Professor Adriano Aguzzi, and he recently commented on just this, on a cwd post on my facebook page August 20 at 1:44pm, quote;
''it pains me to no end to even comtemplate the possibility, but it seems entirely plausible that CWD originated from scientist-made spread of scrapie from sheep to deer in the colorado research facility. If true, a terrible burden for those involved.'' August 20 at 1:44pm ...end
i am going to post 3 links to my pages on chronic wasting disease, i make no money doing this. these pages are for educational use, they have the most updated cwd tse prion research that i can get, and are source referenced with links, please use them.
you cannot make sound policy making decisions with only junk science that corporate America and their lobbyist wish you to have.
we have usda ars scientist telling us to do one thing, while the industry fed junk science leads the way, with the game farms imo, pushing the lead with it, and have been for years. if we don't all get on the same page, make the regulations from the sound science mandatory, instead of voluntary, and every state be on the same page, we will lose this fight with cwd tse prion.
THE TSE PRION aka mad cow type disease is not your normal pathogen.
The TSE prion disease survives ashing to 600 degrees celsius, that’s around 1112 degrees farenheit.
you cannot cook the TSE prion disease out of meat.
you can take the ash and mix it with saline and inject that ash into a mouse, and the mouse will go down with TSE.
Prion Infected Meat-and-Bone Meal Is Still Infectious after Biodiesel Production as well.
the TSE prion agent also survives Simulated Wastewater Treatment Processes.
IN fact, you should also know that the TSE Prion agent will survive in the environment for years, if not decades.
you can bury it and it will not go away.
The TSE agent is capable of infected your water table i.e. Detection of protease-resistant cervid prion protein in water from a CWD-endemic area.
it’s not your ordinary pathogen you can just cook it out and be done with.
***> that’s what’s so worrisome about Iatrogenic mode of transmission, a simple autoclave will not kill this TSE prion agent.
this old study next always stuns me. think of this the next time you clean your tools you use to gut and bone out your kill, and then feeding it to your family and friends...tss
1: J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1994 Jun;57(6):757-8
***> Transmission of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease to a chimpanzee by electrodes contaminated during neurosurgery.
Gibbs CJ Jr, Asher DM, Kobrine A, Amyx HL, Sulima MP, Gajdusek DC.
Laboratory of Central Nervous System Studies, National Institute of
Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health,
Bethesda, MD 20892.
Stereotactic multicontact electrodes used to probe the cerebral cortex of a middle aged woman with progressive dementia were previously implicated in the accidental transmission of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) to two younger patients. The diagnoses of CJD have been confirmed for all three cases. More than two years after their last use in humans, after three cleanings and repeated sterilisation in ethanol and formaldehyde vapour, the electrodes were implanted in the cortex of a chimpanzee. Eighteen months later the animal became ill with CJD. This finding serves to re-emphasise the potential danger posed by reuse of instruments contaminated with the agents of spongiform encephalopathies, even after scrupulous attempts to clean them.
PMID: 8006664 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Infectious agent of sheep scrapie may persist in the environment for at least 16 years
Gudmundur Georgsson,1 Sigurdur Sigurdarson2 and Paul Brown3
Correspondence
Gudmundur Georgsson ggeorgs@hi.is
1 Institute for Experimental Pathology, University of Iceland, Keldur v/vesturlandsveg, IS-112 Reykjavı´k, Iceland
2 Laboratory of the Chief Veterinary Officer, Keldur, Iceland
3 Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Received 7 March 2006 Accepted 6 August 2006
In 1978, a rigorous programme was implemented to stop the spread of, and subsequently eradicate, sheep scrapie in Iceland. Affected flocks were culled, premises were disinfected and, after 2–3 years, restocked with lambs from scrapie-free areas. Between 1978 and 2004, scrapie recurred on 33 farms. Nine of these recurrences occurred 14–21 years after culling, apparently as the result of environmental contamination, but outside entry could not always be absolutely excluded. Of special interest was one farm with a small, completely self-contained flock where scrapie recurred 18 years after culling, 2 years after some lambs had been housed in an old sheephouse that had never been disinfected. Epidemiological investigation established with near certitude that the disease had not been introduced from the outside and it is concluded that the agent may have persisted in the old sheep-house for at least 16 years.
21 YEARS!
***>>>Nine of these recurrences occurred 14–21 years after culling, apparently as the result of environmental contamination, but outside entry could not always be absolutely excluded...
FEED, FEED, FEED, SCRAPIE AND CWD TRANSMIT TO PIGS BY ORAL ROUTE, SEE;
***> 2018 USDA ARS RESEARCH
***> CWD CWD CWD PIGS PIGS PIGS SCRAPIE SCRAPIE SCRAPIE
***> Scrapie, CWD, tse prion, transmit to pigs by oral route
***> The successful transmission of pig-passaged CWD to Tg40 mice reported here suggests that passage of the CWD agent through pigs results in a change of the transmission characteristics which reduces the transmission barrier of Tg40 mice to the CWD agent. If this biological behavior is recapitulated in the original host species, passage of the CWD agent through pigs could potentially lead to increased pathogenicity of the CWD agent in humans.
***> However, at 51 months of incubation or greater, 5 animals were positive by one or more diagnostic methods. Furthermore, positive bioassay results were obtained from all inoculated groups (oral and intracranial; market weight and end of study) suggesting that swine are potential hosts for the agent of scrapie. <***
>*** Although the current U.S. feed ban is based on keeping tissues from TSE infected cattle from contaminating animal feed, swine rations in the U.S. could contain animal derived components including materials from scrapie infected sheep and goats. These results indicating the susceptibility of pigs to sheep scrapie, coupled with the limitations of the current feed ban, indicates that a revision of the feed ban may be necessary to protect swine production and potentially human health. <***
***> Results: PrPSc was not detected by EIA and IHC in any RPLNs. All tonsils and MLNs were negative by IHC, though the MLN from one pig in the oral <6 5="" 6="" at="" by="" detected="" eia.="" examined="" group="" in="" intracranial="" least="" lymphoid="" month="" months="" of="" one="" pigs="" positive="" prpsc="" quic="" the="" tissues="" was="">6 months group, 5/6 pigs in the oral <6 4="" and="" group="" months="" oral="">6 months group. Overall, the MLN was positive in 14/19 (74%) of samples examined, the RPLN in 8/18 (44%), and the tonsil in 10/25 (40%).
***> Conclusions: This study demonstrates that PrPSc accumulates in lymphoid tissues from pigs challenged intracranially or orally with the CWD agent, and can be detected as early as 4 months after challenge. CWD-infected pigs rarely develop clinical disease and if they do, they do so after a long incubation period.
This raises the possibility that CWD-infected pigs could shed prions into their environment long before they develop clinical disease.
Furthermore, lymphoid tissues from CWD-infected pigs could present a potential source of CWD infectivity in the animal and human food chains.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 04, 2018
Cervid to human prion transmission 5R01NS088604-04 Update
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2018
***> cwd, bse, scrapie, cjd, tse prion updated November 10 2018 <***
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2018
***> Norway New additional requirements for imports of hay and straw for animal feed from countries outside the EEA due to CWD TSE Prion
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 02, 2018
CWD TSE PRION, REGULATORY LEGISLATION, PAY TO PLAY, and The SPREAD of Chronic Wasting Disease
prepare for the storm...
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2018
The European Union summary report on surveillance for the presence of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) in 2017
published November 2018 (see CWD TSE Prion)
MONDAY, DECEMBER 03, 2018
Prion Seeds Distribute throughout the Eyes of Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Patients
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2014
Shenandoah National Park, Chronic Wasting Disease Management Plan/Environmental Assessment
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
Chronic Wasting Disease Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement, Shenandoah National Park Virginia
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Planned elk drive from Wind Cave National Park raises question about spread of disease
snip...
just when you think it can’t get worse, dumb and dumber step up to the plate. this is about as dumb, if not dumber, than the blunder at Colorado Division of Wildlife Foothills Wildlife Research Facility in Fort Collins, where cwd was first documented. sometimes, you just can’t fix stupid. ...tss this should never happen!
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2018
Wyoming WGFD Chronic wasting disease cwd tse prion detected in Grand Teton National Park
Terry S. Singeltary Sr.
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