CWD Herd Monitoring Program to be Enforced Jan. 2012 TEXAS
Attention: Elk Producers
CWD Herd Monitoring Program to be Enforced Jan. 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUSTIN - Elk producers wishing to sell or move elk must enroll in the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) herd monitoring program or have elk tested as described below. During 2011, TAHC rules for elk movement have been held in abeyance to encourage producers to enroll in the program.
After January 1, 2012, however, elk will only be allowed to move after all surveillance requirements have been met. Surveillance requirements can be met one of two ways:
By enrolling in the CWD status program, testing all mortalities and achieving "status," or By having a valid "not detected" CWD test on file prior to movement. The number of valid CWD tests required are based on the number of elk being moved and whether they are captive or free ranging. The TAHC implemented new elk herd requirements on January 1, 2010, to ensure a stronger surveillance system for CWD in elk. "The program is intended to help protect the exotic and native wildlife and the cervid industry of Texas from the possible introduction of CWD, by developing an effective surveillance system", Dr. Dee Ellis, TAHC State Veterinarian, said." "Enrollment and ultimately achieving status will allow producers to move elk without requiring additional mortality testing," Dr. Ellis added. "I strongly encourage all elk producers to sign up today."
CWD is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy known to affect elk, moose, white-tailed deer, black-tailed deer and mule deer. It is a fatal, degenerative brain wasting disease. The typical clinical signs of CWD are emaciation, behavioral changes and excessive salivation.
CWD is not known to affect people, and has not been detected in Texas to date. Since it was first detected in Colorado in 1967 however, it has subsequently been diagnosed in 17 other states and continues to threaten the cervid industry in other parts of the US.
The TAHC enforces interstate movement requirements for elk and other cervids entering Texas. Out of state animals must originate from a herd which has participated for at least five years in a state-approved CWD herd certification program, and with no clinical signs of CWD in the herd. In today's environment, the mobility and transportation of agricultural animals throughout the state and country has greatly increased the potential exposure to diseases.
"Adequate and timely surveillance testing is critical to detect a newly introduced or emerging disease as quickly as possible, so that it can be eliminated before potential spread to other animals", explained Dr. Terry Hensley, Assistant State Veterinarian.
CWD has not been detected in captive or free-ranging deer or elk in Texas, but elk producers must continue to be mindful of the disease, and take necessary precautions to ensure the safety of exotic livestock.
"Maintaining surveillance for CWD in Texas is critical for effective animal disease response," Dr. Hensley added.
By keeping appropriate records and sufficient sampling of animals as required by the program, a herd can achieve a recognized "herd status" for CWD. Under the TAHC's elk enrollment program, elk would be test- eligible at 16 months of age or older, and tests conducted in a herd would be valid for one year.
In order to be eligible for moving elk, participation in the program is mandatory. Elk owners can enroll their herds in the CWD monitoring program today by contacting their local TAHC regional office.
Region 1 (Amarillo, TX) Phone: 806-354-9335 Region Director: Dr. Brad Williams Supervising Inspector: Bob Young
Region 5 (Beeville, TX)
Phone: 361-358-3234
Regional Director: Dr. David Finch
Supervising Inspector: Howard Helmers
Region 2 (Hempstead, TX)
Phone: 979-921-9481
Regional Director: Dr. Mark Michalke
Supervising Inspector: Dwayne Easley Region 6 (Lampasas, TX)
Phone: 512-556-6277
Region Director: Dr. Pete Fincher
Supervising Inspector: David Martin
Region 3 (Fort Worth, TX)
Phone: 817-244-2597 Region Director: Dr. Max Dow Supervising Inspector: Bobby Crozier
Region 7 (Rockdale, TX)
Phone: 512-446-2507
Regional Director: Dr. Tommy Barton
Supervising Inspector: Russell Iselt
Region 4 (Mt. Pleasant, TX)
Phone: 903-572-1966
Regional Director: Dr. Greg Hawkins
Supervising Inspector: Chip Nicholson
For more information about CWD, visit www.tahc.state.tx.us
Founded in 1893, the Texas Animal Health Commission works to protect the health of all Texas livestock, including: cattle, swine, poultry, sheep, goats, equine animals, and exotic livestock.
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http://www.tahc.state.tx.us/news/pr/2011/2011-10-27_ElkCWDMonitoringProgram.pdf
http://www.tahc.state.tx.us/animal_health/cwd/cwd.html
"CWD is not known to affect people, and has not been detected in Texas to date." ???
key word is 'to date'.
please see ;
EFSA Journal 2011 The European Response to BSE: A Success Story
This is an interesting editorial about the Mad Cow Disease debacle, and it's ramifications that will continue to play out for decades to come ;
Monday, October 10, 2011
EFSA Journal 2011 The European Response to BSE: A Success Story
snip...
EFSA and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) recently delivered a scientific opinion on any possible epidemiological or molecular association between TSEs in animals and humans (EFSA Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ) and ECDC, 2011). This opinion confirmed Classical BSE prions as the only TSE agents demonstrated to be zoonotic so far but the possibility that a small proportion of human cases so far classified as "sporadic" CJD are of zoonotic origin could not be excluded. Moreover, transmission experiments to non-human primates suggest that some TSE agents in addition to Classical BSE prions in cattle (namely L-type Atypical BSE, Classical BSE in sheep, transmissible mink encephalopathy (TME) and ***chronic wasting disease (CWD) agents) might have zoonotic potential.
snip...
http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/e991.htm?emt=1
http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/doc/e991.pdf
see follow-up here about North America BSE Mad Cow TSE prion risk factors, and the ever emerging strains of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy in many species here in the USA, including humans ;
http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2011/10/efsa-journal-2011-european-response-to.html
Monday, June 27, 2011
Zoonotic Potential of CWD: Experimental Transmissions to Non-Human Primates
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2011/06/zoonotic-potential-of-cwd-experimental.html
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Travel History, Hunting, and Venison Consumption Related to Prion Disease Exposure, 2006-2007 FoodNet Population Survey
Journal of the American Dietetic Association Volume 111, Issue 6 , Pages 858-863, June 2011.
http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2011/05/travel-history-hunting-and-venison.html
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/
UPDATED DATA ON 2ND CWD STRAIN
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
CWD PRION CONGRESS SEPTEMBER 8-11 2010
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2010/09/cwd-prion-2010.html
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
ENLARGING SPECTRUM OF PRION-LIKE DISEASES Prusiner Colby et al 2011
Prions
David W. Colby1,* and Stanley B. Prusiner1,2
http://betaamyloidcjd.blogspot.com/2011/01/enlarging-spectrum-of-prion-like.html
Thursday, April 03, 2008
A prion disease of cervids: Chronic wasting disease
2008 1: Vet Res. 2008 Apr 3;39(4):41
A prion disease of cervids: Chronic wasting disease
Sigurdson CJ.
snip...
*** twenty-seven CJD patients who regularly consumed venison were reported to the Surveillance Center***,
snip...
full text ;
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2008/04/prion-disease-of-cervids-chronic.html
CJD9/10022
October 1994
Mr R.N. Elmhirst Chairman British Deer Farmers Association Holly Lodge Spencers Lane BerksWell Coventry CV7 7BZ
Dear Mr Elmhirst,
CREUTZFELDT-JAKOB DISEASE (CJD) SURVEILLANCE UNIT REPORT
Thank you for your recent letter concerning the publication of the third annual report from the CJD Surveillance Unit. I am sorry that you are dissatisfied with the way in which this report was published.
The Surveillance Unit is a completely independant outside body and the Department of Health is committed to publishing their reports as soon as they become available. In the circumstances it is not the practice to circulate the report for comment since the findings of the report would not be amended. In future we can ensure that the British Deer Farmers Association receives a copy of the report in advance of publication.
The Chief Medical Officer has undertaken to keep the public fully informed of the results of any research in respect of CJD. This report was entirely the work of the unit and was produced completely independantly of the the Department.
The statistical results reqarding the consumption of venison was put into perspective in the body of the report and was not mentioned at all in the press release. Media attention regarding this report was low key but gave a realistic presentation of the statistical findings of the Unit. This approach to publication was successful in that consumption of venison was highlighted only once by the media ie. in the News at one television proqramme.
I believe that a further statement about the report, or indeed statistical links between CJD and consumption of venison, would increase, and quite possibly give damaging credence, to the whole issue. From the low key media reports of which I am aware it seems unlikely that venison consumption will suffer adversely, if at all.
http://web.archive.org/web/20030511010117/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1994/10/00003001.pdf
PLUS, THE CDC DID NOT PUT THIS WARNING OUT FOR THE WELL BEING OF THE DEER AND ELK ;
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Travel History, Hunting, and Venison Consumption Related to Prion Disease Exposure, 2006-2007 FoodNet Population Survey
Journal of the American Dietetic Association Volume 111, Issue 6 , Pages 858-863, June 2011.
http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2011/05/travel-history-hunting-and-venison.html
NOR IS THE FDA recalling this CWD positive elk meat for the well being of the dead elk ;
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Noah's Ark Holding, LLC, Dawson, MN RECALL Elk products contain meat derived from an elk confirmed to have CWD NV, CA, TX, CO, NY, UT, FL, OK RECALLS AND FIELD CORRECTIONS: FOODS CLASS II
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2009/03/noahs-ark-holding-llc-dawson-mn-recall.html
Sunday, July 27, 2008
DOCKET-- 03D-0186 -- FDA Issues Draft Guidance on Use of Material From Deer and Elk in Animal Feed; Availability
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: DOCKET-- 03D-0186 -- FDA Issues Draft Guidance on Use of Material From Deer and Elk in Animal Feed; Availability
Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 11:47:37 -0500
From: "Terry S. Singeltary Sr."
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Greetings FDA,
i would kindly like to comment on;
Docket 03D-0186
FDA Issues Draft Guidance on Use of Material From Deer and Elk in Animal Feed; Availability
Several factors on this apparent voluntary proposal disturbs me greatly, please allow me to point them out;
1. MY first point is the failure of the partial ruminant-to-ruminant feed ban of 8/4/97. this partial and voluntary feed ban of some ruminant materials being fed back to cattle is terribly flawed. without the _total_ and _mandatory_ ban of all ruminant materials being fed back to ruminants including cattle, sheep, goat, deer, elk and mink, chickens, fish (all farmed animals for human/animal consumption), this half ass measure will fail terribly, as in the past decades...
2. WHAT about sub-clinical TSE in deer and elk? with the recent findings of deer fawns being infected with CWD, how many could possibly be sub-clinically infected. until we have a rapid TSE test to assure us that all deer/elk are free of disease (clinical and sub-clinical), we must ban not only documented CWD infected deer/elk, but healthy ones as well. it this is not done, they system will fail...
3. WE must ban not only CNS (SRMs specified risk materials), but ALL tissues. recent new and old findings support infectivity in the rump or ass muscle. wether it be low or high, accumulation will play a crucial role in TSEs.
4. THERE are and have been for some time many TSEs in the USA. TME in mink, Scrapie in Sheep and Goats, and unidentified TSE in USA cattle. all this has been proven, but the TSE in USA cattle has been totally ignored for decades. i will document this data below in my references.
5. UNTIL we ban all ruminant by-products from being fed back to ALL ruminants, until we rapid TSE test (not only deer/elk) but cattle in sufficient numbers to find (1 million rapid TSE test in USA cattle annually for 5 years), any partial measures such as the ones proposed while ignoring sub-clinical TSEs and not rapid TSE testing cattle, not closing down feed mills that continue to violate the FDA's BSE feed regulation (21 CFR 589.2000) and not making freely available those violations, will only continue to spread these TSE mad cow agents in the USA. I am curious what we will call a phenotype in a species that is mixed with who knows how many strains of scrapie, who knows what strain or how many strains of TSE in USA cattle, and the CWD in deer and elk (no telling how many strains there), but all of this has been rendered for animal feeds in the USA for decades. it will get interesting once someone starts looking in all species, including humans here in the USA, but this has yet to happen...
6. IT is paramount that CJD be made reportable in every state (especially ''sporadic'' cjd), and that a CJD Questionnaire must be issued to every family of a victim of TSE. only checking death certificates will not be sufficient. this has been proven as well (see below HISTORY OF CJD -- CJD QUESTIONNAIRE)
7. WE must learn from our past mistakes, not continue to make the same mistakes...
REFERENCES
snip...see full text ;
http://madcowfeed.blogspot.com/2008/07/docket-03d-0186-fda-issues-draft.html
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
White-tailed deer are susceptible to the agent of sheep scrapie by intracerebral inoculation
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2011/10/white-tailed-deer-are-susceptible-to.html
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Evidence for distinct CWD strains in experimental CWD in ferrets
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2011/09/evidence-for-distinct-cwd-strains-in.html
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Swine Are Susceptible to Chronic Wasting Disease by Intracerebral Inoculation
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2011/07/swine-are-susceptible-to-chronic.html
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
CWD Update 102 October 20, 2011
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2011/10/cwd-update-102-october-20-2011.html
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Detection of CWD prions in salivary, urinary, and intestinal tissues of deer: potential mechanisms of prion shedding and transmission
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2011/06/detection-of-cwd-prions-in-salivary.html
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Management of CWD in Canada: Past Practices, Current Conditions, Current Science, Future Risks and Options
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2011/06/management-of-cwd-in-canada-past.html
CWD, GAME FARMS, BAITING, AND POLITICS
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2009/01/cwd-game-farms-baiting-and-politics.html
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2008/08/cwd-feeding-and-baiting-piles.html
Sunday, October 04, 2009
CWD NEW MEXICO SPREADING SOUTH TO TEXAS 2009
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2009/10/cwd-new-mexico-spreading-south-to-texas.html
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Environmental Sources of Scrapie Prions
http://scrapie-usa.blogspot.com/2011/02/environmental-sources-of-scrapie-prions.html
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Chronic Wasting Disease Herd Certification Program Document ID APHIS-2006-0118-0096
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2009/05/chronic-wasting-disease-herd.html
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Terry Singeltary Sr. on the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Public Health Crisis, Date aired: 27 Jun 2011 (see video)
http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2011/08/terry-singeltary-sr-on-creutzfeldt.html
tss