Wasting disease found in moose in NW Wyo.
By The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 10/20/2008 12:40:13 AM MDT


JACKSON, Wyo. — A moose in Star Valley has tested positive for chronic wasting disease in what state wildlife officials say is the first time the disease has been found west of the Continental Divide.

Officials with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department said last week that the 3-year-old female moose was found last February near Bedford, in the northwest part of the state. Although the moose was unable to walk because of arterial worm disease, it showed no obvious signs of chronic wasting disease.

The town of Bedford is about 13 miles from the nearest state elk feedground. Many conservationists and wildlife biologists have warned that the disease could devastate elk populations if it spreads to feed grounds where elk concentrate in the winter.

The brain disease affects deer, elk and moose but is not known to be harmful to humans.

State game officials announced this month that they had discovered mule deer infected with chronic wasting disease for the first time in two hunting areas near Buffalo and Kaycee, in the north-central part of the state.

State wildlife officials said last spring that it was only a matter of time before the disease found its way to a feedground in northwestern Wyoming.

Game and Fish officials said the finding is worrisome because it's far from other known cases of the disease. They're also concerned that the disease was found in a moose because until now it has only been found in three moose, all in Colorado.

"We just have no explanation for this," said Wyoming Game and Fish spokesman Eric Keszler.