Texas Records First-ever Case of Chronic Wasting Disease
BY: Daniel Xu + POSTED: 7/17/15

Texas officials held a special, rushed meeting on Thursday after experts confirmed what is believed to be the state’s first recorded case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) earlier this month.

In the meeting, hundreds of biologists, conservationists, and individuals involved in the captive deer industry gathered at Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPWD) Headquarters in Austin. They were there to discuss the case of CWD found in a Medina County deer farm, and what it could mean for the future of deer in Texas.

“It is important for all of us to remember that Chronic Wasting Disease doesn’t pick sides. It doesn’t make alliances,” Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission Chairman Dan Hughes, Jr. said in a statement. “It affects all of us in this room. We (staff, commission, hunters, breeders, etc.) are all connected to this. I believe that we owe it to the people of Texas and the more than 4 million free-ranging and captive deer, to do everything we can to contain this threat and ensure it doesn’t spread. It is important that we hear and consider all perspectives.”

Chronic wasting disease is a deadly and highly transmissible neurological disease that affects deer and certain other ungulates. Believed to be spread through infectious proteins called prions, CWD is nearly always fatal to deer and is a great concern for biologists across the United States. Since it was first discovered in 1967 CWD has swept through at least 21 states and two Canadian provinces. According to the TPWD, CWD accounts for significant deer mortality in affected areas and could jeorpodize the Lone Star State’s $2.2 billion hunting industry.

“Because eradication is nearly impossible once CWD becomes established in a population, it is imperative that a sound CWD management program is established to reduce the severity of implications resulting from the disease,” the agency said in a statement.

State agencies generally employ a strict method of containment when it comes to CWD in captive deer: kill any believed to have come in contact with the infection. KSAT reports that a cull is exactly what officials have in mind for Texas Mountain Ranch, where the infected deer was found.

“We drew the black bean and that’s a tough deal, but in a way I’m glad, because I think we can take care of it,” said Robert Patterson, who owns Texas Mountain Ranch and found the dead deer himself. “I don’t think it will hurt the hunting in Texas one cent. People are still going to come here, because the deer are available.”

Patterson said that state agencies want to destroy 139 adult deer and 99 fawns at his ranch, but that’s where things get tricky. The deer breeder said he already shipped 900 deer to other facilities around the state. Patterson believes that destroying the animals can only do so much and that a better, more scientific method should be found to contain CWD.

Other deer breeders worry about what the disease could mean for the industry, especially if the state starts cracking down on captive deer facilities.

“It’s a very isolated deal, there is no need to get panicky about it and I’m certainly not and my operation is right down the road from where they found [the first case],” Jerry Johnston, owner of Double J Ranches, told KEYE TV.

Johnston added that if Texas officials follow the example set by other states in restricting or even closing deer farms, it could mean the end of deer breeding in the state.

“Anybody related to the industry is going to be out of business, it goes right down the food chain,” he said.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission is not going to make any drastic moves just yet. The commission recommended on Thursday to test the affected deer, continue minimizing CWD risks to both captive and wild animals, and minimize the impact of CWD to hunters.

“Ultimately, I would like for us to not only be particularly sensitive to minimizing impacts to breeder facilities but also minimizing the risk to the state’s free-ranging deer herd which is critically important to Texas’ deer economy and other landowners and hunters across the state,” said Chairman Hughes.

We didn't have this as a problem until game farms and high fence deer and elk operations came along.

There were two confirmed cases of CWD in Mule Deer in Far West Texas in 2012.

The present case is the first identified in captive deer in the state.

Michigan also has two reported cases.CWD is luck of the draw.It is like many other diseases that lay dormant in the soil for eons and then show up.

Missouri has several cases

Missouri actually has a "containment zone"

quote:

Originally posted by Grenadier:
We didn't have this as a problem until game farms and high fence deer and elk operations came along.

Ignorance!

We have about 500 yards of high fence shared with Texas Mountain Ranch. I would like to know if Robert has isolated the CWD to his pen/ear tagged animals from those loose on the ranch. The dead dear was in a pen I hope segregated from the ranch animals. Also how long from exposure to seeing signs of a problem.
I need to contact TPW and get some answers.
Does CWD transfer to pigs?
Thanks, Lee

quote:

Originally posted by Big Wonderful Wyoming:

quote:

Originally posted by Grenadier:
We didn't have this as a problem until game farms and high fence deer and elk operations came along.

Ignorance!

Really? Have you been living under a rock?

The prions can live in the soil for untold decades and the diseases themselves are very, very old. How and when they first got into deer is not really known. At first cases were rare because the deer and elk populations were at a density too low for an epidemic. But once you take deer that live in a wild population density of 20-25 deer per square mile and put them into a captive density equivalent to 1000 per square mile or more then the chances of any disease spreading among them are tremendously increased. There are many documented cases of that happening and which required entire captive populations to be destroyed. But remember, all those prions from those deer are now in heavy concentration where they were captive and will remain in the soil for who knows how long.

A worse situation exists when infected animals escape and carry the disease into the surrounding area and to wild populations. This is bad if one animal escapes but, unfortunately, sometimes many infected animals escape at once.

There is also the problem of transporting infected game great distances for the purpose of populating game farms. That is believed to be a major contributor to the spread of disease into previously uninfected areas and states.

Doubt that? It is easy enough to find documented cases. All you need to do is look.

I have added a few references to get you started. It will be very easy for you to find many, many more.

That is, unless you want to live in "Ignorance!"

quote:

Chronic Wasting Disease An emerging threat

CWD was first identified in captive mule deer in Colorado in the late 1960s. It was not observed in the wild until 1981. However, the origin and cause of the disease have never been definitively determined. Most wildlife scientists agree that CWD proliferated in captive herds. In fact, when CWD has been present in a captive population for over two years, over 90% of the animals will be infected. The disease is directly transmissible via saliva, urine, feces, blood, and muscle and is highly infectious.

CWD has been found in populations of elk and deer on game farms in 22 states, Canada, and South Korea. Captive populations of these cervids have tested positive for this disease in 13 of these states. In 2012 alone, CWD was discovered for the first time in Texas, Iowa, and Pennsylvania.

Chronic Wasting Disease: Starving for Answers by Hal Herring Originally published in the Jan./Feb. 2000 issue of “Bugle” magazine.

Buck Fever: Massive disease outbreak hits Iowa deer farm

Wisconsin : Escaped Game Farm Deer From Walworth County Tests Positive for Chronic Wasting Disease

Elk disease prompts protective quarantine of Philipsburg, Hardin game farms

CWD "started" at the State of Colorados Foothills Wildlife Research Station at Ft Collins in the mid 1960s. Healthy mule deer does were put in pens that had held Scrapie infected sheep(same disease as CWD, but in sheep).Later some of those deer were released into the surrounding area and some were shipped to other research stations, several zoos, and other enclosures.

Beth Williams was one of the original research grad students later ID'd CWD in the 70's. It was found in wild populations near FT Collins (big surprise) in the early 80's.

DNA studies of the disease back trace to Ft Collins....where it started.

The problem was started by the wildlife agency in Colorado.

Prions can live for thousands of years, even an autoclave will not kill them.

They are a protein based virus like BSE and I believe scrapie.

Game ranching has been blamed for a lot of the introductions of CWD, but it wasn't the original culprit.

quote:

Originally posted by Big Wonderful Wyoming:
The problem was started by the wildlife agency in Colorado.

Prions can live for thousands of years, even an autoclave will not kill them.

They are a protein based virus like BSE and I believe scrapie.

Game ranching has been blamed for a lot of the introductions of CWD, but it wasn't the original culprit.

Amen to that.We have been dealing with CWD for a long time in Wisconsin and the game biologists will not say where it came from because they have no clue.