CWD Spreads To Elk.

[Sytes]

FWP officials announced first positive test for elk in southeast Montana and in the Ruby Mountains

Two Montana elk test positive for chronic wasting disease

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials announced on Friday that an elk in southeast Montana tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease.

www.ktvq.com

 

[Dave N]

Damn.

 

[trb]

Unfortunately has been detected in Elk in Colorado since 1981. A regular part of our annual brochure, although I have never had any elk tested:

 

[wytex]

Took a cow that tested positive this year in SE Wyoming. Kind of bummed but certainly not surprised.

 

[Sytes]

I am surprised, given their herd-like manner, that elk are not impacted as significant as whitetail deer. Are elk more tolerant/resistant to CWD, thus it does not have the same level of transmission? @Hunting Wife ? I've never thought to test my elk for CWD.

I didn't know the setting in Colorado - head in sand, I guess.

 

[MTLabrador]

For whatever reason, elk never seem to show the prevalence that mule deer do. The Laramie Range is a hell of a CWD case study. Even with crazy rates of CWD in deer, the prevalence in elk has stayed at (ballpark) 5-10% even while the elk herd has dramatically increased in population. I might be wrong, but I’m not super concerned about elk in Montana and CWD. Deer are a different story, that I am concerned about.

 

[ImBillT]

For whatever reason, elk never seem to show the prevalence that mule deer do. The Laramie Range is a hell of a CWD case study. Even with crazy rates of CWD in deer, the prevalence in elk has stayed at (ballpark) 5-10% even while the elk herd has dramatically increased in population. I might be wrong, but I’m not super concerned about elk in Montana and CWD. Deer are a different story, that I am concerned about.

While I was aware that prevalence was usually lower in elk, I hadn’t put much thought into it. My biggest concern with CWD is that if it ever jumped to humans(mad cow sure did) or any other non-cervid species, that it might be easily transmissible from human to human the way that CWD and scrapie are transmissible from deer to deer and sheep to sheep. The fact that prevalence in elk seems to be consistently lower than in deer would seem to indicate some resistance. If it still remains low in areas where deer have extremely high prevalence, it makes me wonder if the elk are not transmitting it to other elk. If they only catch it from deer, and even then, at a low rate, that may be a good sign that if it ever jumps to a non-cervid species it will be limited to individual cases not “oh crap. Now our entire pronghorn herd has CWD”.

 

[Hunting Wife]

I am surprised, given their herd-like manner, that elk are not impacted as significant as whitetail deer. Are elk more tolerant/resistant to CWD, thus it does not have the same level of transmission? @Hunting Wife ? I've never thought to test my elk for CWD.

I didn't know the setting in Colorado - head in sand, I guess.

Free ranging elk don’t generally show prevalences as high as those observed in sympatric deer populations, for unknown reasons. Genetics? Biology? Ecology? Behavior? Who knows. However, captive elk and range restricted elk have shown very high prevalences (40% or more) are possible- Wind Cave National Park being the poster example, and population declines have been observed. Hard to say what will happen when it reaches populations that are artificially manipulated, in a feedground situation for example. So far we haven’t seen it go too crazy in free ranging unmanipulated populations. Not sure at this time why it would be different in Montana.

Free ranging moose in CO and WY have also tested positive. I suspect their ecology and more solitary nature are the reason we see very low prevalence in that species thus far, but that’s a guess.