[ad_1]
HARRISBURG, Pa. – The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture announced today that a hind of a breeding farm in Bethel Township, Fulton County, and a deer in a Clearfield County Game Reserve in the Bloomfield County, had been tested positive for chronic debilitating disease.
Both farms will remain in quarantine for five years from the date the positive tests were confirmed. The ministry also quarantined Fulton County Farm where the male was purchased four weeks before harvest in Clearfield County.
None of the two deer tested showed any warning signs of MDC. The two cervids were born and raised in an area of Fulton County where wild cervids have been tested positive for CWD since 2015 and deer in captivity have been positive since 2017.
The department's veterinary laboratory in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, tested the deer, according to the department's cervid screening program. Test results were confirmed at National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa.
MDC attacks the brain of infected deer, elk and moose. There is no known treatment or vaccine. Animals can contract the disease by direct contact with saliva, feces and urine from an infected animal or in a contaminated environment. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, no case of CWD infection has been reported in humans.
Clinical signs of MDC include weight loss, excessive salivation, increased alcohol consumption and urination, and abnormal behavior such as stumbling, tremors, and depression. Infected deer and elk can also provide a particularly close approach by humans or natural predators.
The infectious agent, called prion, tends to concentrate in the brain, spine, eyes, spleen and lymph nodes. To prevent the spread of the disease, these high-risk parties must be handled and disposed of properly where the animal is killed. Portions such as boneless meat, clean caps and clean capes pose little risk and can be taken home.
The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture coordinates a mandatory disease surveillance program in 874 livestock farms, recreational farms and game reserves in the state. Since 1998, licensed veterinarians and CWD certified technicians have tested more than 39,000 deer in captivity in Pennsylvania, 96 of which tested positive.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission collects deer samples harvested by hunters, elk and wild deer that appear to be sick or abnormally behaving.
Find out more about the captive deer hunting programs in Pennsylvania and the department's broader efforts to protect animal health at agriculture.pa.gov.
Copyright й 2019 EYT Media Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any copying, redistribution or retransmission of the content of this service without the express written permission of EYT Media Group, Inc. is expressly prohibited.
[ad_2]
Source link