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Workers at the Wyoming Game and Fish Lab identified a chronic debilitating disease in a mule deer killed by a vehicle in Grand Teton National Park.
Park staff discovered the mulie on Gros Ventre Road on November 5th, Park spokeswoman Denise German said.
"We took tissue samples as we do with all the animals killed on the road," said German. The park sent samples – usually lymph nodes – to the Wildlife Health Laboratory of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the national agency said in a statement. "We just got it back," said German Wednesday morning.
"I think the wildlife managers for the state agencies as well as for the park and the inter-agency biologists were not completely surprised," she said. MDC, a still life-threatening neurological disease without vaccine, has been found in a mule deer as close to the park as Pinedale and Star Valley in the south and near Dubois and Cody to the east of the park.
Park scientists said Wednesday that they thought the deer would have migrated to the park since the east.
The disease in mule deer has progressed steadily through the state from east to west. In elk, its progress has been slower. Grand Teton officials pointed out that the disease was not found in any of the park's moose.
But his planned arrival at more than 20 Wyoming game and elk feeding grounds west of the watershed and Elk National Hideaway at Jackson Hole – where moose are concentrated so Abnormal – worries some environmentalists and wildlife managers who fear an epidemic.
"In the last two years, Game and Fish has strengthened the monitoring of chronic dieback of coal in elk feeding areas with additional staff," said the agency in a statement. "To date, no elk that has visited winter feeding areas has been tested positive for the disease. However, with the discovery of CWD at Star Valley and Pinedale, Game and Fish officials believe that CWD is likely to arrive in elk in the feeder parks in the future. "
Some environmentalists have vigorously pushed Game and Fish to stop the feeding program that the agency undertake to increase the number of elk, to separate them from cattle feed lines and to move them away from the roads, among other reasons.
CWD is a cousin of the incurable disease of Creutzfeldt-Jakob in humans and the disease of "mad cow" in cattle. Symptoms include slow physical and mental degeneration leading to death.
It is also found in moose.
Wildlife protection officials advise against the manipulation of large game neurological tissues from animals killed in hunting areas where the disease is known. Game and Fish regulates the transportation of certain big game parts from these areas as well as their disposal.
Recent concern about the risk of neurological disorder transmitted between species and even by the muscle meat.
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Game and Fish spokespersons Renny MacKay said that deer hunters should have their animals tested, which is now more relevant for hunters in the Teton area. This advice applies beyond endemic areas of MDC for reasons that are now evident with the discovery of Grand Teton – a product made in a non-contiguous area with a known infection.
The leap-frog discovery is not alarming, he said. This is partly because CWD has already been found in deer west of the Continental Divide.
"The amount of surveillance in this area is higher than it used to be," he said. "We have additional resources dedicated to this to ensure we monitor closely.
"We are not surprised to have found it in this area because it is so close," he said. "I think we're not even looking at 20 miles," he said. "Deer seem to be a driving force in the destruction and spread of deer," said MacKay.
The German said Grand Teton was aware of the consequences of the discovery and that he would remain on guard. "We will probably try to increase our surveillance … as well as develop carcass management options."
Today, the elimination depends on the location of a dead animal. "If it creates a safety problem, we remove a carcass," she said, and we take it for "what you can call a carcass dump."
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