A child who cannot be expected to have the reasoning capabilities of full-grown adults, will cover their eyes with their hands and believe that because they can’t see, they can’t be seen. When adults do the equivalent, the results can be disastrous.
Are we to believe that diseases that affect elk and the rest of our ungulate species can only be spread in one direction? It seems that forever, the discussions about the prospect of diseases such as chronic wasting disease and brucellosis being spread are always from the domestic populations out to the wild ones. And why is that? Simple really. Someone told people that that is how it happens. We accept that theory and move on without any further discussions it seems.
This is eerily similar to the debate on global warming. Those who insist on keeping their hands over their eyes say that global warming is settled science. They don’t want to talk about it anymore because they are afraid of hearing something they don’t like.
For those who may not know, chronic wasting disease is far from settled science. As a matter of fact there is only one theory, never proven by science, that has been attached to any discussions on chronic wasting disease. As a matter of fact, the vast majority of people that I talk to believe that CWD is caused by animals congregating in pens and that it is spread through one animal “kissing” another. Kissing is a term that has been used to describe when two animals touch in and around the nose/mouth/head area and fluids are exchanged.
The finger is always pointed at the domestic cervid ranches as the cause of CWD and the danger that might exist with our wild elk herds. Of course this finger pointing is the result of the ongoing campaign to convince people that the ranches is where it all starts.
Covering up your eyes will not change facts and will put all elk, whether domesticated or wild, at greater risk because we don’t want to hear about other ideas, facts, studies and research. Doing so is dangerous and doesn’t allow science to move ahead in a rapid and prudent manner.
Because someone is saying that domestic elk just one day out of the blue becomes infected with CWD, we have to make sure these animals never get out of their pens or the wild populations will be in danger. Most people don’t realize the continuing spread of CWD is being done throughout the wild populations in some states and is not showing up in domestic herds. Is that because we have built double fencing around the elk herds so their noses can’t touch? No. It is because the ranchers are learning how to test and prevent the spread of the disease. Not all fish and game departments can say the same thing.
In many cases reasonable steps have been taken with domestic elk ranches to detect and control CWD. Compare that with the efforts that many fish and game departments have put forth and it becomes troubling. Fish and game departments are still importing known diseased elk into their states from others. Very little testing of harvested deer and elk during the hunting seasons is being done, yet all the attention is being put on domestic cervid ranches to stop spreading the diseases.
Ranchers understand perhaps more than anybody else the importance of maintaining disease-free livestock. After all their entire livelihoods often depend on it. They’ve stepped up to the plate to test for and stop the exporting and importing of diseased animals. What has your state’s fish and game done to stop the spread of CWD in your state?
Oregon cervidae ranchers are facing opposition from several directions. Some want to run these people out of business because they fear disease. CWD has not been found in Oregon but some believe the natural progression of the spreading will eventually bring it there. By focusing all the attention on ending elk ranching, what is being done to ensure the wild herds aren’t being put in danger other than from these ranches?
The Baker City Herald in Oregon has a short article today that is actually quite misleading to the majority of people who are basically ignorant about disease and ranching. The first thing the article does is lead the reader to believe that because elk ranching contributes less money to the Oregon economy than the wild elk population brings into the state, it is somehow expendable.
Why has our society reached a point where if you are in the minority you are not worthy of equal treatment?
The article then goes on to explain how the domestic elk ranch is a threat to wild elk.
Trouble is, those elk ranches pose a potential threat to the valuable herds of wild elk.
Domestic elk can spread fatal diseases to their wild cousins — notably chronic wasting disease and bovine tuberculosis. This has happened in other states but not, fortunately, in Oregon.
To the average reader, this statement will lead you to believe that the diseases only come from the ranches and without these ranches, Oregon would be free from the threat of CWD or brucellosis.
Oregon is proposing to require double fencing around elk ranches to stop escapes and prevent a wild elk from touching noses with a domestic elk. The Baker City Herald says this is a reasonable solution.
This seems to us a reasonable precaution. Domestic elk don’t have to escape a fence to spread disease — nose-to-nose contact through a fence can transmit germs, too.
When I visited Idaho last spring, I spoke with several elk ranchers and we talked about fencing. As a matter of fact, I did an article about the fencing and explained quite a bit about it.
The fencing, I was told, costs between $25,000 and $50,000 per running mile depending on terrain. I guess because some feel the domestic elk industry is expendable, this is a reasonable cost for the rancher to incur and for what reason?
R.A. Forrest of StopCWD.org in studies researched indicates that while contact between domestic and wild elk is possible, the chances of transmitting the disease is unlikely.
While nose-to-nose contact is possible between wild elk and domestic elk, the seemingly transitory nature of exposure would be in contravention of the perceived intensive exposure necessary to infect older animals as determined by Miller (1998).
Furthermore, Forrest’s research seems to indicate that ingestion is the likely cause of the spread of CWD and not nose to nose contact.
Baker City Herald suggests that if there are less costly options that adequately protect the wild elk, they should be used. I couldn’t agree more. The problem is that when officials have already made up their minds as to what causes and spreads CWD, what are we to do.
People shouldn’t take me wrong in this discussion. There is nothing I want more than to find ways to stop the spread of CWD to all ungulates, wild and domestic. We can’t do this when we think like the global warming alarmists. The science isn’t closed. As a matter of fact it’s not been discussed much at all.
Even studies from years ago suggest that transmitting CWD via nose-to-nose is difficult and unlikely. Ranchers have done remarkably well to care for their livestock. Testing is ongoing and the presence of disease is non-existent. On the same token, my fear is that while officials and others focus their time and energy in a direction where there is little or no real threat of disease, it will creep in the back door because we didn’t pay close enough attention.
I think it is safe to conclude that one of the best ways of controlling the spread of disease is to control the movement of diseased animals. Recently the state of Idaho imported known diseased elk from Wyoming to be slaughtered. Until science has determined all the ways this disease is spread, we have to stop these kinds of irresponsible and hypocritical events from occurring.
If, as Forrest indicates, CWD is spread through ingestion of infected food supplies, we should also be focusing our attention on better tracking possible diseased hay and preventing grazing in areas known to have been part of an endemic area.
Further, we can’t allow hunters transporting game from one state to the other and more testing of wild harvested game should be done. There are states now that do no testing at all and CWD is all around them, yet states like Maine where the nearest cases of CWD showed up in an isolated place in New York, do extensive testing and have stopped all importation of wild ungulates, dead or alive, into the state, including anyone passing through.
CWD is an unsolved mystery. Running ranchers out of business in hopes it will help will do nothing to stop the spread of disease. Actually, these disease-free ranches may be our best friends years down the road. We should work with them and not against them, while focusing our energies to stop the spread of the disease via reasonable methods we have control over. We need to expand our research of the disease to first be able to discover how it is formed and then exactly how it is spread and stop the guessing. Then we can move toward finding a cure.
Tom Remington
