Research on Live Chronic Wasting Disease Test for Elk in Rocky
Mountain National Park
Date: April 10, 2008
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In January 2008, research began in Rocky Mountain National Park to
evaluate procedures for testing live elk for chronic wasting disease
(CWD). This is the 1st time free ranging elk have been tested for CWD
using this live procedure. This study is being done at the park to
take advantage of the implementation of the recently announced Rocky
Mountain National Park Elk and Vegetation Management Plan.
Elk were captured from early January through mid-March 2008. The
majority of captures took place in Moraine Park and near Beaver
Meadows Visitor Center. Out of 136 female elk captured, (there were
117 usable biopsies), 13 tested CWD positive and were removed.
Complete necropsies were performed and confirmed those results. Based
on those results there was an 11 percent estimated CWD prevalence
rate in this sample population. At the time of capture there was no
obvious evidence of clinical CWD.
previous research in the park has shown that the elk herd in Rocky
Mountain National Park and the Estes Valley, is larger, less
migratory and more concentrated than it would be under natural
conditions. Research has also shown that elk densities on the core
winter range are the highest concentrations ever documented for a
free-ranging population in the Rocky Mountains.
Over the next several years, in conjunction with the proposed lethal
reduction of elk, researchers will continue to conduct studies to
evaluate procedures for testing live elk for CWD. Currently, there is
a live CWD test effective for deer, but CWD diagnosis in live elk has
received limited evaluation to date. Until now, the disease could
only be reliably diagnosed after death in elk. Any elk which tests
positive for CWD will be lethally removed from the population,
thereby contributing to annual population reduction targets. These
targets will be developed each year based on annual population
surveys and hunter success outside the park. Over the next 3 years
elk population reduction will gradually remove study elk and the CWD
status will be evaluated.
wildlife in 1981. It is a member of the transmissible spongiform
encephalopathy (TSE) disease family which also includes bovine
spongiform encephalopathy in cattle (BSE, also known as mad cow
disease) and scrapie in domestic sheep and goats. CWD is fatal in
deer and elk. Northeastern Colorado (including the eastside of Rocky
Mountain National Park), southeastern Wyoming and western Nebraska
are considered the endemic area for the disease.
Participants in the studies include scientists from the Colorado
State University Department of Biomedical Sciences, the National Park
Service, USDA National Wildlife Research Center, Colorado State
University Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology; USDA
Agricultural Research Service. The Colorado Division of Wildlife is
participating in the study on the live CWD test.
[Byline: Kyle Patterson]
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