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The state Department of Fish & Wildlife continues to investigate the cause and spread of a hoof disease affecting elk in the state, including in Skagit County.

The disease is caused by a bacteria that can cause hoof deformities. The bacteria is known to also cause lameness in affected livestock.

Its spread into northwest Washington remains a mystery, as the disease was first found in southwest parts of the state years earlier.

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In late 2015, an elk with the disease was found on Highway 20 in Skagit County. In 2016, two elk north of the Whatcom-Skagit county line were also found to have the disease.

A new state law directs Fish & Wildlife and Washington State University to continue researching how the disease spreads between animals and from one location to another.

The law was sponsored by Sen. Kirk Pearson, R-Monroe, who chairs the Senate Natural Resources and Parks Committee.

The law takes effect July 21. The recently passed state budget includes about $1.5 million toward the laws goals.

The law directs the WSU College of Veterinary Medicine to monitor elk herds, identify causes for the spread of the disease and come up with solutions to prevent it.

Pearson said in a news release that action is needed because livestock farmers have expressed fear of the disease affecting their herds.

WSUs College of Veterinary Medicine has long been a partner in the states work on the issue, including having six representatives on Fish & Wildlifes Technical Advisory Group for the elk hoof disease, said Fish & Wildlife statewide elk specialist Brock Hoenes.

WSU College of Veterinary Medicine spokesman Charlie Powell said the universitys Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory received several elk hooves from Fish & Wildlife leading up to the diagnosis of the hoof disease.

We dont need to see any more hooves ... We have moved into the next step of needing to do comprehensive research, he said.

With the law set to take effect and funding secured, the university will likely designate a faculty member to oversee elk hoof disease research and to dedicate some staff to handle experiments, Powell said.

Fish & Wildlife veterinarian Kristin Mansfield said beyond knowing that the disease is at least in part caused by an infectious bacteria, many questions remain.

Questions that need answers include whether the bacteria can persist in the environment, how the disease is passed from one elk to another, how the disease affects elk survival and population sizes, where in the state the disease is being seen and whether some elk have a genetic resistance to it.

WSU is one of several universities and government labs Fish & Wildlife has collaborated with on research about the disease.

Mansfield said WSUs work helped diagnose the disease.

They had a key role in the early years starting in about 2009, when the disease first emerged in the landscape in elk in southwest Washington, she said. We collected several samples from elk in those early years and the majority of those samples went to WSU, so they played a key role in helping us diagnose what the disease was.

Masnsfield said along with work at U.S. Department of Agriculture labs, the University of Liverpool and other locations, WSU can continue helping to reveal more information about the hoof disease.

Meanwhile, Fish & Wildlife continues to seek public reports of hoof deformities in elk killed in collisions, killed by hunters or observed limping.

Hoenes said reports have helped Fish & Wildlife confirm the disease in Skagit, Whatcom, Thurston and Mason counties in recent years.

Skagit County residents have reported seeing one or more limping elk in September and December 2015, March and August 2016, and March 2017.

Those are a handful of the 1,100 reports Fish & Wildlife has received statewide since it started taking online reports in 2012.

I really feel for people who are seeing this out there in the wild, said Powell, who has also received calls from distressed members of the public who have seen elk with deformed hooves.

See the article here:
State looks to WSU for elk hoof disease research - goskagit.com

This entry was posted on July 5, 2017 at 8:42 pm and is filed under Veterinary Medicine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |