TUBERCULOSIS, CAPTIVE WILDLIFE - USA: (NEBRASKA)

TUBERCULOSIS, CAPTIVE WILDLIFE - USA: (NEBRASKA)
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A ProMED-mail post

ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases


Date: 13 Apr 2009
Source: Omaha World-Herald [edited]



Tuberculosis find spreads concern to non-infected herds
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A popular captive elk and bison operation in northeast Nebraska is
not the site of an elk and deer herd infected with tuberculosis, the
owners and state officials said Monday [13 Apr 2009]. "We have a lot
of school tours booked this spring and hunters in the fall, and we're
getting calls wanting to know if the tours and meat are safe," said
Chris Kreycik of Kreycik Riverview Elk Ranch near Niobrara, Nebraska.
"It's not us." Kreycik said the infected herd is 50 miles away, near
Crofton, Nebraska, and Yankton, South Dakota.

The Nebraska Agriculture Department said Friday [10 Apr 2009] that a
herd of captive elk and fallow deer in the Knox County area tested
positive for tuberculosis. Crofton and Niobrara are in Knox County.

Dr. Dennis Hughes, state veterinarian, said Monday that
confidentiality and privacy rules prevent him from identifying the
owner of the infected herd. Hughes said the Kreycik operation was not
involved. The infected herd is under quarantine in a fairly remote
area and has no direct contact with livestock, Hughes said. He said
the owner of the infected herd started the operation as a hobby and
planned to sell trophy-bull elk hunts.

The disease was discovered when the herd owner took an elk to a local
locker plant for butchering in February 2009. A battery of tests at
the U.S. Agriculture Department lab in Ames, Iowa, confirmed the
disease weeks later. Hughes said it has spread to other elk in the
herd.

Tuberculosis is a slow, progressive disease that is difficult to
diagnose in its early stages. An animal can exhibit emaciation,
lethargy, weakness, anorexia, low-grade fever and pneumonia with a
chronic, moist cough.

The strain found in the infected herd can affect elk, deer and cattle
-- and can be transmitted to people, Hughes said. The Nebraska Game
and Parks Commission is keeping the area's white-tailed deer
population under surveillance for signs of the disease, Hughes said.
"We want to put the fire out as quickly as possible," he said. "The
best answer is to depopulate the (infected) herd." Hughes said the
owner of the infected elk and deer would receive payment from the
USDA when they are destroyed.

[Byline: David Hendee, World Herald staff writer]

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Susan Baekeland

[Both Nebraska and South Dakota are held, as of 23 Mar 2009, by
USDA/APHIS to be free of both bovine and cervid TB; see:

This may have to be reconsidered in the light of this finding in Knox
County. While these infections are normally of bovine origin, with
animals in a popular and captive state there is always the
possibility it might be M. tuberculosis from human contacts.

Knox county is in Northeast Nebraska and right on the NE/SD border. A
map is at:

- Mod.MHJ]

[see also:
Tuberculosis, bovine - USA (Nebraska) 20050207.0418]
....................mhj/ejp/lm

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