Wrong place, wrong time, as PA elk euthanized amid CWD fears

Posted on: August 18, 2017 | Bob Frye | Comments

Chronic wasting disease, or CWD, is a threat to elk.

No Pennsylvania elk has ever tested positive for CWD, or chronic wasting disease.
Bob Frye/Everybody Adventures

No wild Pennsylvania elk has ever died from chronic wasting disease, otherwise known as CWD.

Not directly, anyway.

One was recently euthanized, though, as a preventative measure.

Pennsylvania Game Commission officials said on Friday that a wildlife conservation officer on Aug. 7 killed a trophy bull, one with an 8-by-9 rack.

Why? Because it wandered south out of the elk range and into Clearfield County. That put it within 10 miles of where a wild CWD-positive white-tailed deer was discovered on state game land 87 in June.

Wayne Laroche, the commission’s special assistant for CWD response, said the fear was the bull could contract that disease, then spread it when it invariably returned to the elk range for the mating season.

That’s not a chance the commission was willing to take, he said.

“We don’t think it was down there a long time. But the risk was too great,” Laroche said.

Samples from the bull are undergoing testing for wasting disease. Results are pending.

Whether the shooting of the bull will indeed protect the herd remains to be seen.

That’s because it may not have been alone.

Travis Lau, press secretary for the commission, said the agency received multiple reports of not one, but two or even three bulls having walked into Crearfield County.

The area wildlife conservation officer was never able to confirm that, however. Lau said the officer spent 10 days looking for elk, and saw the one he ultimately put down on multiple occasions before being able to get a shot.

But, Lau said, he never saw any others.

“And there have been no reports since,” he said.

So whether there was just one bull, or multiple bulls, with the others having already returned to the elk range, will remain a mystery, Lau added.

The decision to put down the elk that was confirmed, meanwhile, drew support from two groups.

Rawley Cogan, president of the Keystone Elk Country Alliance, said that was the responsible move, given what’s at stake.

Blake Henning, CEO of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, agreed.

“Individual elk may need to be removed from populations in order to reduce the likelihood of a larger number of animals coming in contact with the disease,” he said.

To learn more about CWD

For more information on wasting disease, check out the CWD Alliance by clicking here.

Bob Frye is the everybodyadventures.com editor. Reach him at 412-838-5148 or bfrye@535mediallc.com. See other stories, blogs, videos and more at everybodyadventures.com.

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