Minnesota : Stearns County Farm Quarantined After Disease Found in Elk
|
| Date: February 07, 2003 |
Source: Star Tribune
|
Contacts:
Terry Collins
tcollins@startribune.com |
A Stearns County farm has been quarantined because an elk that tested positive for chronic wasting disease in January was kept there nearly three years ago.
The Minnesota Board of Animal Health said this week that the 3-year-old female elk was at the farm owned by Roger Nietfeld near Melrose, Minn., for five months in 2000.
On Jan. 24, the elk tested positive on a farm owned by Jim Moscho near Sauk Centre. The other 20 elk in the herd tested negative. It was the state's second confirmed case of the disease.
Malissa Fritz, a spokeswoman for the state Board of Animal Health, said Thursday that plans to test nearly 100 elk on Nietfeld's farm depend on whether the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will reimburse him for the testing.
Nietfeld could not be reached for comment.
Chronic wasting disease, which attacks the brain and nervous system in elk and deer, is caused by abnormal proteins called prions. Infected animals show progressive weight loss and behavioral changes.
No infected deer have been found in Minnesota.
The state's first case of the disease was confirmed last August in a bull elk at a farm in Aitkin County. It also had spent time at Moscho's farm. No other traces of the disease, which can be transmitted from animal to animal, were found when state animal health officials tested brain tissue samples from the remaining elk on the farm.
The illness is in the same family of fatal diseases as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow disease, which has killed at least 130 people in Britain and other countries. Mad cow has been linked to contaminated beef and can take up to 30 years to incubate in people. |
|
 |
| Click these links for more information |
National News
Alabama
Alberta
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
International
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Manitoba
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Ontario
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Saskatchewan
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
|
