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P/CLOUDY Temp: 66 °F Wind: CLM at 0 mph Thursday, August 29, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Cyberchef E The People Golf Job Network Headbone Zone Wellness Connection Movie Times Newspaper in Education Oregon CarZone Outdoor Journal Personals Prime Times Real Estate Tempo A & E TV Times W3 Magazine CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Destinations Automotive Communities Employment Entertainment Publications Real Estate Recreation Shopping Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Jobs @ Mail Tribune Email Story to a Friend August 8, 2002 State wary of deadly elk disease When Bill McCamman applied July 31 to import 10 Rocky Mountain elk from Idaho to his Boring ranch, it sent the wheels of veterinary bureaucracy to work here like never before. Dr. Andrew Clark, Oregon’s state veterinarian, checked and verified the health records of each elk, then went one step further than what agricultural officials have done in previous years. He checked the health certificates and background of all the other elk that came into the Idaho ranch, and a red flag surfaced. A cow elk at the ranch, but not one that McCamman was to import, had at one time lived at an eastern Colorado ranch near where the deadly and mysterious chronic wasting disease had been found. The disease’s presence recently has led to mass slaughtering of elk in Wisconsin and Colorado and to fears that three Wisconsin men may have died from this cervid version of mad cow disease. Clark shared his findings with McCamman, who then chose to withdraw his application Tuesday because of the tiny risk that he could bring chronic wasting disease into Oregon, where so far it has yet to surface. "The system worked very well," Clark says, "just like it’s supposed to work." But even Clark says that system likely isn’t good enough now. Clark says he’s backing a proposal by hunters, animal-welfare organizations and his sister agency, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, for an emergency ban on elk imports to Oregon until scientists can unravel the mystery of how and why it spreads. The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission is expected to adopt the emergency ban Friday, closing Oregon’s borders to outside domestic elk in hopes of keeping at bay a disease biologists fear could wreak havoc on Oregon’s wild elk if it became established here. "Perhaps it is prudent to stand back for one or two years and wait for the science to shake out," Clark says. "Nobody’s playing fast and loose with this thing. We need to make darn sure that we don’t import a problem unknowingly." ODFW biologists agree. CWD is popping up in so many unexpected areas for unexplained reasons that government agencies want to look at all possible ways it can spread before they decide what actions are too risky. Possibilities include Oregon hunters bringing home the carcasses of elk shot in infected states, natural transmission by wandering elk and even the remote chance of a hiker carrying CWD here on the bottoms of his shoes. "Think of it as having someone with the Ebola virus and they’ve exposed somebody else that you’ve invited to be a clown at your kid’s birthday party," says Ron Anglin, the ODFW’s wildlife division administrator. "Is that a risk you want to take? "We have to be really, really careful with this," he says. "Otherwise, we could walk down a road where you might never get back." McCamman says he doesn’t mind a short-term moratorium to learn more about CWD. But he believes media reports about outbreaks in Wisconsin and the possibility of its spread to humans have allowed hysteria, not science, to drive the import ban. "This is a sky-is-falling mentality," McCamman says. "I don’t mind a moratorium for a few months or half a year. But a permanent moratorium is like saying we’ll never have tomatoes again because they’re bad for you. It’s crazy." Once found just in a small area straddling Colorado and Wyoming, chronic wasting disease has spread through elk ranches and wild deer herds as far away as Wisconsin. Thousands of captive elk have been slaughtered in Colorado and hundreds of deer have been killed in Wisconsin to stop the spread of the disease. The ailment, which causes animals to grow thin and die, also has been found in New Mexico, South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, Kansas, Oklahoma and Canada. It’s unknown whether the disease is in Oregon, nor what would happen to the wild population if it did come here. The MADelk Coalition, a collection of hunting and animal-welfare organizations such as the Humane Society of the United States, has petitioned the Fish and Wildlife Commission for an emergency ban. The ODFW has agreed, and is recommending a sixth-month emergency ban beginning Friday to buy time for the commission to consider a permanent ban later this year. Anglin and Clark say that keeping CWD out of Oregon is so important that agencies will look at blocking every possible way the disease could get here. Anglin says he expects the ODFW to make rules about transporting elk parts from out of state. He also believes scientists will study whether and how the disease can spread naturally across the West into Oregon. That includes whether host animals can carry the disease or whether "fomites" — inanimate objects that can pick up infected material, carry it elsewhere and deposit it — can cause an outbreak. If so, then Clark wonders whether Oregonians will ask anyone who’s hiked in Colorado to leave their boots behind. "I’m not sure we can do something about fomite transmission at this point," Clark says. "But the other ones are things we can do something about." McCamman says a permanent ban in importation will dilute the genetics elk-breeders are using to grow big, meaty animals for what they hope becomes a lucrative meat industry. McCamman says he’s not surprised at the stance by the ODFW, which he believes has "welcomed" the current CWD controversy as a way of helping rid Oregon of cervid ranching. And he believes hunters are worried about CWD purely for selfish reasons. "I think they’re afraid CWD will kill the animals before they do," McCamman says. "It’s like a race to see who kills the animals first." As for why he shelved his application for the 10 elk from the Idaho ranch, McCamman says he’s simply looking out for the 13 healthy elk now on his ranch. "I’m more concerned for my animals than any (wild) animals," McCamman says. "It’s an economic thing for me, not just a social thing. "I have money tied up in it." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search M Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy web master feedback A D V E R T I S E R S