Muddy Creek trap
This photo shows one portion of the Muddy Creek elk feedground trap.
|
Penned
Adult cows give off steam in the cold morning air while being held in a round corral portion of the elk trap.
|
Dean Clause
Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologist Dean Clause prepares to draw a blood sample from the neck of a cow elk.
|
|
Testing Muddy Creek elk
Four cows sent to slaughter
by Cat Urbigkit, Pinedale Online!
January 29, 2010
State wildlife personnel processed elk for brucellosis testing at the Muddy Creek elk feedground Sunday morning. The elk were baited into the trap Saturday evening, and held overnight so work could proceed early Sunday.
A total of 158 elk were captured, of which 82 were adult females subject to brucellosis testing.
Blood samples from the elk were driven to the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory in Laramie where they were subjected to a series of tests. With results available overnight, four animals with seropositive results were transported to a USDA-approved slaughter facility in eastern Idaho on Monday morning. The remaining animals that did not test positive for the contagious disease were released back onto the feedground.
Brucellosis is a bacterial-caused disease of the reproductive tract, so only adult females are tested. Brucellosis causes abortion in hoofed animals and is transmitted by direct contact with infected animals or with an environment that has been contaminated with discharges from infected animals. There is no cure for the disease. It can also be transmitted to humans. Brucellosis transmitted from elk to cattle has led to the slaughter of several entire cattle herds in Sublette County since 2003.
At the Muddy Creek feedground, brucellosis seroprevalence rates haveprogressively decreased from 37 percent to 7 percent in the first four years of the test-and-removal program. This is the fifth and final year of the pilot testing program.
|
