By Angus M. Thuermer Jr., WyoFile
Fearful that Chronic Wasting Disease will ravage some 20,000 elk on winter feedgrounds, Wyoming Game and Fish Department launched an initiative Tuesday to untangle a knotted management question: How to avoid disease transmission without starving elk or hurting stakeholders.
The disease that’s spread across three-quarters of the state is likely to shrink populations and turn feedgrounds into CWD hot spots if it infects elk there, a wildlife health official said. Hank Edwards, Game and Fish Wildlife Health Laboratory supervisor, made his comments at an outreach webinar.
Game and Fish’s initiative is the first step toward addressing the CWD-feedground dilemma, said Scott Edberg, the agency’s deputy chief of wildlife. He was clear on one point: “We have no plans at this time of closing any feedgrounds in the near future,” he said.
Game and Fish set a Jan. 8, 2021 deadline for comment on the first phase of what it calls “a challenge we can take on.” There is no vaccine for always-fatal CWD.
Although CWD — a cousin of Mad Cow Disease in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease in people — hasn’t been found among elk west of the Continental Divide where the feedgrounds lie, experts believe infection among fed elk is inevitable. Grand Teton National Park biologists discovered CWD in a road-killed deer in late 2018, near the federal National Elk Refuge near Jackson.
Wildlife managers don’t know how quickly CWD will increase, how it will affect population levels or whether predators could limit disease spread. There’s also a question as to how hunters will react if herds are significantly infected.
Widespread infection, possibly boosted by artificially concentrated populations at feedgrounds and on the Elk Refuge, could impact everything from tourism to hunting and recreation. But abolishing feedgrounds would have its own repercussions, affecting elk welfare, their numbers, hunters, tourists and even ranchers who might see disease-carrying elk mingle with their cattle herds. Already the disease has divided the public into pro- and anti-feedground camps.
One thing is certain about the strange nervous-system malady that’s caused by a malformed protein, spread by secretions and may last in the environment for 16 years or more. “Once it’s here,” Edwards said, “it’s going to be impossible to eradicate.”
Elk abundance could diminish
After the 2019 hunting season, Game and Fish estimated a statewide elk population of 112,900. Among the 28 herds with population estimates, counts came in 32%, or 25,575, elk above the statewide objective.
The 14,000 or so elk on state feedgrounds account for about 80% of elk in the surrounding areas, John Lund, regional Wildlife supervisor in Pinedale said. On the National Elk Refuge an average of 7,426 elk annually, or 64% of the Jackson Herd, receive supplemental feed.
Numbers vary each year, but Game and Fish says approximately 20,000 elk are fed each year in Teton, Lincoln and Sublette counties. Because the issue is localized, Game and Fish separated the elk feedground problem from the rest of its CWD management plan.
Because of the elk abundance, hunters are experiencing “the decade of the elk” Doug Brimeyer, wildlife management coordinator with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, told WyoFile earlier this year. Game and Fish predicted 61,048 hunters would go into the field this season and shoot 25,469 elk.
CWD could change that dramatically and cause widespread social consequences in a state where hunting is a constitutional right and part of the cultural fabric.
The state and private outfitters “want to continue to keep higher populations,” said James Wilder, the wildlife biologist for the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Eight of the feedgrounds are on National Forest property.
Because of the healthy numbers, “we have it pretty good now, sportsman-wise,” Lund told the webinar. “Any significant reduction in elk numbers would be unpopular. That expectation of a robust elk population is real.”
Models show that CWD will begin to decrease elk populations when prevalence reaches 13%, Edwards said. An elk can be infected for more than a year before showing signs.
Even though there’s scant evidence the disease could spread to humans and cause Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease or a similar disease, the Centers for Disease Control warns against consuming meat from an infected animal.
Even if hunters decide to pursue elk during broad infection, they may find diminished chances as managers impose restrictions to keep populations up. “Current cow elk harvest in the Jackson Elk Herd could not be sustained at any level of CWD,” said Frank Durbain, who manages the National Elk Refuge.
Protecting open-space ranches
Artificial or supplemental feeding of elk, which started in 1909 in Jackson Hole after many elk starved, seeks to maintain numbers in the face of habitat loss and disruption of historic migrations.
A key element of the program was the Wyoming Legislature’s decision to set up a big game damage-claim system under which stockmen would be compensated for cattle feed consumed by elk.
It was easier, and less expensive, Lund said, “to move elk to feedgrounds.”
Cost of feed isn’t the only issue for Game and Fish. Elk can transmit to cattle bovine disease brucellosis, which causes miscarriages in both species. Feedgrounds help separate elk from ranchers’ herds, especially when elk are most contagious.
Feedgrounds also keep elk off highways and free native winter range for other species.
The state feeding program cost $1.6 million last year. It requires the purchase of between 6,000 and 9,000 tons of hay annually, plus difficult transport to remote feedgrounds.
Game and Fish contracts with a small but hearty band of elk feeders, many of whom drive horse-drawn sleighs, to dole out hay bales each year. Elk are fed an average of 123 days a winter.
Hunters buy a $15 special management permit to hunt in the areas where elk are fed, but that covers only about 10% of the feeding costs. It would take “a pretty good increase” in permit prices, Lund said, to cover the program.
“Trying to make hunting affordable is something we need to keep in mind,” he said.
Natural predation could be a tool to weed out infected animals, Edwards said. Researchers know mountain lions selectively prey on CWD-infected animals, he said. Some researchers of wolf predation believe wolves may be able to identify those animals that are CWD positive “before they’re showing clinical signs,” he told the group.
A brucellosis lesson
In recent years Game and Fish has sought to reduce elk dependence on crowded feedgrounds following several attempts to fight brucellosis. The disease can cause human sickness too, most commonly through the consumption of unpasteurized dairy products.
Despite bovine vaccines, brucellosis has infected more than 20 cattle herds in Wyoming since 2000. Federal regulations have led to the depopulation of some Wyoming ranchers’ stock. Although brucellosis and CWD are very different diseases, “you cannot disentangle the two,” said Brandon Scurlock, Game and Fish’s Pinedale wildlife management coordinator.
Vaccinations were shown not to work among elk. A test-and slaughter program at the Muddy Feedground south of Pinedale also failed, when infection rates soared to levels seen before the five-year program of killing off test positive elk began. Brucellosis also is as prevalent in some free-range herds as it is on feedgrounds, experts said.
Game and Fish also has developed individual plans for feedgrounds that consider neighboring ranches and stock, surrounding winter range and other factors.
A CWD feedground plan will be developed over the next 18 to 24 months with “lots of opportunities,” for people to submit their ideas, Edberg said.
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