Babesiosis (In humans)
Posted on 05/13/2015 4:49:15 AM PDT by SJackson
Five elk recently transferred to Wisconsin from Kentucky as part of a reintroduction effort died in mid-April because of a tick-borne disease, the Department of Natural Resources announced Monday.
The elk died over a period of about one week in a quarantine pen in Jackson County, according to the DNR. The dead elk included one adult cow, which carried an unborn calf, and four yearlings (three females and one male).
Necropsies on the dead animals revealed they died of acute Babesiosis, according to the DNR. The disease is caused by microscopic parasites that infect red blood cells and are spread by certain ticks, including the deer tick.
State wildlife officials presume the elk were bitten by ticks after their arrival in Wisconsin. The dead animals were part of a shipment of 26 elk brought to Wisconsin in late March as part of a multiyear agreement with Kentucky wildlife officials. The plan calls for Wisconsin to receive up to 150 elk from Kentucky.
"We're obviously disappointed," said Kurt Flack, a Wisconsin representative of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, the leading financial contributor to the elk reintroduction. "It's shocking to lose five animals in so short a time. But we realize things like this can happen, and we maintain our support for bringing more elk to Wisconsin."
The newly transferred animals are being held in a 7-acre pen until they complete a quarantine, probably in early June.
While Babesiosis has previously been identified in Wisconsin and other states and is known to cause severe, acute disease in reindeer, elk and caribou, it's not clear if the disease has killed elk in Wisconsin before, according to Tami Ryan, chief of the DNR's wildlife health section.
(Excerpt) Read more at jsonline.com ...
Guess Ky will be selling a few more elk.
good lets move tick diseases from one state to another..
Remember the old butter commercial..”Its not nice to fool mother nature”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLrTPrp-fW8
Its what the quarantine is for. In this case, the elk may have contracted the disease in Wisconsin after transport.
I wondered why the didn’t get the elk from farms in WI.
Possibly, though both the wild WI elk and farm raised were purchased from somewhere.
I live very close (15 miles) to the area where these elk are being held. As was stated, the purpose of the “quarantine” is to determine if anything in the environment is a potential cause for harm/disease to these “foreigners”. Sadly, the ticks found the elk. This particular time of year is the worst for ticks. So far, just doing yards work around my yard area, I have encountered numerous ticks. I can’t imagine how many ticks these elk were subjected to.
couple months ago we were in Cherokee, N.C. and a herd of Elk came and ate from their central park.
Had to be 40 of em and just WOW.Then just as suddenly they all took off looking for better grass.
Yeah. I check my dogs for ticks many times per day. They like the attention so they don’t mind me looking in their ears and digging through their hair.
Wow! Who knew KY is crawling with elk?
Interesting.
Deer in my yard all loaded with “bumps” which are ticks under the layer of the coat.
Ticks are out in force in Kentucky now. Yuk.
When I go out to the property where we have a range set up, I have to prepare like I’m going on a mission and then get a thorough tick inspection when I come home.
I have two sets of clothes that I treat with permethrin every 5 washes and in addition I spray deet on shoes & lower legs.
Last week I set my gear on the shooting platform, took about 5 minutes to set targets and got my rifle out of the case. As I get into position I see a tick walking in circles on my front sight. It was like a joke.
whoops.supose i should read the whole thing
Wisconsin is importing elk? Why? Do we have a shortage of deer?
FReep mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
Wonder if there are more ticks and tick borne disease or we’re just more aware?
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