Is Chronic Wasting Disease A Threat In The High Country?
Story by Celeste von Mangan On March 29, North Carolina Department of Wildlife officials cut the chain on Josephine Perdue’s farm gate, entered her property in Vilas, and proceeded to poison and slaughter her herd of captive elk. Included in the herd were one 23-year-old bull, three pregnant cows and a ten-month old female calf. Perdue’s elk were one of 72 captive cervid herds residing in North Carolina. (A cervid refers to any deer, elk or moose.) The elk were healthy and well fed animals. They were not suspected to have Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), a fatal form of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) affecting deer and elk, when they were killed, nor had the herd been exposed to the disease. Perdue’s animals’ were killed due to a set of regulations set by the federal government to prevent the spread of CWD. Several other herds of captive cervids consisting of deer have been killed in a similar manner as the elk on the Perdue farm. “There are no cases of Chronic Wasting Dis
