The first known case of a deadly brain disease of deer and elk jumping to moose was reported Thursday by state wildlife managers.
The finding does not mean chronic wasting disease is any more likely to infect humans or cattle, experts said.
State health officials, however, continue to warn hunters against eating infected animals.
Chronic wasting slowly destroys the brains of infected animals, and it is in the same family of diseases as “Mad Cow” in cattle or the fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.
“To date there’s no evidence that it’s jumping into people, but we’re still looking,” said John Pape, an epidemiologist with the state health department.
An archery hunter killed the bull moose near Cameron Pass Sept. 10, according to the Colorado Division of Wildlife. The the man submitted brain and lymph tissue for state testing.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the hunter had eaten any of the meat, said division spokesman Tyler Baskfield.
State officials called him with the bad test results Wednesday, Baskfield said.
Moose testing has been mandatory since 2003, because researchers suspected moose, which are closely related to deer and elk, might be vulnerable to chronic wasting disease.
The disease was first detected in Colorado deer and elk in the 1960s.
Since 2002, 288 moose hunted in Colorado have been tested.
Researchers have penned cattle and infected deer and elk together for nine years and found no evidence that the disease can sicken cattle, said Kathi Green, disease management coordinator with the Division of Wildlife.
Epidemiologists found no apparent link between the deer and elk disease and the state’s human cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob, Pape said.
Wildlife officials said they don’t yet know whether the discovery of chronic wasting in moose will affect moose management in the state.
Staff writer Katy Human can be reached at 303-820-1910 or at khuman@denverpost.com.
