State lab taking over deer-disease testing

Samples previously sent to Wisconsin

The Arkansas Veterinary Diagnostics Laboratory is getting into the business of testing for chronic wasting disease afflicting deer and elk in Arkansas.

No Arkansas lab, until now, had been certified to test for chronic wasting disease, a fatal brain disorder for white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk and moose. There is no prevention and no cure. Researchers have found no evidence that the disease poses a serious risk to humans.

The lab, a division of the state Livestock and Poultry Commission, is the only Arkansas lab that is a member of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, which coordinates the nation's response to outbreaks of animal-borne diseases.

Since the presence of the disease in Arkansas was confirmed in February, the state Game and Fish Commission has had to send tissue samples to the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Madison. The disease also is in 23 other states.

The state has a deer herd of about 1 million and an elk herd of about 600. Some 300,000 Arkansans hunt deer, killing about 200,000 a year.

Officials with both commissions have drafted a memorandum of understanding on how the Arkansas lab will take over the testing.

The Game and Fish Commission spent about $71,000 on testing for chronic wasting disease in 2016, including shipping and handling, Keith Stephens, a commission spokesman, said. Those numbers could fluctuate in coming years, depending on how or if the disease spreads, Stephens said.

"We had a very extensive testing program early on," Stephens said. The commission also set up 25 tissue-collection sites inside a 10-county disease-management zone and asked hunters to take their deer there during the first two days of modern-gun season in November.

The commission has collected some 3,500 samples from the brains and lymph nodes of dead deer and elk since Sept. 1 in its effort to contain the the disease and sent those samples to Wisconsin, Stephens said. (From 1997 through 2015, the commission had 7,400 samples tested, with none testing positive for chronic wasting disease.)

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So far, 156 of the recent samples have tested positive, Stephens said. White-tailed deer accounted for 150 of those cases. Elk accounted for six. All of the confirmed cases are in the management zone containing Boone, Carroll, Johnson, Logan, Madison, Marion, Newton, Pope, Searcy and Yell counties.

The Game and Fish Commission is an independent agency under the state's constitution and can't be required by law to use the Livestock and Poultry Commission's lab.

"Absolutely, we'd give them [the Little Rock lab] a chance," Stephens said. "We've already been talking with the people there. We could have a quicker turnaround [on results]. They're right here on campus. It would be convenient. It would be timely. And we think it would be less costly."

The Game and Fish Commission and the Livestock and Poultry Commission and its lab are in a complex of state agencies on Natural Resources Drive in west Little Rock.

"To put it simply, it's a logistical thing," said Cory Gray, coordinator for the Game and Fish Commission's deer program. "We have to send them [tissue samples] to Wisconsin, we have to keep them frozen. We can't ship on Thursdays or Fridays. If we can do all that in-house and keep it local with a quicker turnaround, I don't see any problems."

The Legislative Council, which conducts the Legislature's business when it's not in session, in October approved the laboratory's hiring of a microbiologist for the screening for chronic wasting disease.

The Game and Fish Commission also recently hired its first wildlife veterinarian, Jenn Ballard, who will have lab privileges when the testing begins, said Russ Summers, deputy director of the Arkansas lab.

Lab officials also have drawn up a budget and are awaiting delivery of equipment and supplies. The National Animal Health Laboratory Network approved the lab for the disease testing, after receiving the endorsement of the idea by Brandon Ross, the state veterinarian. One or two other people will be needed on a part-time basis, Summers said. "So, we're getting there, the trail is being laid," he said.

"Our agencies have cooperated together many times, so this is nothing new," Summers said, citing as examples the proliferation of feral hogs or suspected wildlife poisonings. "It makes sense to cooperate on this issue as well."

The plan, as it stands now, is for the lab to test only the tissue samples provided by Game and Fish Commission personnel or others working under the commission's authority and not allow drop-offs of tissue by the public, at least until after the program has a good start, Summers said.

Of the approximately 3,500 samples collected by the Game and Fish Commission, 1,251 were from deer shot by hunters. About 1,600 were from " roadkills" found statewide. Another 300 were from deer and elk that were showing symptoms of the disease and were later shot and killed. About 400 came from veterinarians and taxidermists who took samples from hunters' kills.

Vials of tissue samples are sent by overnight shipping to Wisconsin. There's usually a two-week turnaround on test results, and that's with the Wisconsin lab putting the Arkansas cases on high priority "because [chronic wasting disease] has been confirmed here," Stephens said.

There are two tests for the disease: an enzyme-linked test called ELISA that costs about $15 and has a turnaround time of a few days, and a more comprehensive $30 test called IHC, or immunohistochemistry, that might take a couple of weeks before results are in, Stephens said.

The Little Rock lab would use the ELISA test, Summers said.

Any ELISA test that comes out positive, or is suspect for the disease, is sent to a second lab, usually one run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in Ames, Iowa, for confirmation, Stephens said. The commission has seen only two false-positive results, he said.

Summers said that procedure will continue.

The National Animal Health Laboratory Network, a division of the USDA, has authorized 13 other labs to conduct the ELISA tests. Nineteen have been approved for the IHC tests. Seven labs in the nation conduct both tests, according to a network map of its services.

SundayMonday on 01/22/2017

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