An elk with hoof disease is seen in this photograph on the Oregon Fish and Wildlife website.
Washington State University’s newly minted Elk Hoof Disease Committee held its first meeting on July 7. The meeting is the first step in a concerted effort to better understand, and possibly treat, the mysterious affliction since the state Legislature allocated $1.52 million to fund the work of the state school.
Elk hoof disease, also known as hoof rot, first showed up in Washington elk in the 1990s. The first herd to be afflicted was the Mount St. Helens herd from Southwest Washington. The disease was relatively rare for about a decade until sightings began to increase in frequency around 2006.
Today the disease is prevalent in both the Mount St. Helens elk herd as well as the Willapa Hills herd, and diseased animals have been found in numerous Western Washington counties as far north as Highway 20 in Sedro-Woolley.
The disease causes severe deformities to appear on the hooves of elk, which ultimately leaves the animals immobile and prone to predation, starvation or death due to exposure. The threat posed by the affliction is so grave that the WDFW has enacted a regulation that requires hunters to sever the feet of any harvested elk and leave the hooves at the kill site in an effort to prevent the spread of the disease.
Despite those precautions the spread of elk hoof disease has continued in Western Washington. The funding and forming of the WSU committee is a signal that the state may be getting serious about getting to the bottom of the hoof disease problem.
“Washington taxpayers and the Legislature made it clear, EHD is a priority disease issue,” said Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine Dean Bryan Slinker, in a press release. “Together they fully funded a research program for WSU and from here on it’s time to get to work and develop some answers.”
The WSU veterinary college will collaborate their efforts with the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Washington Department of Agriculture, Native American tribes and other national and international agencies.
The purpose of the first meeting was to begin the process of planning how best to add elk hoof disease research into the fold at WSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine as well as how the committee will work in conjunction with the WDFW.
So far, the WSU group consists of research faculty, unit heads from the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory and the Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology as well as fiscal and communication staff. The legislation that set aside funding for the committee was sponsored by Sen. Kirk Pearson, R-Monroe, chairman of the Senate Natural Resources and Parks Committee.
“A job description for a new research scientist to head the program is being written, laboratory space in Pullman is being identified, and I have tasked committee members with seeking specific information to get this project underway,” said Slinker, in the release. “I anticipate this will require an ongoing communication effort that is as transparent as possible to keep public trust. We work for the public and we want the public to follow this difficult disease research issue with us.”
Additional information on elk hoof disease can be found on the WDFW website at wdfw.wa.gov.
