State officials begin killing infected elk

<br>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ State workers were destroying an elk herd Wednesday that was exposed to so-called ``mad deer'' disease. <br><br>The 74 animals were being killed four at a time in a stock

Wednesday, September 4th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ State workers were destroying an elk herd Wednesday that was exposed to so-called ``mad deer'' disease.

The 74 animals were being killed four at a time in a stock trailer, said Jack Carson, spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry. The herd is the only one in the state infected with chronic wasting disease, officials said.

About 35 workers were rounding up the elk on a ranch northwest of Oklahoma City, then injecting them will tranquilizers that put them to sleep, followed by a lethal injection, Carson said.

``It's the same thing that a veterinarian would do if you took in a pet to have it put to sleep,'' he said. ``The animals are being treated as humanely as possible.''

There is no test for determining whether a live animal has the disease and there is no known cure. The elk heads will be sent to a government lab in Colorado that will be able to perform tests to determine how many of the animals had the disease.

The elk's bodies were being burned and buried on the ranch.

``That's the best thing to do,'' he said. ``We hope that will help reduce the possibility of that organism being in the ground.''

The disease is similar to mad cow disease in cattle. In humans, it's called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

State officials said the elk herd posed no risk to humans, but they were worried about infecting Oklahoma's white tail deer population.

The federal government this year bought and killed virtually all other captive animals _ more than 1,600 _ thought to be exposed or infected with chronic wasting disease.

The Oklahoma elk herd, owned by the Kaspereit family, got the disease after the family bought an exposed elk from a Montana farm about five years ago. The Montana herd has been killed, as well as infected captive herds in South Dakota, Nebraska and Colorado.

The Kaspereits will not be allowed to raise more animals in the deer family for five years.

The family will receive $3,000 for each elk alive when the animals were quarantined at their Oklahoma County ranch in 1997. Back then, 120 adults and 30 calves roamed behind the ranch's 6-foot chain-link fence.

The Kaspereits expect to receive a check for about $360,000 from the federal government by Oct. 1.

The family said it's been difficult dealing with state and federal officials. They claim officials did not communicate with them for a year and a half.

``It's been a masterpiece of bureaucracy,'' Carol Kaspereit said.

In turn, state officials complained that the Kaspereits should have told them every time an elk died. They said they were surprised to learn the herd had dropped from a high of 150 animals to 74.

Not all the animals were tested, but some were found to be infected with the disease, Carson said.

They also disagreed about what the herd was worth. The family estimated they have $750,000 to $800,000 tied up in equipment, feed and elk. One bull is worth $25,000, they said.