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A suspected case of wasting disease has been discovered at a reindeer slaughterhouse in Harvasdal, Norway.
The reindeer herd in which the suspected case is included has been in Sweden and grazed and had contact with Swedish reindeer, according to a press release from the Jägarnas Riksförbund, (JRF).
The disease, formally called Chronic wasting disease (CWD), involves protein changes in the brain, which can lead to emaciation, neurological symptoms and death.
CWD is so serious that it risks knocking out reindeer husbandry in certain areas according to JRF – during Friday, crisis meetings were held about the situation, reports P4 Jämtland.
– The reindeer industry could potentially be hit very hard if it shows that we have confirmed cases. Even local tribes of moose and red deer can be hit hard, says Mikael Hultnäs, national wildlife conservation consultant at JRF, to the radio.
During Saturday, further information is expected from the Swedish Board of Agriculture and the State Veterinary Institute (SVA). However, no connection has been seen to disease in humans, according to SVA.
The first findings of CWD in Sweden were detected in moose cows from Norrbotten county on two different occasions during the first quarter of 2019.
After the Swedish Agricultural Agency collected well over 600 tests in both Arjeplog and Arvidsjaur, only one new case of the disease was found in September of the same year. The affected moose cow was ten years old and showed no symptoms of disease at the time of the felling. A little over a year later, a fourth case was found, in Västerbotten.
The disease has been known and spread among cervids in North America since the 1960s, but it was not until 2016 that the first cases among reindeer and moose appeared in Europe, specifically in Norway.
Facts
Wasting disease
The disease is also called Chronic wasting disease (CWD) and affects the animal’s brain and nervous system.
The most common symptom is emaciation, but drooling, teeth grinding and uncoordinated movements also occur.
The infection is often spread via body fluids and for the animal that is affected it means certain death.
When examining the European cases, it has emerged that there are different variants of the disease – a spontaneously occurring disease in older animals and an infectious variant.
The risk that humans can be infected is considered low, but it cannot be ruled out.
Source: The Norwegian Veterinary Institute (SVA)
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