By GARY HOMPLAND
Idaho Department of Fish & Game
Question: "I read today about some elk dying at a feed site near Ketchum. What happened there?"
Answer: You are correct, five elk in good health died at a private feed site in Timber Gulch between Ketchum and Hailey. Fish and Game and Department of Agriculture veterinarians confirmed three of the elk died from a clostridium bacterial infection. The remaining two elk are suspected to have died from the infection but were not tested.
According to Dr. Mark Drew, wildlife veterinarian with the Fish and Game, stress, sudden feed changes or ingestion of large quantities of feed and anaerobic conditions can develop in the gastro-intestinal tract or other tissues that allow the clostridial organisms to grow and produce toxins, which can cause acute deaths. Feed sites can create conditions that enhance proliferation and transmission of bacteria and other disease agents among animals that are feeding and defecating in close proximity with one another.
The livestock industry faces similar issues in the dairy and cattle feedlot business. Manure or fecal material that accumulates as result of prolonged confined feeding operations is a great environment to grow many types of bacteria. Animals ingesting infected soil and fecal material mixed with their feed become infected with the bacteria.
There is little human safety concern with this infection. The clostridium bacteria must be ingested for an animal to become infected and is not contagious to other elk through nose-to-nose contact. This infection is localized to only the Timber Gulch site and does not involve large numbers of elk.
Generally, the bacteria poses little hazard to the health of free-ranging elk but every once in a while a deadly bacteria infects healthy animals at feed sites and is fatal. Dairy and beef cattle are also subject to fatal varieties of these bacteria in confined feeding areas. Wild elk that come and go cannot be effectively handled or treated to prevent the condition.
The Timber Gulch feed site is a privately operated program where approximately 120 elk are being fed. This is the second time elk at the Timber Gulch feed site have died from a clostridium infection. In January 2006, an otherwise healthy cow elk died under similar circumstances.
According to Dr. Drew, recommendations for prevention of further problems at the feed site include discontinuation of feeding, changing feeding locations, and spreading the feed out over a long enough distance that all animals present can feed at the same time. Fish and Game personnel have relayed this information to the operators of this feed site.
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has long discouraged private feeding of elk to minimize the risk of disease transmission, reduce dependence of wild deer and elk on artificial feed, maintain natural seasonal migration patterns, and encourage use of traditional winter forage and winter ranges.
This is an example of when our concerns about feeding elk came true. Fortunately, this infection is not contagious to other elk or transmissible to humans.
If you have any further questions, you can call the Magic Valley Regional Office of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at (208)324-4350 or e-mail us at the Fish and Game Web site at http://fishandgame.idaho.gov.
Elk congregate in 2005 near the Warm Springs golf course on the northwestern edge of Ketchum, where they were once fed in the winter months. The golf course site is no longer being used as a venue to feed elk. Photo by Mountain Express
