Oregon wildlife officials said they have confirmed 16 cases of elk hoof disease in the past couple of years including sporadic cases in the northeast portion of the state.
Initial cases of elk hoof disease were anticipated in northwest Oregon. Elk hoof disease initially appeared in Southwest Washington in the late 1990s, with a dramatic rise in reports of limping elk in 2007-08.
In some Southwest Washington herds, 20 percent to 90 percent of the animals show lameness.
Elk are known to swim across the Columbia River.
However, in the past year sporadic cases of elk hoof disease have been documented in northeast Oregon, are difficult to understand and are being investigated further.
Oregon biologists are asking hunters in the state to be on the lookout for limping elk. Sightings can be reported to www.dfw.state.or.us/wildlife/health_program/elk_hoof_disease to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Health Lab at 1-866-968-2600 or wildlife.health@state.or.us.
Oregon hunters who kill an elk with infected or overgrown hooves are asked to save all the hooves and and contact the state’s Wildlife Health Lab to arrange for collection.
“Observations reported by the public are critical in mapping where the disease currently exists and how the distribution is changing,” said Julia Burco, ODFW district wildlife veterinarian. “There is still a lot to learn about this new disease in Oregon and every new observation helps.”
Elk hoof disease is a bacterial infection that causes severe lameness in elk. Elk with the disease have deformed and overgrown or broken sloughed hooves and other hoof abnormalities related to the infection.
In 2014, the bacteria known as treponemes were identified as a consistent organism associated with the deformed, overgrown, broken or sloughed hooves seen in affected elk.
Though antibiotics, foot baths, cleaning pens and other methods can help treat similar problems in livestock, there are no practical ways to treat free-ranging elk with hoof disease.
Oregon’s first general rifle elk season, Cascade elk, opens Saturday.
