NR APBR
AU anonym
TI Department of Livestock to Depopulate Alternative Livestock Facility
QU December 6, 1999 Montana Dept of Livestock press release
PT press release
VT
Tomorrow, the Montana Department of Livestock will depopulate an alternative livestock facility near Philipsburg where chronic wasting disease was recently discovered, the Department announced today.
Dr. Arnold Gertonson, State Veterinarian, said elk at the facility will be euthanized, and that a team of pathologists supervised by the U.S. Department of Agriculture will take tissue samples from all of the animals for testing and research purposes.
Gertonson said the animals will be transported to the High Plains Sanitary Landfill north of Great Falls, where they will be buried.
The Department had previously announced plans to burn the dead animals, but Gertonson said that method of disposal proved to be "prohibitively expensive and complicated. Burying is a method recognized by APHIS under certain conditions in accordance with Sub Title D regulations."
Gertonson said equipment used to feed, water and care for the animals will similarly be transported for disposal at the landfill, and that the fence lines at the alternative livestock facility will be disinfected once the operation has been completed.
He reiterated that the Department of Livestock will be working with the Departments of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and Health and Human Services, to review the state's rules and regulations governing chronic wasting disease and alternative livestock facilities. The Department's rules already are among the strictest in the nation, stricter than the rules of other states where chronic wasting disease has long been known to exist, Gertonson noted. When chronic wasting disease was first documented to have occurred at the Philipsburg facility, Gertonson issued an emergency order to make Montana's rules for importation of alternative livestock tougher than they already were.
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