Elk-hoof disease found in Yakima herd

An elk from the Yakima herd tested positive for elk-hoof disease earlier this year.

The elk was captured by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and sent to a new, state-of-the-art elk-hoof research facility at Washington State University.

WDFW staff captured 13 elk. Only one tested positive, said Kyle Garrison, WDFW’s ungulate specialist.

The case is the first documented infection in the Yakima herd.

First documented in the early 2000s, hoof disease has since been found in 17 Washington counties, primarily west of the Cascades, affecting eight of Washington’s 10 elk herds.

California, Idaho, and Oregon have also reported cases of the disease. In 2019, WDFW confirmed the disease in Walla Walla County – the eastern-most detection in Washington state. Last year, WDFW documented cases of the poorly understood disease in the Washington’s Blue Mountains.

Throughout Western Washington, about 12% of successful hunters reported abnormal hooves on their harvest, which serves as a measure of prevalence, according to a WDFW news release. In Eastern Washington less than 1% of hunters report hoof abnormalities.

The low level of reporting is encouraging, Garrison said, considering that these elk herds are observed by many people. That may mean that while the disease is spreading, it’s not reaching the levels of prevalence found in herds in Western Washington.

Scientists suspect several factors contribute to elk hoof disease development, including wet or moist environmental conditions and an elk’s individual condition. Outside of southwest Washington, prevalence has remained low.

Garrison emphasized the importance of hunter reports on finding the disease.

“We rely so much on the public reports,” he said. “Hunters that are out there. You see something that you think is suspicious, please report that.”

The detection in the Yakima herd proved the usefulness of WSU’s 4-acre enclosed research facility.

Construction on the facility ended in January and elk were brought into it in February, said Margaret Wild, a professor at Washington State University studying elk-hoof disease. Initially, researchers hoped to see if the newly captured elk could become infected simply by being in a contaminated environment. That information could be important to understanding how the disease spreads.

But the coronavirus closures stalled most of the work scheduled for this spring, Wild said.

“It was extremely disappointing,” Wild said. “But its understandable.”