VIDEO: Elk hunters in Wyoming asked to take blood samples; prizes available - Oil City News
CASPER, Wyo. — Hunters who successfully harvest elk in certain Wyoming hunt areas are asked to help the Wyoming Game and Fish Department with their brucellosis surveillance efforts. Hunters who help collect blood samples have the chance to win outdoor gear prizes.
Hunters who harvest elk in the following surveillance hunt areas are eligible for the raffle:
Game and Fish Cody Region Wildlife Disease Biologist Eric Maichak says that brucellosis is a bacterial disease that is “widespread and common in elk and bison in the Greater Yellowstone area.”
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“Cow elk, bison, or cattle exposed to large numbers of bacteria in aborted materials may in turn abort and further transmit the disease,” Maichak adds. “Brucellosis has been shown to slightly reduce pregnancy rates but not limit population size of elk.”
“Hunting seasons are designed to end before the risk of disease transmission is elevated after early February. We encourage hunters to wear latex gloves and avoid opening the reproductive tract or extremely swollen joints when dressing elk. These are areas where bacteria may exist.”
Hunters can help with the disease surveillance efforts by voluntarily collecting blood samples. Hunters should take the samples “immediately after harvest with a Game and Fish sample kit.”
“If you harvest an elk with a radio collar, do not cut the collar; return it to Game and Fish personnel,” Maichak adds.
Game and Fish has been able to document “numerous seropositive elk west of Highway 120, particularly around Meeteetse,” thanks to hunter submitted blood samples since 2012. Seropositive blood tests mean that an elk has been exposed to the bacteria, but may not be infected with brucellosis.
Maichak adds that “far fewer seropositive elk were found east of Highway 120 toward. In fact, hunters in the Bighorn Mountains have collected over 2,000 samples that last three hunting seasons, all of which have not been seropositive.”
Blood test data along with GPS location data from more than 100 radio-collared elk “are being used to develop projects to reduce risk of brucellosis transmission among elk and from elk to livestock,” Maichak says.
About 8,000 blood sample kits will be mailed to elk hunters who hold limited quota licenses for all hunt areas in the Big Horn Mountains and Basion. That includes hunt areas 33-49, 51-64 and 66. Some kits will be mailed to hunters with licenses for other regions of the state.
“Blood kits are mailed to limited quota license holders selected at random, and not to general license holders,” Game and Fish says. “If you are hunting in a targeted area and do not receive a blood kit, they are available from regional Game and Fish offices, field personnel and several convenience stores in the Basin.”
The department explains how hunters should collect blood samples:
Carry your blood tube or the entire sampling kit with you in the field.
Collect blood from the neck, femoral artery (rear leg) or chest cavity immediately after harvest.
Do not allow the blood sample to spoil or freeze; keep it cool.
Fill in the data section on the instruction card with specific information.
Return the kit to any Game and Fish field personnel, regional office or sample cooler.
Kits may also be returned via mail with return mail sticker included in the kit.
Wyoming Game and Fish Department
Game and Fish offers a video demonstrating how to talk blood samples from harvested elk:
Game and Fish says that their brucellosis raffle began in the 2018 hunting season and offers hunters a chance to win outdoor gear.
“Comparing 2017 to 2018 and 2019, sample returns statewide remained stable at around 1,450,” the department says. “This year we hope to see an increase as we’ve assembled even better prizes, including a grand prize package for one lucky hunter.”
Hunters have the chance to win the following:
-The Grand Prize Package that includes a Weatherby Weathermark V rifle in 6.5 x 300 Weatherby, donated by the Wyoming Sportsman’s Group of Gillette, with a Vortex Viper 6.5-20×50 PA rifle scope, donated by Vortex Optics, and Sig Sauer Oscar8 27-55×80 Spotting Scope, donated by Sig Sauer.
-Weatherby Weathermark V rifle in 6.5 x 300 Weatherby, donated by the Wyoming Sportsman’s Group of Gillette
-Browning X-Bolt rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor, donated by the Wyoming and Cody Chapters of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
-Maven C1 binoculars (8×42 or 10×42), donated by Maven and the Wyoming chapter of The Wildlife Society
-Game and Fish sweatshirts and hats
Wyoming Game and Fish Department
Hunters are entered into the raffle for each blood sample kit they return.
“Hunters who draw multiple elk licenses and receive multiple kits will be entered into the raffle for each kit returned,” Game and Fish says. “The raffle drawing will be held in March 2021.”
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