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"They won't survive the winter. They can't get around as good and you'll see their hindquarters, start getting skinnier and skinnier."Kristin Mansfield, a veterinarian with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, says the disease hasn't caused a decline in Washington's elk population yet, but it may if it continues to spread to new herds.
"To me, the biggest concern is how quickly it has spread and how severe it is in the animals."Mansfield says the disease doesn't match any other reports of elk maladies in the United States. Forms of hoof rot do appear occasionally in Wyoming's populations of elk that congregate around feeding sites. Mansfield says those reports of hoof disease are limited to winter and to a few individual animals.
Comment: It's the second mysterious disease to affect elk population around the world recently:
Swedish experts baffled by 'mystery' elk illness