Wildlife problem in Essex Co. spreading

By DENNIS APRILL
Outdoors Columnist

August 04, 2008 08:42 am

— There is a serious problem for wildlife in Essex County right now.
As of this writing Wednesday, there is a distemper epidemic in the Westport area that is spreading to Elizabethtown, Wadhams and south to Crown Point. It began with raccoons and skunks and then moved on to fox; coyotes and even mink and otter may be next.
This distemper outbreak is highly contagious, and the reason why it hasn't been getting a lot of ink or TV blurbs is that it is not a danger to humans, as is rabies, only wildlife and domestic dogs. It is, nonetheless, a serious situation.
Ed Mrozik is the animal control officer for Westport; he has been on the front lines of this epidemic since late March, when he said, "I started getting calls from local residents from the south end of Westport near Crown Point about raccoons and skunks that were out during daylight hours acting disoriented, or just lying still appearing to be dead."
Mrozik had the animals destroyed and sent them to Albany where they were tested for rabies. The tests came back negative. This made him wonder what was really going on.
By late April, the calls about sick animals -- mostly raccoons and skunks -- had increased; the disease was spreading. Mrozik started getting calls from Essex County Public Health and 911 dispatch. The state police got involved. The dead animals were sent to Albany where, as in the past, they turned up negative for rabies.
Mrozik knew something was drastically wrong. Wild animals were dying. He captured a gray fox that showed the same symptoms and took that animal to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, who took it to a veterinarian. The vet diagnosed the fox with canine distemper, a highly deadly and contagious disease that is easily spread by mucous, body fluids and scat.
This fox was then taken to State Department of Environmental Conservation pathologist Ward Stone, who confirmed the distemper.
Animals with distemper first lose the mobility of their back legs, then lose their sense of direction, have seizures and finally die. There is no cure for distemper, only vaccines to prevent it. So what can be done?
For the wild animals in the infected area, there is very little that can be done. Pet dogs and cats should be vaccinated for distemper and these pets should not be allowed to travel freely in areas where there are fox, skunks or raccoons, which is about everywhere up here.
One of the keys to preventing the spread of distemper is the licensed animal control business.
Mrozik says, "I contacted the local nuisance control trappers who use Havahart traps to humanly trap and release wildlife and asked them to stop trapping, since they are likely spreading the disease to areas not yet affected."
Some of the nuisance control people live-trap then release the nuisance animals up to 20 miles away on state land. Mrozik adds, "There are natural barriers out there, such as rivers and streams, which prevent the spread of the disease. When an infected animal is trapped and released in a non-infected area, the disease will spread more rapidly and more widely."
We can only hope this distemper epidemic will run its course soon.

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