JOHN DAY – Domestic elk imports were banned under a temporary rule adopted by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission Friday.

More permanent action is expected at the commission’s Nov. 8 meeting in Portland. The ban aims primarily to protect Oregon wildlife against chronic wasting disease.

Chronic wasting disease is an untreatable, fatal neurological disease found in deer and elk, most commonly transmitted through infected animals’ saliva. The disease has not been shown to affect human beings, but people are cautioned against eating meat from infected animals. The disease is similar to mad-cow disease in cattle and scrapie in sheep.

Letters have been sent to 4,500 hunters with deer and elk tags for the Northside Wildlife Management Unit informing them that the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has established a check station in Long Creek. The station will sample hunters’ game carcasses for tuberculosis and chronic wasting disease under a voluntary sampling.

Testing for chronic wasting disease, unlike testing for tuberculosis, is possible only on dead animals. Tuberculosis is a communicable disease which became a particularly worrisome issue in Eastern Oregon when a single cow elk domestically raised in the Kimberly area tested positive for TB.