Game management associations in Kyyjärvi and the surrounding area have organised collection points and are sending the moose heads to the Food Authority for examination. A moose head was also sent from Perho for examination.
The suspicion of a rare animal disease has triggered an extraordinary operation in ten game management associations.
When preliminary investigations revealed the presence of TSE in a deer shot in Kyyjärvi in central Finland, the need for further investigations was identified and the Food Authority asked the game management associations to examine deer heads.
More than 20 heads from the weekend’s moose hunt have already been sent to the Agency’s laboratories in Seinäjoki or Kuopio.
The final confirmation of Kyjærve’s disease case will be available next week.
By trailer or via travel agency
The Food Agency asked ten game management associations around Kyjyjärvi to examine the heads of moose over one year old felled in yachts.
One of these is the Perho game management association.
– All clubs have been informed of the address to which the heads will be delivered. In Perho, the place is on the plot of the chairman of the game management association, says Kortelainen.
For example, a warehouse or a trailer is suitable as a collection place, where the heads are kept in cool climates in research condition without special cold storage.
The space must be protected so that the birds cannot peck.
From the fly, the elk headed forward on Thursday. Some of the game management associations transport the heads themselves to the Food Agency’s laboratories.
Until January
The collection of moose heads continues until the middle of January, when moose hunting ends.
The moose felled in Kyyjärvi had behaved abnormally. No abnormality was seen in the behavior of the moose’s head delivered by the Perholians.
– According to the initial data, this Perho deer had behaved normally, says Sami Kortelainen.
For transport, it is enough to pack in one or two overlapping garbage bags. The samples must be sent to the Food Agency’s laboratories in Seinäjoki or Kuopio. Some come through Matkahuolto. Some are brought by game management associations.
*Listen here as Sami Kortelainen, operations manager of the Perho game management association, tells reporter Raila Paavola about the collection arrangements.*
Endogenous disease
The investigation of the TSE encephalopathy continues throughout Finland.
The Food Agency will continue to request that the heads of all moose over one year old that are sick or die of their own accord be examined.
So far, just under 6,000 deer have been tested for TSE in the whole country since 2003.
TSE disease has previously been found in two moose in Finland, in Laukaa and Kuhmo, for the first time in 2018. According to current research information, the disease is endogenous in moose and is not contagious.