ELK WOULD POSE TOO MANY PROBLEMS IN MISSOURI

The Missouri Conservation Commission has suspended a plan to bring elk into the state primarily because of fears that chronic wasting disease, a variant of mad cow disease, might also be introduced.

Chronic wasting disease, or CWD, also infects deer and livestock.

The conservation department has successfully re-established deer in Missouri, and there have been no signs of CWD in the state's deer herds or livestock.

The suspension was applauded by the state Agriculture Department and Missouri Farm Bureau, both of which emphasized the threat of the disease if elk were brought in. And some state legislators, alarmed at the possibility of vehicles running into elk, elk damaging crops or infecting cattle herds, filed bills this year to make the state liable for any such damage. Those measures died, but anti-elk sentiment remains strong.

For those reasons, the conservation commission acted wisely in suspending the plan. Elk would pose too many problems in Missouri.