Chronic Wasting Disease could be worse than it already is

Wisconsin stopped making effort
to contain disease in 2010

Now that it could cost Wisconsin”s economy billions of dollars, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is taking another look at the whitetail deer population being decimated by Chronic Wasting Disease.

The Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources ended its plan on thinning the herd in 2010 after public backlash. The agency’s new plan was to only monitor the disease with no attempts to control its spread.

Of course, that’s not working and it’s spreading fast. From 2014 to 2015, the percent of deer testing positive rose 3 percent.

“I don’t even think we’re adequately monitoring anymore,” Trempealeau state rep. Chris Danou said. “At a bare minimum they need to ramp up the testing again, to get a real handle on what’s going on and see if it’s maybe worse than it appears to be, which would be even scarier.

“They need to take an aggressive approach to this.”

Danou is one of the lawmakers who has asked the Walker administration to consider changes to how the state deals with CWD.

The disease is now at its highest prevalence rate since the it was discovered in Wisconsin in 2002. Deer in half the state’s counties now have the disease.

Of the 3,133 deer tested in 2015, 9.4% (295) came back positive for CWD. In 2014, 6.1% tested positive. The percentage of positive deer has been increasing, from 1.5% in 2008, 2.9% in 2010 and 5.1% in 2012, according to agency data.

“The southern part of the state, we proabaly aren’t going to be able to eliminate it, but we can probalby try to contain it,” Danou said.

Danou says the problem needs immediate attention because deer hunting brings in more than a billion dollars to the economy every year – not to mention it’s killing deer.

Danou recommends examining what the state of Illinois is doing to contain CWD in continuing to thin the herd. He and Nick Mulroy met with a member of Walker’s staff this week. 

At Wednesday’s meeting, these suggestions were made:

• Require double fencing of captive deer farms to prevent CWD from spreading to the wild deer population.
• Study whether lures that contain deer urine or other bodily fluids or parts such as tarsal glands contain CWD prions. Other states have banned them.
• Analyze other states’ policies regarding baiting and feeding of deer.
• Consider intensive culls at sites where new infections have been discovered.
• Restore the DNR Science Services Bureau positions that were eliminated in the 2015-’17 state budget.
• Examine what Illinois is doing to contain CWD and consider adopting those measures.

Walker spokesman Tom Evenson says the governor’s office is evaluating the proposals. 

CWD is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy similar to mad cow disease