PFSC NEWS Chronic Wasting Disease Articles and Information 2/2/03 CWD NEWS Brief: · WISCONSIN DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE TAKES OVER REGULATION OF DEER FARMS . . .. On January 1, 2003, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection took over regulating deer farms in that state from the Department of Natural Resources. This transfer comes as state officials implement new rules and regulations to slow the spread of chronic wasting disease in wild and captive cervids. · WISCONSIN STEPS UP DEER ERADICATION EFFORT . . . The Wisconsin DNR has received approval for a stepped up plan to eliminate deer from the eradication zone around Mount Horeb. The Wisconsin commission approved plans that will permit limited baiting of deer in the eradication zone by landowners and will also permit nighttime hunting by government sharpshooters. Bait to be used will be provided by the DNR, permits will be issued and DNR employees will approve bait sites. Additionally, the new plan calls for extending the landowner hunting permits in the zone until the end of March. After that, government sharpshooters may be used to reduce deer densities. · MORE FUNDS AVAILABLE TO STATES FOR CWD SURVEILLANCE . . . USDA-APHIS has released additional funds to assist states in paying for CWD surveillance during the past hunting season. To qualify, states must have submitted a surveillance plan and the tests must be run at an APHIS partner laboratory. This is in addition to the limited funding provided by the USFWS through the state grants program administered by the International Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies. · PENNSYLVANIA LIFTS DEER AND ELK IMPORT BAN . . . The State of Pennsylvania has lifted their ban on the import of deer and elk. The new rules, awaiting approval by the state Attorney General, would require that any cervid imported from a state or province with CWD be from a herd that has been monitored for five years and any other cervid imported come from a herd that has been monitored for at least three years. All imports would require a state importation permit and must be accompanied by a certificate of veterinary inspection. Oregon joins battle of deer, elk illness Posted 12/27/02 Scientists gather specimens that will be tested for chronic wasting disease. BILL MONROE The Associated Press December 24, 2002 Game officials use new live test on New Mexico deer Posted 12/27/02 Silver City Sun-News By The Associated Press December 22, 2002 SANTA FE (AP) - New Mexico wildlife managers are using a new method of testing for chronic wasting disease that allows them to gather samples without killing the animals. The recent discovery at Colorado State University that the disease can be detected in the animals' lymph nodes led to the change. More…. Controlling deer herds: Who has the rights? Posted 12/27/02 By Eileen D. Frese West Newsmagazine Relocation, euthanasia and contraceptive plans have residents of a Missouri town squaring off over concerns surrounding deer populations. The same issue faces communities across the country. Choosing a method of deer management that is acceptable to everyone always has been a seemingly insurmountable challenge and an emotionally charged issue. Now the stakes have been driven even higher in the city of Town & Country, Mo. More… POSITIVE CWD CASE FOUND IN ILLINOIS Posted: 11/04/02 One more state added to the growing list Illinois Department of Natural Resources FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 1, 2002 POSITIVE CWD CASE FOUND IN ILLINOIS SPRINGFIELD, ILL. – Chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been detected in a sample from a wild deer near Roscoe in Winnebago County, the Department of Natural Resources announced today. CWD is not known to be contagious to livestock or humans. The young female deer was shot by a landowner in late October because he believed it was ill. DNR Conservation Police officers were contacted and collected the doe for testing at the Illinois Department of Agriculture laboratory in Centralia. A follow-up test conducted today at the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, confirmed the diagnosis. "This is the first positive for CWD from any deer or elk in Illinois, though we've been monitoring and testing for the disease for the past five years," said IDNR Director Brent Manning. "Illinois expanded its surveillance efforts earlier this year and created a joint task force with the Departments of Natural Resources and Agriculture following the CWD outbreak in southern Wisconsin." More… Who's to Blame for Mad Deer? By Brian McCombie, The Progressive August 1, 2002 The helicopter rises up over the ridge line, the noise of the rotors scattering the targets below. But the snipers in the doorway already have their scoped, high-powered rifles locked in, and the bullets fly until the targets pitch forward, kicking and writhing in their death throes. The latest battlefield description from Afghanistan? No. It's the next battlefield from the rolling, wooded hills near Madison, Wisconsin. The snipers are employees of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The targets? White-tailed deer, potential carriers of a deadly disease that may also infect people. It's called Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), and it's steadily spreading across North America. "CWD clearly originated in northeastern Colorado and now has ended up spreading far and wide into many states and two Canadian provinces," writes John Stauber, a Madison, Wisconsin, activist and co-author of Mad Cow U.S.A. (Common Courage, 1997), which examines England's Mad Cow nightmare and whether it could happen here. The disease, he claims, is traveling faster and more effectively than nature could ever accomplish. He suspects this is due to the interstate transportation of game farm animals. And he blames the expansion of the disease on the game farm industry and state agricultural agencies that act more as game farm patrons than as regulators. More….. This from Indiana: Indiana is starting a surveillance program this season and I pray every day we don't find it. We are working on getting a bill introduced with our state legislature to ban canned hunting of cervids. Hopefully this will pass and at least the inter-state transport will diminish. However, the black market on cervid trade is really growing. The Indiana Division of Law Enforcement was investigating a case where deer in one of our fish & wildlife areas were being tranquilized and then shipped out of state with bogus "health and owner" certificates. Keep up your guard. PA Elk and deer farmers weigh in on regulating spread of deadly disease Posted: 09/09/02 By Mark Nale For the CDT 9/8/02 Three weeks ago, I wrote about chronic wasting disease, the incurable communicable degenerative nervous disorder that occurs in deer, elk and moose. This affliction is continuing to make news in the outdoor world. Here in Pennsylvania, friction is building between deer and elk farmers and the Pennsylvania Game Commission because of the Game Commission's ban on the importation of live deer and elk. There are also ongoing "discussions" between the state Department of Agriculture and the Game Commission as to who should manage the disease. More…. Diseased deer crisis was declared over, prematurely 09/08/02 Bob Marshall Agriculture and wildlife officials shook hands in Baton Rouge on Thursday, then issued a press release: Louisiana's crisis with Chronic Wasting Disease had passed. But the accuracy of that claim remains in doubt. CWD is an always-fatal, highly contagious neurological disease that afflicts deer and elk. Scientists do not know how it is spread, but they do know this scary fact: animal-to-animal contact is not necessary. The disease could be spread through infected ground or water or air. More…. Feuding agencies cut 'mad-deer' deal Posted: 09/05/02 By PATRICK COURREGES pcourreges@theadvocate.com Capitol news bureau 9/5/02 Better than forty fresh immigrants from Minnesota found themselves facing the death penalty Wednesday. The fate of 44 imported deer was sealed as the makings of a fresh feud between the state Agriculture and Wildlife departments dissolved in an agreement on a "mad deer" dispute. State Agriculture Commissioner Bob Odom and state Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Jimmy Jenkins Jr. agreed to test 44 deer for chronic wasting disease, an illness that is always fatal. The deer were imported from Minnesota in May to seven enclosures in five parishes, including East Baton Rouge. The state will buy the deer back from their owners and have them tested for the disease. Unfortunately for the deer, the testing involves being beheaded and having parts of their brains shipped to Ames, Iowa. The import and testing of the deer rekindled a 5-year-old rivalry between Agriculture and Wildlife and Fisheries over the governance of farm-raised deer, one that ended up in the courthouse in 1998 and almost did so again this time. More…… Disposal Costs Skyrocket DNR decides to incinerate deer carcasses 9/4/02 Wisconsin Up to 25,000 deer will be incinerated this fall from a zone near Mount Horeb where a massive deer kill is planned to control chronic wasting disease - an option that is likely to cost taxpayers more than $2 million. The state Department of Natural Resources rejected other, cheaper disposal options Wednesday - including burying deer in landfills - and decided instead to burn the carcasses. The decision solves an immediate problem of how to dispose of all of the deer that are shot from a 389-square-mile section of Dane, Iowa and Sauk counties. The DNR decided to extend a contract with Midwest Cremation Service of Wisconsin in Poynette, a pet crematory, rather than accept the other bids or build a landfill on state-owned land. more…. Reward Offered to Prevent Chronic Wasting Disease Georgia Paper offers reward for T.I.P. on illegal import 9/4/02 Georgia Outdoor News magazine (GON) is offering a reward of $1,000 to the first person who provides information to the Turn In Poachers (T.I.P.) hotline that helps the Law Enforcement Section of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife Resources Division (WRD) make an arrest on the charges of transporting deer or elk into the state of Georgia without a permit. The purpose of the reward is to raise awareness among hunters and the general public about the dangers of importing any deer species at a time when chronic wasting disease (CWD), a fatal brain disorder of deer and elk, is a major concern of wildlife agencies around the country. More…. Chronic problem: Disease doing damage to deer herd By Mark Nale Outdoors For the Center Daily Times 8/31/02 Disease doing damage to deer herd Chronic Wasting Disease is a term most Pennsylvania outdoor enthusiasts are unfamiliar with but unfortunately, that could be changing. Hunters will get to know it particularly well, for chronic wasting disease is a communicable disease of deer, elk and moose, and it is heading in our direction. More….. Imported deer spur probe for infection 08/31/02 Shipment not certified as free of fatal disease It appears that CWD is a concern for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries since that state's Department of Agriculture and Forestry "allowed a shipment of 44 pen-raised deer into Louisiana from a supplier that was not certified CWD-free, state records show." This article also provides and interesting insight into that state's bureaucratic struggles over jurisdiction. Brain Disease Rises in Deer, Scaring Hunters By SANDRA BLAKESLEE As hunting season approaches, people in Wisconsin and the Rocky Mountain states are increasingly worried about chronic wasting disease, the variant of mad cow disease that afflicts deer and elk. Scientists are fairly confident that no one in the United States has died from a human version of chronic wasting disease, but hunters are confused and frightened anyway. Gov tells feds: State needs fast test for CWD Associated Press August 29, 2002 Wisconsin Gov. Scott McCallum has told federal officials that hunters' fears about the safety of deer meat could cause one-third of them to skip this fall's hunt, jeopardizing the state's battle to control chronic wasting disease in the herd. McCallum on Wednesday sent a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman urging her agency to "get off the dime" and approve a rapid test for the fatal brain disease and certify private laboratories so they can also do the testing. 7 more Wisconsin deer test positive for CWD Associated Press Published Aug 31, 2002 MADISON, Wis. -- A special hunt in July produced more evidence that at least 2 percent of the deer herd in the Mount Horeb area is infected with chronic wasting disease, state officials said Friday. Of 336 deer killed July 13-19 in an effort to eradicate the disease from the herd, seven tested positive for the fatal brain ailment, raising the total found so far to 31, the Department of Natural Resources said. The test results continue a trend of 2-3 percent of the deer killed in a 374-square-mile area of Dane and Iowa counties being infected with the disease. ``It is not surprising to find more positives in the area,'' said Tom Hauge, director of the agency's bureau of wildlife management. ``These test results are consistent with what we've found so far.'' In February, the DNR announced that three bucks killed in November near Mount Horeb had chronic wasting disease - the first time the disease was found east of the Mississippi River. Since then, nearly 1,500 deer have been killed in the area in hunts to find out how widespread the disease is in the herd and to begin trying to eliminate it. Testing of their brains at a laboratory in Iowa found 28 - or roughly 2 percent - were infected with the disease. One of the seven new cases found from the July hunt was close enough to the boundary of the eradication zone to force wildlife officials to expand it to keep a four-mile buffer around all known cases, Hauge said. As a result, another 15 square miles were added to the zone, increasing the size to 389 square miles, he said. The DNR wants all deer - an estimated 25,000 - killed in the zone by early next year. The final summer hunt is set for Sept. 7-13.There is no cure for chronic wasting disease, which produces sponge-like holes in a deer's brain, causing the animal to grow thin, act abnormal and die. Experts say there is no scientific evidence the disease can infect humans, but the World Health Organization advises people not to eat any part of a deer with evidence of the disease.