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Natural Resources Board to review plan for managing Chronic Wasting Disease in Wisconsin

Weekly News Article Published: August 4, 2009 by the Central Office

MADISON – A plan to manage chronic wasting disease (CWD) in Wisconsin will be presented to the state Natural Resources Board – the seven citizen member policy making body for the Department of Natural Resources – for consideration during its regular monthly meeting Aug. 12 in Hayward.

The plan asserts that without active disease management, the state will eventually experience lower deer populations and decreased opportunities to enjoy this valuable outdoor resource and Wisconsin’s state wildlife animal. CWD is always deadly to infected deer.

DNR’s goal over the next five years is to minimize the area of Wisconsin where CWD occurs and the number of infected deer in the state. The goal indicates a shift in the state’s management approach from attempting to eradicate the disease in the near term.

A Plan for Managing Chronic Wasting Disease in Wisconsin: The Next Five Years, a DNR product reviewed by citizens, stakeholders and conservation groups, notes that minimizing CWD “will require a commitment of human and financial resources over an extended period of time.” The plan reflects on seven years of CWD management in Wisconsin, and scientific and sociological challenges to managing the disease.

“Recent research shows a significant increase in the infection rate of bucks in the core CWD zone [see sidebar] – in that core zone, it appears one in eight adult bucks may have the disease. It is the consensus opinion of wildlife disease experts that without intervention, CWD will spread further in Wisconsin over time, and prevalence (the infection rate) of the disease will increase where the disease is currently found,” said Wildlife Director Tom Hauge.

The plan’s key strategies and measures are to:

• Prevent New Introductions of CWD – stopping new disease establishment in wild deer herds is much less expensive and less damaging to the state than fighting diseases after they are established.
• Respond to New Disease Foci – aggressively responding to newly discovered disease foci (locations) is the best option for disease control.
• Control Distribution and Intensity of CWD – includes reducing deer herd in infected areas through hunting season structure and landowner permits as well as working with local citizens, the Conservation Congress and state Natural Resources Board to conduct focused culling in areas of disease clusters along the edges of known CWD distribution.
• Increase Public Recognition and Understanding of CWD Risks – it is important that Wisconsin’s citizens are kept informed of the latest scientific knowledge and recommendations for managing this disease.
• Address the Needs of Our Customers – includes hunter deer testing, donating venison to food pantries, helping dispose of deer carcasses, monitoring for human prion diseases and examining potential risk to livestock.
• Enhance the Scientific Information about CWD – conducting in-house research, directly funding university research and collaborating in studies conducted nationally and internationally.

“Control of CWD in a high density, free-ranging white-tailed deer population is unprecedented,” according to the plan, but DNR isn’t “willing to accept the eventual spread of chronic wasting disease across the state. CWD has the potential for significant impacts on the future of deer hunting in Wisconsin.”

CWD is a fatal nervous system disease known to naturally infect white-tailed deer, mule deer, moose and elk. It belongs to a group of fatal animal diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, or TSE’s. Other TSE’s include scrapie in sheep, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or “mad cow disease”) in cattle, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease of humans. It was first identified in the Mt. Horeb area of Dane County in Feb. 2002.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Davin Lopez, CWD Project Leader, Madison: 608-267-2948; Greg Matthews: (608)275-3317.

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