Injustice in the Upper Peninsula

03-06-2002
Chronic Wasting Surveillance Targets Mt. Horeb Area Whitetails

MADISON -- Biologists, conservation wardens, veterinarians and epidemiologists from three state agencies will test more deer, talk to hunters, and do aerial surveys in their efforts to learn how widespread chronic wasting disease is among whitetail deer, and where that disease might have come from.

Results Feb. 28 from the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, showed that three deer shot during the 2001 gun deer-hunting season in Vermont Township, northwest of Mount Horeb, tested positive for chronic wasting disease, or CWD. The disease is not known to be contagious to humans or to animal species other than deer and elk.

In the wake of the discovery, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has announced a series of steps it will take in cooperation with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services.

Among the actions DNR is taking in the next week are:

• Establishing a CWD surveillance area in the vicinity of Vermont Township.


• Using a sampling mechanism set by veterinarians in the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection that will help assure an accurate measure of the extent to which CWD has spread in the area.


• Contacting all hunters who submitted deer tissue samples during the seasonýs opening weekend at Mount Horeb, the deer registration station where the three infected deer were brought, to learn where they shot their deer.


• Holding a public meeting in the Mount Horeb area in the near future after state agencies have firmed up their response plans and can answer specific questions.


• Flying aerial surveys to identify deer concentration areas.

Collecting samples from vehicle-killed deer in the area.

• Developing a Web site with up-to-date information on CWD in Wisconsin.

The Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection's Animal Health Division has also posted information on its site.

"Dr. Don O'Connor, our epidemiologist and CWD expert, was already scheduled to speak at the convention of the Wisconsin Commercial Deer and Elk Farmers Association this weekend. He's now changed the focus of his address a little, and he'll have an extra question-and-answer period," said Assistant State Veterinarian Bob Ehlenfeldt, DVM.

CWD is a neurologic disease of deer and elk. It belongs to the family of diseases known as transmissable spongiform encephalopathies. It attacks the brains of infected deer and elk, causing the animals to become emaciated, display abnormal behavior, lose bodily functions and die.

The Mount Horeb station registered 1,486 deer during the various gun and bow seasons last fall, and veterinarians and biologists say it is likely that more area deer are infected with CWD.

Altogether, DNR sent samples to the national lab from 82 deer registered at Mount Horeb and from 445 deer statewide during the 2001 deer-hunting season. The other sampling locations were at Black River Falls, Crivitz, Fence, Spooner and Viroqua. No other tests came back positive.

State officials note that CWD is no threat to cattle or sheep. It does threaten the state's farm-raised deer and elk along with the free-ranging whitetail herd.

CWD has been known to occur in deer and elk in North America since 1967. It occurs in wild deer and elk primarily in northeastern Colorado and adjacent parts of Wyoming and Nebraska. CWD has also been found on elk farms in Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Saskatchewan.

In spite of ongoing surveillance for similar disease syndromes in humans, there has never been an instance of people contracting CWD from butchering or eating meat from infected animals.

"Certainly, this is reassuring," noted Health and Family Services epidemiologist Jim Kazmierczak, DVM. "But no one can say with absolute certainty that CWD will never cause human disease. What is clear is that if there is a risk of human disease, it must be exceedingly small."

A World Health Organization panel of experts reviewed all the available information on CWD and concluded that there is no scientific evidence that CWD can infect humans. Yet, WHO also says no part of a deer or elk with evidence of CWD should be eaten by people or animals.

"Ultimately, whether or not you continue to eat venison harvested in the area of these positive CWD findings is up to you and your family," Kazmierczak said.

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