Tom Morang
04-26-2002, 08:24 AM
State will test up to 15,000 more deer
Plan to fight chronic wasting disease includes statewide ban on feeding
By LEE BERGQUIST
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: April 24, 2002
Madison - As part of a sweeping plan to fight chronic wasting disease, state officials said Wednesday they hope to test 10,000 to 15,000 deer for the disease this fall, as well as ban feeding and baiting of deer statewide.
The latest initiatives come one week after the Department of Natural Resources proposed "radically" changing hunting regulations to limit the spread of the deadly brain disease by killing more deer near the source of the outbreak in south-central Wisconsin.
But fighting the disease will be hard, and if it goes unchecked, Wisconsin's deer population could be sharply reduced by the disease, members of the Natural Resources Board were told Wednesday.
Hunters might be reluctant to spend extra time killing deer this fall, especially in 10 counties surrounding the outbreak of the disease near Mount Horeb in western Dane and eastern Iowa counties.
Testing for the diseases also faces serious logistical problems. And there are questions about how the carcasses of tens of thousands of deer can be properly disposed.
Also on Wednesday, the DNR reported one more deer that tested positive for the disease from the final samples submitted to a federal laboratory in Ames, Iowa.
That brings to 11 the number of new cases of chronic wasting disease from 516 deer that were killed and sampled in a 415-square-mile surveillance area. The first three deer that tested positive were the result of routine testing during the 2001 deer hunt.
All 14 deer that tested positive were discovered within 13 miles of each other.
Big challenge ahead
"Now comes the most difficult task," said Julie Langenberg, a DNR veterinarian. "Now we have to take this data, along with the small amount of science there is, and make further recommendations."
The big job: how much to reduce the deer herd and how wide of an area should be affected by the DNR's actions.
Langenberg and a team of scientists and wildlife experts from several state agencies are mapping out their plans.
They told DNR board members that the agency should seek authority to ban feeding of deer across the state. They also said Wisconsin's entire wild deer population should be viewed as a single "at-risk" group - not just the animals in south-central Wisconsin.
The DNR now has authority to ban baiting but does not have the power to control the feeding of deer - a popular practice among hunters and non-hunters alike.
The state Assembly passed a measure giving the DNR such authority as part of its version of the budget adjustment bill now pending in the Legislature. That bill is now being negotiated by lawmakers.
Feeding ban a 'no-brainer'
Experts don't know how chronic wasting disease - also called mad deer disease - infected Wisconsin's deer herd, although it was probably the result of someone bringing in a diseased animal from outside the state, Langenberg said.
But experts believe feeding deer and high concentrations help spread the disease, she said.
While some board members questioned whether an outright ban on feeding was necessary, Langenberg said afterward it was essential.
"It's a no-brainer," she said.
The state's chronic wasting team also wants to test more deer, and as many as 15,000 deer could be tested during the fall hunt, Langenberg said. However, even that proposal faces obstacles.
For starters, there is no facility in Wisconsin to test the brains of deer for the disease.
The Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Madison would perform the work, but it would require approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Private laboratories also have expressed an interest in getting into the business at some time, Langenberg said.
Hiring personnel and ramping up the lab to accommodate an onslaught of deer would cost $1 million, with annual operation costs of $400,000 to $500,000, said Robert Shull, the lab's director. The lab has no funding for the project yet.
The DNR is asking the Legislature to increase its funding for chronic wasting disease from $1 million to $4 million, using money from a hunter-financed fund it doles out to farmers whose crops are damaged by deer.
How bad can it get?
On another front, University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists are developing a computer model of what might happen if the disease goes unchecked.
A study further along in Colorado of mule deer, where chronic wasting disease was discovered earlier, has shown that the deer population in Colorado would fall to 20% of its current population over 10 to 30 years if no protective measures were taken to curtail the disease.
"We don't know what will happen in Wisconsin, but from what we know now, it spreads faster among white-tailed deer," Langenberg said.
Thus, the DNR is poised to recommend a far more liberal hunting season by reducing the population to 10% of its size near the outbreak area and increasing bag limits in 10 surrounding counties. The DNR board is expected to review those changes for the fall hunt at its June meeting.
Hunters played a key role in killing the 516 deer that were tested for the prevalence of the disease near Mount Horeb.
"We really hope that the hunters step forward again, but it won't be easy," said Bill Vander Zouwen, chief of the DNR's wildlife ecology section.
Hunters will need to get on land that is currently not open to hunting, he said. And with the safety of the venison in question, hunters might be reluctant to spend more time hunting, he said.
Wisconsin to Cull Deer in Bid to Curb Disease
Thu Apr 25,10:59 PM ET
By Julie Ingwersen
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Wisconsin wildlife officials will ask rural landowners to help them thin the state's large deer population in a rare springtime cull intended to slow the spread of chronic wasting disease, a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources spokesman said on Thursday.
The state agency intends to issue permits that will allow landowners in parts of southwest Wisconsin to shoot as many deer on their property as they want, possibly starting as early as May 6, said DNR spokesman Bob Manwell.
"Our goal is to significantly reduce the (deer) population in the area. We hope to get as many as we can," Manwell told Reuters in a telephone interview.
The agency is working on a plan to address the issue of deer on state-owned lands as well.
The operation will focus on an area west of the capital city of Madison in which a total of 14 deer have tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD). The illness, a fatal brain disorder affecting deer and elk, causes weight loss and other symptoms similar to mad cow disease.
While mad cow has never been diagnosed in the U.S. cattle herd, CWD has been present in North American deer and elk for decades, with most cases concentrated in Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska.
There is no evidence that the disease can spread to cattle or humans.
In March, state officials announced that three Wisconsin deer shot by hunters last fall had tested positive for the disease, the first cases east of the Mississippi River.
The state Department of Natural Resources then killed 516 deer from the surrounding area and had brain tissue samples tested to gauge the scope of the outbreak. The agency said this week that the testing was complete, and that 11 deer from the sample group had tested positive for CWD.
Rather than wait for regular hunting season to begin in the fall, Manwell said the state wants to take quick action to stem the spread of CWD.
With a statewide herd of about 1.5 million deer, Wisconsin has more than Minnesota, its larger neighbor, and far more than states like Nebraska and Colorado, where CWD was first seen.
The Wisconsin deer population is also relatively dense, a factor that researchers believe could hasten the spread of the disease. No one knows exactly how CWD is transmitted, but animal-to-animal contact is a prevailing theory.
Wildlife officials want to limit such contact by thinning out the herd as soon as possible -- even during the spring season when deer are rearing fawns and hunting is normally forbidden.
"We feel that this is an extraordinary situation, and it's going to take some extraordinary actions which may be distasteful," Manwell said.
Wisconsin is also considering extending the dates of its regular fall hunting season and relaxing limits on the number and age of deer that can be killed, Manwell said. Most permits allow hunters to take only one or two deer.
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that the state wants to test 10,000 to 15,000 deer tested for CWD this fall.
Manwell said it was too early to project how many deer would be taken this spring. Some will be tested for CWD, while most of the carcasses will be buried in landfills.
"It's doubtful that we'll be testing every one of them. The testing capacity just doesn't exist right now to test huge numbers of deer," Manwell said.
Plan to fight chronic wasting disease includes statewide ban on feeding
By LEE BERGQUIST
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: April 24, 2002
Madison - As part of a sweeping plan to fight chronic wasting disease, state officials said Wednesday they hope to test 10,000 to 15,000 deer for the disease this fall, as well as ban feeding and baiting of deer statewide.
The latest initiatives come one week after the Department of Natural Resources proposed "radically" changing hunting regulations to limit the spread of the deadly brain disease by killing more deer near the source of the outbreak in south-central Wisconsin.
But fighting the disease will be hard, and if it goes unchecked, Wisconsin's deer population could be sharply reduced by the disease, members of the Natural Resources Board were told Wednesday.
Hunters might be reluctant to spend extra time killing deer this fall, especially in 10 counties surrounding the outbreak of the disease near Mount Horeb in western Dane and eastern Iowa counties.
Testing for the diseases also faces serious logistical problems. And there are questions about how the carcasses of tens of thousands of deer can be properly disposed.
Also on Wednesday, the DNR reported one more deer that tested positive for the disease from the final samples submitted to a federal laboratory in Ames, Iowa.
That brings to 11 the number of new cases of chronic wasting disease from 516 deer that were killed and sampled in a 415-square-mile surveillance area. The first three deer that tested positive were the result of routine testing during the 2001 deer hunt.
All 14 deer that tested positive were discovered within 13 miles of each other.
Big challenge ahead
"Now comes the most difficult task," said Julie Langenberg, a DNR veterinarian. "Now we have to take this data, along with the small amount of science there is, and make further recommendations."
The big job: how much to reduce the deer herd and how wide of an area should be affected by the DNR's actions.
Langenberg and a team of scientists and wildlife experts from several state agencies are mapping out their plans.
They told DNR board members that the agency should seek authority to ban feeding of deer across the state. They also said Wisconsin's entire wild deer population should be viewed as a single "at-risk" group - not just the animals in south-central Wisconsin.
The DNR now has authority to ban baiting but does not have the power to control the feeding of deer - a popular practice among hunters and non-hunters alike.
The state Assembly passed a measure giving the DNR such authority as part of its version of the budget adjustment bill now pending in the Legislature. That bill is now being negotiated by lawmakers.
Feeding ban a 'no-brainer'
Experts don't know how chronic wasting disease - also called mad deer disease - infected Wisconsin's deer herd, although it was probably the result of someone bringing in a diseased animal from outside the state, Langenberg said.
But experts believe feeding deer and high concentrations help spread the disease, she said.
While some board members questioned whether an outright ban on feeding was necessary, Langenberg said afterward it was essential.
"It's a no-brainer," she said.
The state's chronic wasting team also wants to test more deer, and as many as 15,000 deer could be tested during the fall hunt, Langenberg said. However, even that proposal faces obstacles.
For starters, there is no facility in Wisconsin to test the brains of deer for the disease.
The Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Madison would perform the work, but it would require approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Private laboratories also have expressed an interest in getting into the business at some time, Langenberg said.
Hiring personnel and ramping up the lab to accommodate an onslaught of deer would cost $1 million, with annual operation costs of $400,000 to $500,000, said Robert Shull, the lab's director. The lab has no funding for the project yet.
The DNR is asking the Legislature to increase its funding for chronic wasting disease from $1 million to $4 million, using money from a hunter-financed fund it doles out to farmers whose crops are damaged by deer.
How bad can it get?
On another front, University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists are developing a computer model of what might happen if the disease goes unchecked.
A study further along in Colorado of mule deer, where chronic wasting disease was discovered earlier, has shown that the deer population in Colorado would fall to 20% of its current population over 10 to 30 years if no protective measures were taken to curtail the disease.
"We don't know what will happen in Wisconsin, but from what we know now, it spreads faster among white-tailed deer," Langenberg said.
Thus, the DNR is poised to recommend a far more liberal hunting season by reducing the population to 10% of its size near the outbreak area and increasing bag limits in 10 surrounding counties. The DNR board is expected to review those changes for the fall hunt at its June meeting.
Hunters played a key role in killing the 516 deer that were tested for the prevalence of the disease near Mount Horeb.
"We really hope that the hunters step forward again, but it won't be easy," said Bill Vander Zouwen, chief of the DNR's wildlife ecology section.
Hunters will need to get on land that is currently not open to hunting, he said. And with the safety of the venison in question, hunters might be reluctant to spend more time hunting, he said.
Wisconsin to Cull Deer in Bid to Curb Disease
Thu Apr 25,10:59 PM ET
By Julie Ingwersen
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Wisconsin wildlife officials will ask rural landowners to help them thin the state's large deer population in a rare springtime cull intended to slow the spread of chronic wasting disease, a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources spokesman said on Thursday.
The state agency intends to issue permits that will allow landowners in parts of southwest Wisconsin to shoot as many deer on their property as they want, possibly starting as early as May 6, said DNR spokesman Bob Manwell.
"Our goal is to significantly reduce the (deer) population in the area. We hope to get as many as we can," Manwell told Reuters in a telephone interview.
The agency is working on a plan to address the issue of deer on state-owned lands as well.
The operation will focus on an area west of the capital city of Madison in which a total of 14 deer have tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD). The illness, a fatal brain disorder affecting deer and elk, causes weight loss and other symptoms similar to mad cow disease.
While mad cow has never been diagnosed in the U.S. cattle herd, CWD has been present in North American deer and elk for decades, with most cases concentrated in Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska.
There is no evidence that the disease can spread to cattle or humans.
In March, state officials announced that three Wisconsin deer shot by hunters last fall had tested positive for the disease, the first cases east of the Mississippi River.
The state Department of Natural Resources then killed 516 deer from the surrounding area and had brain tissue samples tested to gauge the scope of the outbreak. The agency said this week that the testing was complete, and that 11 deer from the sample group had tested positive for CWD.
Rather than wait for regular hunting season to begin in the fall, Manwell said the state wants to take quick action to stem the spread of CWD.
With a statewide herd of about 1.5 million deer, Wisconsin has more than Minnesota, its larger neighbor, and far more than states like Nebraska and Colorado, where CWD was first seen.
The Wisconsin deer population is also relatively dense, a factor that researchers believe could hasten the spread of the disease. No one knows exactly how CWD is transmitted, but animal-to-animal contact is a prevailing theory.
Wildlife officials want to limit such contact by thinning out the herd as soon as possible -- even during the spring season when deer are rearing fawns and hunting is normally forbidden.
"We feel that this is an extraordinary situation, and it's going to take some extraordinary actions which may be distasteful," Manwell said.
Wisconsin is also considering extending the dates of its regular fall hunting season and relaxing limits on the number and age of deer that can be killed, Manwell said. Most permits allow hunters to take only one or two deer.
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that the state wants to test 10,000 to 15,000 deer tested for CWD this fall.
Manwell said it was too early to project how many deer would be taken this spring. Some will be tested for CWD, while most of the carcasses will be buried in landfills.
"It's doubtful that we'll be testing every one of them. The testing capacity just doesn't exist right now to test huge numbers of deer," Manwell said.