Tom Morang
04-28-2002, 01:39 PM
Deer strategy a guessing game
As anxiety grows, DNR gropes to find ways to eradicate little-understood disease
By BOB RIEPENHOFF and LEE BERGQUIST
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: April 27, 2002
First of two parts
Two months after the discovery of chronic wasting disease in Wisconsin's deer herd, the state is faced with the daunting task of trying to control a disease about which research is just emerging.
The stakes are high because the potential for devastation cuts across social, environmental, public health, economic and cultural lines.
The Department of Natural Resources and other state agencies are struggling to make some hard decisions to save white-tailed deer. They are putting together a strategy that has already come under fire in some circles, and there is growing anxiety that the state needs to urgently move to eliminate the disease.
The good news is that so far, only 14 deer have tested positive for the fatal disease, and they were within 13 miles of each other. There are more than a million deer in Wisconsin.
Chronic wasting disease, sometimes called mad deer disease, has existed in Western states for years. But the recent outbreak in Wisconsin is unique because it marks the first time this neurological disorder has been found in an area with a dense population of white-tailed deer.
"Chronic wasting disease is, quite honestly, the most serious threat that has ever faced the deep-rooted tradition of deer hunting in Wisconsin," said Rep. Scott Gunderson (R-Town of Norway), head of the Assembly Subcommittee on Deer and Deer Management.
Tom Hauge, director of wildlife management for the DNR, said: "We care about deer in Wisconsin. It's part of our tradition and our lifestyle, and chronic wasting disease threatens that."
Tom Heberlein, the University of Wisconsin rural sociologist who caused a nationwide stir in 1992 by predicting the demise of recreational hunting by the middle of the 21st century, said: "Depending on the way this is handled, I think I could be making real progress on my prediction."
Still, there are many unanswered questions: How is the disease transmitted? Can humans get it? Can it be eliminated?
Before Feb. 28, when the DNR announced the discovery of the disease in three bucks shot by hunters last fall near Mount Horeb in Dane County, Wisconsin was a deer hunter's Garden of Eden. The biggest concern was how to manage an overabundant herd.
The serpent that entered the garden is called a prion. Neither virus nor bacteria, a prion is an abnormal protein that can infect white-tailed deer and incubate without symptoms for years before attacking brain tissue, causing the animal to become confused, emaciated and eventually die. There is no treatment.
Perhaps most frightening is the fact that prions are extremely difficult to destroy. Cooking temperatures do not faze them. Some scientists believe that they remain active in the bones of dead deer or even in the soil, perhaps for years.
"It's important to remember that deer hunting is not only a vital part of our sporting heritage, it is also a very important part of Wisconsin's economy," Gunderson said. "Those nine days of deer-gun season bring in thousands of out-of-state hunters and pump hundreds of millions of dollars into our state's coffers every year."
Just one example: Deer license sales generate nearly $25 million a year for the DNR.
Gov. Scott McCallum is seeking $15 million in federal money to fight the disease. State agencies have already spent more than $500,000 on obtaining samples, testing and other unanticipated expenses related to the outbreak, and are asking to use an additional $4 million in state money.
Still, a sense of alarm pervades policy-makers and hunters.
Plans for special hunt
The one encouraging note is that the disease has not been found outside the core area near Mount Horeb. Last week, the DNR said that tests were completed on 516 deer collected from the 415-square-mile area, and that 11 deer had tested positive for the disease, bringing the total to 14.
On Friday, the DNR announced plans to start issuing special permits on May 6 to landowners to take out deer inside the core area. The goal is to kill several thousand more deer, said Natural Resources Board Chairman Trygve A. Solberg of Minocqua.
"We don't want this to be stalled in the bureaucracy," Solberg said. "We have to do something very quickly."
Solberg said that the DNR would ask landowners to shoot deer on their property, or turn over that responsibility to hunters. DNR sharpshooters also will be used.
The spring hunt would require greater cooperation than usual among hunters and landowners - the latter of whom sometimes have not allowed hunters access to their land.
"It's going to be difficult," Solberg acknowledged.
Will the DNR attempt to eradicate every deer in the core area - if that's even possible?
"That's on the table," the DNR's Hauge said.
The DNR has proposed plans for a special hunt from Oct. 24 to Jan. 31 to drastically reduce the deer population in a 10-county south central area including the core area.
"If there was ever a time that we needed the hunters and the landowners to come out and help the DNR, it's now," said Dave Ladd, a lifelong conservationist who helped develop plans to guide the future of deer management in Wisconsin. "We need their help to contain or eliminate this problem."
Some doubt whether the DNR's approach will attract enough hunters.
"People will continue to hunt," said Heberlein, now an emeritus professor at UW who has studied deer hunters for more than 20 years. "Hunting is deeply ingrained in our social life and history. Whether they will come out in droves to shoot all these deer in the chronic wasting disease area is a big unknown."
Greg Kazmierski was more blunt.
"Why would somebody go from where they normally hunt and can shoot a deer that is not contaminated to hunt in the chronic wasting disease area?" asked Kazmierski, a founder of the Wisconsin Deer Hunters Coalition. "I think it's going to flop."
Some landowners in the 10-county special hunt area question whether the DNR is planning to kill too many deer.
"This is crazy thinking to think that killing 90% of the deer is going to control this disease," said Mike Kons of Menomonee Falls, who owns 120 acres of hunting land in Richland County. "There's no reason to kill healthy deer."
Ladd, who headed a committee that advised the DNR on the future of Wisconsin's deer herd, questions whether the agency may be attempting too much, especially in the 10-county area. The DNR's goal, he said, is to triple the kill to 100,000 to 150,000 deer this fall in 13 deer management units that span the 10 counties. Last year, hunters registered 46,417 deer kills in that area.
"Maybe they're taking too big an area for this wide open hunt if we don't have enough testing labs," said Ladd, of Dodgeville.
Limited testing ability
The safety of venison is a big concern.
To date, Wisconsin has no labs to test deer for the disease, and the likelihood of having sufficient capacity in time for the fall hunt - much less any special earlier hunt - is slim.
"I just think you're going to have a problem getting hunters out there unless they can get their deer tested," Ladd said. "The number one priority is to get these labs up and testing."
The DNR recommends that no part of any deer believed to be infected with the disease be consumed. People should also avoid eating the brain, eyes, spinal cord, spleen, tonsils and lymph nodes of any deer.
Even so, Heberlein said: "The DNR is acting in a way that makes you think this meat isn't safe."
Ladd believes many hunters would be willing to pay to have their deer tested.
Wisconsin has, so far, sent all its deer to a federal laboratory in Ames, Iowa. It's a process that can take weeks to get results and could not accommodate an onslaught of Wisconsin deer hunters.
"Is it possible to have the capacity to test for every deer hunted? I don't think that's likely," said Julie Langenberg, a DNR veterinarian.
She estimated that only 10,000 to 15,000 deer could be tested this fall by the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, a part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The only solution, Langenberg believes, would be if private labs took over most of the testing.
DNR Chairman Solberg agreed.
"I lean toward the private sector," he said. "I think that they are better equipped to move quickly."
But even private labs would face start-up problems, including obtaining hard-to-find samples of diseased brain tissue on which to practice.
Source a mystery
Although the exact way the disease is transmitted is not known, scientists believe it is linked to direct contact among deer. Such contact is especially prevalent when deer congregate to feed.
"There's overwhelming scientific evidence that chronic wasting disease and other deer diseases are spread by baiting and feeding," said Mark Toso, president of Wisconsin Deer Hunters Association, a group that opposes baiting and feeding.
Last week, a team of scientists and wildlife experts from several agencies recommended that the DNR be given the authority to ban the feeding of deer across the state. The agency on Friday asked landowners in southwest Wisconsin to voluntarily stop feeding deer. It already regulates baiting.
Wisconsin officials still do not know what caused the outbreak here - the first appearance of the disease east of the Mississippi River.
"We don't know more than we do know about this disease," Langenberg said. "Our colleagues (in other states) are looking at us and saying you are going to be answering a lot of the questions."
In the United States, the disease has also shown up in Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming.
"It somehow had to be assisted by humans," Langenberg said. "It is so unlikely that they would have made an 800- to 900-mile jump without some sort of human assistance."
The leading theory is that an infected deer escaped from a deer farm - there are 17,500 head of white-tailed deer on 575 farms across Wisconsin - or had contact with wild deer. Other possibilities include someone illegally smuggling a deer into Wisconsin and releasing it or a hunter returning from an out-of-state hunt with an infected carcass. In the latter theory, the bones of a discarded carcass could have been eaten by other deer.
Until recent passage of a state Agriculture Department emergency rule preventing the practice, there was considerable movement of deer, elk and other captive animals in and out of the state. The animals required a health certificate but were not tested for chronic wasting disease.
One other possible cause is deer eating protein supplements that contain infected animal parts.
Officials are exploring various means of disposing of carcasses, including high-temperature incineration and dissolving them with chemicals.
But the DNR's Hauge said: "The volume that we're talking about, I think land-filling will be part of the approach."
Ladd said he was saddened by the prospect of exterminating deer.
"I don't have a very good feeling about going out and shooting a couple does and throwing them in a Dumpster," he said. "But maybe that's what we have to do."
As anxiety grows, DNR gropes to find ways to eradicate little-understood disease
By BOB RIEPENHOFF and LEE BERGQUIST
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: April 27, 2002
First of two parts
Two months after the discovery of chronic wasting disease in Wisconsin's deer herd, the state is faced with the daunting task of trying to control a disease about which research is just emerging.
The stakes are high because the potential for devastation cuts across social, environmental, public health, economic and cultural lines.
The Department of Natural Resources and other state agencies are struggling to make some hard decisions to save white-tailed deer. They are putting together a strategy that has already come under fire in some circles, and there is growing anxiety that the state needs to urgently move to eliminate the disease.
The good news is that so far, only 14 deer have tested positive for the fatal disease, and they were within 13 miles of each other. There are more than a million deer in Wisconsin.
Chronic wasting disease, sometimes called mad deer disease, has existed in Western states for years. But the recent outbreak in Wisconsin is unique because it marks the first time this neurological disorder has been found in an area with a dense population of white-tailed deer.
"Chronic wasting disease is, quite honestly, the most serious threat that has ever faced the deep-rooted tradition of deer hunting in Wisconsin," said Rep. Scott Gunderson (R-Town of Norway), head of the Assembly Subcommittee on Deer and Deer Management.
Tom Hauge, director of wildlife management for the DNR, said: "We care about deer in Wisconsin. It's part of our tradition and our lifestyle, and chronic wasting disease threatens that."
Tom Heberlein, the University of Wisconsin rural sociologist who caused a nationwide stir in 1992 by predicting the demise of recreational hunting by the middle of the 21st century, said: "Depending on the way this is handled, I think I could be making real progress on my prediction."
Still, there are many unanswered questions: How is the disease transmitted? Can humans get it? Can it be eliminated?
Before Feb. 28, when the DNR announced the discovery of the disease in three bucks shot by hunters last fall near Mount Horeb in Dane County, Wisconsin was a deer hunter's Garden of Eden. The biggest concern was how to manage an overabundant herd.
The serpent that entered the garden is called a prion. Neither virus nor bacteria, a prion is an abnormal protein that can infect white-tailed deer and incubate without symptoms for years before attacking brain tissue, causing the animal to become confused, emaciated and eventually die. There is no treatment.
Perhaps most frightening is the fact that prions are extremely difficult to destroy. Cooking temperatures do not faze them. Some scientists believe that they remain active in the bones of dead deer or even in the soil, perhaps for years.
"It's important to remember that deer hunting is not only a vital part of our sporting heritage, it is also a very important part of Wisconsin's economy," Gunderson said. "Those nine days of deer-gun season bring in thousands of out-of-state hunters and pump hundreds of millions of dollars into our state's coffers every year."
Just one example: Deer license sales generate nearly $25 million a year for the DNR.
Gov. Scott McCallum is seeking $15 million in federal money to fight the disease. State agencies have already spent more than $500,000 on obtaining samples, testing and other unanticipated expenses related to the outbreak, and are asking to use an additional $4 million in state money.
Still, a sense of alarm pervades policy-makers and hunters.
Plans for special hunt
The one encouraging note is that the disease has not been found outside the core area near Mount Horeb. Last week, the DNR said that tests were completed on 516 deer collected from the 415-square-mile area, and that 11 deer had tested positive for the disease, bringing the total to 14.
On Friday, the DNR announced plans to start issuing special permits on May 6 to landowners to take out deer inside the core area. The goal is to kill several thousand more deer, said Natural Resources Board Chairman Trygve A. Solberg of Minocqua.
"We don't want this to be stalled in the bureaucracy," Solberg said. "We have to do something very quickly."
Solberg said that the DNR would ask landowners to shoot deer on their property, or turn over that responsibility to hunters. DNR sharpshooters also will be used.
The spring hunt would require greater cooperation than usual among hunters and landowners - the latter of whom sometimes have not allowed hunters access to their land.
"It's going to be difficult," Solberg acknowledged.
Will the DNR attempt to eradicate every deer in the core area - if that's even possible?
"That's on the table," the DNR's Hauge said.
The DNR has proposed plans for a special hunt from Oct. 24 to Jan. 31 to drastically reduce the deer population in a 10-county south central area including the core area.
"If there was ever a time that we needed the hunters and the landowners to come out and help the DNR, it's now," said Dave Ladd, a lifelong conservationist who helped develop plans to guide the future of deer management in Wisconsin. "We need their help to contain or eliminate this problem."
Some doubt whether the DNR's approach will attract enough hunters.
"People will continue to hunt," said Heberlein, now an emeritus professor at UW who has studied deer hunters for more than 20 years. "Hunting is deeply ingrained in our social life and history. Whether they will come out in droves to shoot all these deer in the chronic wasting disease area is a big unknown."
Greg Kazmierski was more blunt.
"Why would somebody go from where they normally hunt and can shoot a deer that is not contaminated to hunt in the chronic wasting disease area?" asked Kazmierski, a founder of the Wisconsin Deer Hunters Coalition. "I think it's going to flop."
Some landowners in the 10-county special hunt area question whether the DNR is planning to kill too many deer.
"This is crazy thinking to think that killing 90% of the deer is going to control this disease," said Mike Kons of Menomonee Falls, who owns 120 acres of hunting land in Richland County. "There's no reason to kill healthy deer."
Ladd, who headed a committee that advised the DNR on the future of Wisconsin's deer herd, questions whether the agency may be attempting too much, especially in the 10-county area. The DNR's goal, he said, is to triple the kill to 100,000 to 150,000 deer this fall in 13 deer management units that span the 10 counties. Last year, hunters registered 46,417 deer kills in that area.
"Maybe they're taking too big an area for this wide open hunt if we don't have enough testing labs," said Ladd, of Dodgeville.
Limited testing ability
The safety of venison is a big concern.
To date, Wisconsin has no labs to test deer for the disease, and the likelihood of having sufficient capacity in time for the fall hunt - much less any special earlier hunt - is slim.
"I just think you're going to have a problem getting hunters out there unless they can get their deer tested," Ladd said. "The number one priority is to get these labs up and testing."
The DNR recommends that no part of any deer believed to be infected with the disease be consumed. People should also avoid eating the brain, eyes, spinal cord, spleen, tonsils and lymph nodes of any deer.
Even so, Heberlein said: "The DNR is acting in a way that makes you think this meat isn't safe."
Ladd believes many hunters would be willing to pay to have their deer tested.
Wisconsin has, so far, sent all its deer to a federal laboratory in Ames, Iowa. It's a process that can take weeks to get results and could not accommodate an onslaught of Wisconsin deer hunters.
"Is it possible to have the capacity to test for every deer hunted? I don't think that's likely," said Julie Langenberg, a DNR veterinarian.
She estimated that only 10,000 to 15,000 deer could be tested this fall by the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, a part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The only solution, Langenberg believes, would be if private labs took over most of the testing.
DNR Chairman Solberg agreed.
"I lean toward the private sector," he said. "I think that they are better equipped to move quickly."
But even private labs would face start-up problems, including obtaining hard-to-find samples of diseased brain tissue on which to practice.
Source a mystery
Although the exact way the disease is transmitted is not known, scientists believe it is linked to direct contact among deer. Such contact is especially prevalent when deer congregate to feed.
"There's overwhelming scientific evidence that chronic wasting disease and other deer diseases are spread by baiting and feeding," said Mark Toso, president of Wisconsin Deer Hunters Association, a group that opposes baiting and feeding.
Last week, a team of scientists and wildlife experts from several agencies recommended that the DNR be given the authority to ban the feeding of deer across the state. The agency on Friday asked landowners in southwest Wisconsin to voluntarily stop feeding deer. It already regulates baiting.
Wisconsin officials still do not know what caused the outbreak here - the first appearance of the disease east of the Mississippi River.
"We don't know more than we do know about this disease," Langenberg said. "Our colleagues (in other states) are looking at us and saying you are going to be answering a lot of the questions."
In the United States, the disease has also shown up in Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming.
"It somehow had to be assisted by humans," Langenberg said. "It is so unlikely that they would have made an 800- to 900-mile jump without some sort of human assistance."
The leading theory is that an infected deer escaped from a deer farm - there are 17,500 head of white-tailed deer on 575 farms across Wisconsin - or had contact with wild deer. Other possibilities include someone illegally smuggling a deer into Wisconsin and releasing it or a hunter returning from an out-of-state hunt with an infected carcass. In the latter theory, the bones of a discarded carcass could have been eaten by other deer.
Until recent passage of a state Agriculture Department emergency rule preventing the practice, there was considerable movement of deer, elk and other captive animals in and out of the state. The animals required a health certificate but were not tested for chronic wasting disease.
One other possible cause is deer eating protein supplements that contain infected animal parts.
Officials are exploring various means of disposing of carcasses, including high-temperature incineration and dissolving them with chemicals.
But the DNR's Hauge said: "The volume that we're talking about, I think land-filling will be part of the approach."
Ladd said he was saddened by the prospect of exterminating deer.
"I don't have a very good feeling about going out and shooting a couple does and throwing them in a Dumpster," he said. "But maybe that's what we have to do."