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Thursday, December 18, 2008
Top News
No CWD found in 9,000 wild deer
By Bill Parker
Editor
Lansing - Nearly 9,000 free-ranging white-tailed deer
have been tested for chronic wasting disease since Aug. 25 and, so far, none
have tested positive.
"What that means is that we have tested a lot of deer for CWD and we haven't found it,"_ DNR veterinarian Dr. Steven Schmitt told Michigan Outdoor News. "I'm certainly feeling better than I did on Aug. 25 when I was informed that CWD had been found in Kent County (on a deer farm). What this means is that we don't have a large outbreak like they do in Wisconsin."
As of Dec. 11, the DNR had tested 8,749 free-ranging whitetails statewide. In the nine townships surrounding the farm where the infected deer was found - Tyrone, Solon, Nelson, Sparta, Algoma, Courtland, Alpine, Plainfield, and Cannon - the DNR has tested 1,445 deer. In the eight counties surrounding the farm - Kent, Ottawa, Muskegon, Montcalm, Newaygo, Iona, Barry, and Allegan - 3,545 deer have been tested.
"We've tested 1,500 deer in the nine townships (surveillance zone), but there are 13,000 deer in that area," Schmitt said. "If (CWD) was there at a 0.2 prevalence rate there would be 26 infected deer. By testing 1,500 deer, we have 95-percent confidence that we would have found at least one positive. But let's say there were six infected deer in that area. Then our testing wouldn't have picked it up. That's why we will continue to test for two more years."
The state DNR and Department of Agriculture announced on Aug. 25, that a 3-year-old doe culled from a deer farm in northwest Kent County had tested positive for CWD. That finding immediately put Michigan's Surveillance and Response Plan for CWD into action. The plan was developed in 2002 in response to the discovery of CWD in free-ranging whitetails in Wisconsin. In an effort to keep the fatal neurological disease from spreading, the plan calls for a number of measures to be taken if CWD is found - even within 50 miles of the state line - including increased testing and a ban on deer baiting and feeding.
CWD is caused by an abnormal protein (prion) that attacks the brain of infected deer, elk, and moose. Infected animals experience chronic weight loss, act abnormally, and lose control of body functions as they "waste away" before succumbing to the disease. Symptoms of CWD don't usually appear until the animal is 18 months old or older. It is most often found in 3- to 5-year-old animals.
There is no evidence that CWD presents a risk to humans.
CWD has been found on game farms in Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota, South Dakota, Montana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Wisconsin, and New York, and in wild deer populations in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, Illinois, New Mexico, Utah, Wisconsin, New York, West Virginia, Kansas, and Saskatchewan.
Baiting and feeding
Baiting and feeding of white-tailed deer immediately was banned in the Lower Peninsula when the state CWD Surveillance and Response Plan was put into action. But since no CWD-positive deer have been found in the wild, some hunters are wondering if the baiting ban will be lifted next year.
Not likely, according to John Madigan, of the state Natural Resources Commission. The NRC_sets policy for the DNR.
"I don't see (removing the ban) happening for next year (hunting season)," Madigan told MON. "CWD has an incubation period of 18 months. We have to be sure we cover all our bases before we do anything.
"The disease was definitely found. It has a long incubation period. We don't know where it came from. There are a lot of unanswered questions, and until we get the answers, it wouldn't be prudent to make any changes. I don't see the momentum on the commission changing until we get some answers."
Rising costs
The cost of testing some 9,000 whitetails for CWD is approaching $1 million, or about $120 per deer. But Schmitt said that price tag is a little misleading.
The state has been testing Michigan whitetails for bovine tuberculosis since 1994, and Schmitt said that because the same lymph node is used to test for CWD and TB, that all the animals that are tested for CWD also are tested for TB. The price tag includes both tests, collecting and transporting the deer heads from collection spots to the lab in East Lansing, incinerating the heads, sending postcards to hunters informing them that their deer are disease-free, as well as the daily duties of those collecting and testing the samples. Much of that work would have taken place for TB testing, anyway.
Costs for the testing, Schmitt said, are being paid from the state's General Fund (75 percent),_the DNR's Game and Fish Protection Fund (20 percent), and the USDA (5 percent).
In addition, USDA Wildlife Services has provided four employees working at the testing lab. USDA also continues to conduct CWD research at its wildlife disease lab in Ames, Iowa.
TB testing update
As of Dec. 11, state officials had tested about 14,000 whitetails for bovine TB. Four of those tests have been positive, and additional tests are being conducted to confirm the presence of TB.
"They were all from DMU 452,"_Schmitt said. DMU 452 is the area in the heart of the TB_outbreak in northeastern Lower Michigan.
"We're still getting heads for testing and will get them right through the end of the year,"_Schmitt said.antlerless season."
"What that means is that we have tested a lot of deer for CWD and we haven't found it,"_ DNR veterinarian Dr. Steven Schmitt told Michigan Outdoor News. "I'm certainly feeling better than I did on Aug. 25 when I was informed that CWD had been found in Kent County (on a deer farm). What this means is that we don't have a large outbreak like they do in Wisconsin."
As of Dec. 11, the DNR had tested 8,749 free-ranging whitetails statewide. In the nine townships surrounding the farm where the infected deer was found - Tyrone, Solon, Nelson, Sparta, Algoma, Courtland, Alpine, Plainfield, and Cannon - the DNR has tested 1,445 deer. In the eight counties surrounding the farm - Kent, Ottawa, Muskegon, Montcalm, Newaygo, Iona, Barry, and Allegan - 3,545 deer have been tested.
"We've tested 1,500 deer in the nine townships (surveillance zone), but there are 13,000 deer in that area," Schmitt said. "If (CWD) was there at a 0.2 prevalence rate there would be 26 infected deer. By testing 1,500 deer, we have 95-percent confidence that we would have found at least one positive. But let's say there were six infected deer in that area. Then our testing wouldn't have picked it up. That's why we will continue to test for two more years."
The state DNR and Department of Agriculture announced on Aug. 25, that a 3-year-old doe culled from a deer farm in northwest Kent County had tested positive for CWD. That finding immediately put Michigan's Surveillance and Response Plan for CWD into action. The plan was developed in 2002 in response to the discovery of CWD in free-ranging whitetails in Wisconsin. In an effort to keep the fatal neurological disease from spreading, the plan calls for a number of measures to be taken if CWD is found - even within 50 miles of the state line - including increased testing and a ban on deer baiting and feeding.
CWD is caused by an abnormal protein (prion) that attacks the brain of infected deer, elk, and moose. Infected animals experience chronic weight loss, act abnormally, and lose control of body functions as they "waste away" before succumbing to the disease. Symptoms of CWD don't usually appear until the animal is 18 months old or older. It is most often found in 3- to 5-year-old animals.
There is no evidence that CWD presents a risk to humans.
CWD has been found on game farms in Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota, South Dakota, Montana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Wisconsin, and New York, and in wild deer populations in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, Illinois, New Mexico, Utah, Wisconsin, New York, West Virginia, Kansas, and Saskatchewan.
Baiting and feeding
Baiting and feeding of white-tailed deer immediately was banned in the Lower Peninsula when the state CWD Surveillance and Response Plan was put into action. But since no CWD-positive deer have been found in the wild, some hunters are wondering if the baiting ban will be lifted next year.
Not likely, according to John Madigan, of the state Natural Resources Commission. The NRC_sets policy for the DNR.
"I don't see (removing the ban) happening for next year (hunting season)," Madigan told MON. "CWD has an incubation period of 18 months. We have to be sure we cover all our bases before we do anything.
"The disease was definitely found. It has a long incubation period. We don't know where it came from. There are a lot of unanswered questions, and until we get the answers, it wouldn't be prudent to make any changes. I don't see the momentum on the commission changing until we get some answers."
Rising costs
The cost of testing some 9,000 whitetails for CWD is approaching $1 million, or about $120 per deer. But Schmitt said that price tag is a little misleading.
The state has been testing Michigan whitetails for bovine tuberculosis since 1994, and Schmitt said that because the same lymph node is used to test for CWD and TB, that all the animals that are tested for CWD also are tested for TB. The price tag includes both tests, collecting and transporting the deer heads from collection spots to the lab in East Lansing, incinerating the heads, sending postcards to hunters informing them that their deer are disease-free, as well as the daily duties of those collecting and testing the samples. Much of that work would have taken place for TB testing, anyway.
Costs for the testing, Schmitt said, are being paid from the state's General Fund (75 percent),_the DNR's Game and Fish Protection Fund (20 percent), and the USDA (5 percent).
In addition, USDA Wildlife Services has provided four employees working at the testing lab. USDA also continues to conduct CWD research at its wildlife disease lab in Ames, Iowa.
TB testing update
As of Dec. 11, state officials had tested about 14,000 whitetails for bovine TB. Four of those tests have been positive, and additional tests are being conducted to confirm the presence of TB.
"They were all from DMU 452,"_Schmitt said. DMU 452 is the area in the heart of the TB_outbreak in northeastern Lower Michigan.
"We're still getting heads for testing and will get them right through the end of the year,"_Schmitt said.antlerless season."
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