Rapidly growing numbers of cases of chronic wasting disease are appearing on deer and elk farms and hunting ranches in Wisconsin at the same time the state has pulled back on rules and procedures designed to limit the spread of the fatal brain disease among its captive and wild deer.
Tag: Chronic Wasting Disease
Posted inMoney & Politics Column
Deer disease keeps worsening in Wisconsin, as predicted
Thirteen years after CWD was first discovered in Wisconsin, a state wildlife expert says many hunters “just want things to go back to normal.” That’s not likely to happen. A far more plausible scenario is that the disease will continue to spread, infecting and killing deer, until the number of animals available for hunters is seriously depleted.
Posted inEnvironment, Government, Health & Welfare
Prions — in plants? New concern for chronic wasting disease
Prions — the infectious, deformed proteins that cause chronic wasting disease in deer — can be taken up by plants such as alfalfa, corn and tomatoes, according to new research from the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison. The research further demonstrated that stems and leaves from tainted plants were infectious when injected into laboratory mice.The findings are significant, according to the researchers and other experts, because they reveal a previously unknown potential route of exposure to prions for a Wisconsin deer herd in which the fatal brain illness continues to spread.
Posted inNews & Announcements
Data: Wisconsin’s deer population
Efforts to manage a threat to future deer hunts — chronic wasting disease — had little effect, despite seven years and nearly $41 million in state and federal spending.
Posted inEnvironment
DNR continues to miss own goals for managing CWD
The latest population figures of deer with chronic wasting disease are nearly 160 percent over target.