DNR urges hunters to get deer tested for CWD

As the 2017 Wisconsin deer hunting seasons ramp up, the Department of Natural Resources is encouraging hunters to get harvested deer tested for chronic wasting disease.

Sampling efforts are aimed at learning more about the disease intensity and distribution in CWD-affected regions as well as detecting new sites of infection.

Hunters are asked to submit heads of adult deer at participating businesses, including taxidermy shops, or at DNR kiosks and service centers.

The testing is voluntary and free of charge.

The agency is conducting "targeted surveillance" for the disease this year in several areas of the state, including in Oneida, Forest and Vilas counties.

The efforts in northern Wisconsin are in response to CWD-positive deer killed at a shooting preserve near Three Lakes in Oneida County.

The initial diseased deer was killed in November 2015; subsequent testing has found seven CWD-positive deer out of 30 tested on the captive facility, according to the DNR.

Twenty-four other counties also are slated for increased CWD testing this year.

But hunters anywhere in the state may submit deer heads for testing.

In 2016, the DNR tested 6,129 samples for testing; 7% were positive.

The agency spent $406,924 for CWD testing in fiscal year 2016. The cost of testing to the state was about $80 per deer, according to the DNR.

Funding for CWD testing comes from the sale of bonus antlerless deer tags and the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Fund.

Chronic wasting disease is fatal to deer and elk and is caused by an abnormal prion, or protein. The disease is contagious and thought to be transmitted mainly through saliva and other bodily fluids. But the prion also persists in the environment, allowing indirect transmission.

Afflicted animals suffer damage to the brain and central nervous system and in advanced stages become emaciated.

The disease was first identified in Colorado in 1967; it has since spread to at least 23 states. The first Wisconsin cases of CWD were detected in 2002.

The disease is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, a family that includes scrapie as well as mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob (both of which are fatal to humans).

While CWD has not been documented to cause illness in humans, health experts, including at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, have long issued strong advice against eating venison from CWD-positive animals.

Since 2003 the Wisconsin Division of Public Health has published the following guidance: "Venison from deer harvested inside the CWD Management Zone should not be consumed or distributed to others until CWD test results on the sources deer are known to be negative."

The Wisconsin recommendation says venison from multiple deer should be kept separate and labeled before freezing so any meat from a CWD-positive animal can be discarded.

The DNR has posted guidelines for safe venison handling on its website at dnr.wi.gov/topic/ wildlifehabitat/documents/Venison_CWD.pdf.

The agency also has published a list of recommendations to limit or prevent the spread of CWD.

They include: preventing unnaturally high concentrations of deer; securely bagging deer carcasses and disposing in a landfill; decontaminating knives and other tools used to process deer.

In southeastern Wisconsin, deer heads may be dropped off at locations including Whale Tales Archery in Dousman, Brehm Taxidermy in East Troy and Artisan Taxidermy in Burlington, as well as at 24-hour, selfservice kiosks at DNR offices in Eagle, Hartford, Horicon, Kansasville and Lake Mills.

The DNR has a complete list of sampling and drop-off locations on its website.