CWD UPDATE August 13, 2003

Wisconsin DNR reports a positive female whitetail from Walworth County. This was a three-year-old animal collected by a police officer after he observed it in a sickly condition. This is approximately two miles outside of the current management zone in Wisconsin. The location is about 20 miles from where Illinois has found CWD positive animals. This brings the total number of positives in Wisconsin to 208 animals. The DNR plans on collecting additional samples in the area during the upcoming archery season and consulting with Illinois DNR prior to making any decisions reference expanding the herd reduction zone.

The USDA has opened the Canadian border to the importation of hunter-harvested animals this fall. Hunters may apply for a permit to import the meat, head and hides of the animals they harvest. Importation is permitted at select border crossings. For additional information and application forms for the importation, go to www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/issues/bse/bse.html

A die off of over 100 mule deer in Idaho has been confirmed to be Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease. Some folks were speculating that it might be CWD although the symptoms were more akin to EHD. Tests at the University of California, Davis confirmed EHD.

The Alabama Department of Conservation has seized several deer at a Covington County, Alabama game farm that were illegally imported from Wisconsin. Fifteen to twenty deer have been confiscated and will be tested for CWD at Auburn University.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has designated 25 square miles between Beloit and Clinton as a deer eradication zone to prevent chronic wasting disease from spreading into Rock County from northern Illinois.

Researchers continuing to examine the results of the chronic wasting disease (CWD) sampling effort during the 2002 Wisconsin hunting seasons report that the data indicates older bucks have a higher prevalence of the fatal brain disease and that the disease is not uniformly distributed within the infected area.

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