MADISON — A Portage County deer farm has been quarantined as part of the ongoing investigation into chronic wasting disease among captive and farm-raised deer, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection said.

A quarantine means only that all live animal movement off the farm has to stop while investigators do their work. It does not mean that chronic wasting disease has been found on the property, state agriculture officials emphasize.

The quarantine was issued Tuesday, Oct. 29, for a farm in Grant Township, owned by Robert P. Konopacky Jr. of Stevens Point. About 40 elk and 210-215 whitetail deer are under the quarantine.

The farm, which operates as both a breeding facility and a hunting preserve, received four whitetail does last January from Buckhorn Flats Game Farm, Almond, where a CWD-positive whitetail was found in September. Two of the animals died previously, in February and August. The remaining two deer are housed in a separate pen, distant from other animals on the property.

This is the sixth farm quarantined in the CWD investigation. There are two quarantined farms in Walworth County, two in Portage County, and one each in Marathon and Dane counties. Only two CWD-positive animals have been found: one in Portage County and one in Walworth County.

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