MADISON – The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has confirmed that a wild deer has tested positive for chronic wasting disease in Oneida County, in the Crescent Township.

As required by law, this finding will renew Oneida County’s existing baiting and feeding ban for another three years. Additionally, this positive will renew the two-year baiting and feeding ban in Langlade County.

The CWD-positive one-year-old doe was harvested on a disease surveillance permit issued within a 10-mile radius of the recent Lincoln County positive detection. This is Oneida County’s first CWD-positive wild deer.

“This Oneida County detection is a direct result of our surveillance efforts put in place in response to the Lincoln CWD positive,” said Eric Lobner, DNR Bureau Director for the Wildlife Management program. “We will continue to work with local communities to promote CWD surveillance and awareness in the area.”

In response to the detection of this new CWD positive deer, the department will take the following steps:

Continue to work with the local County Deer Advisory Council members in disease surveillance around this positive location.
Conduct surveillance activities to assess disease distribution and prevalence including:
Encourage reporting of sick deer
Sample vehicle-killed adult deer
Sample adult deer harvested under agricultural damage permits
Sample adult deer harvested under urban deer hunts in the area
Establish additional CWD sampling locations prior to the 2018 deer seasons.
These actions are very important for assessing the potential geographic distribution of the disease and if other animals in proximity to the new positive test are infected.

As has been demonstrated in the past in other parts of the state, local citizen involvement in the decision-making process as well as management actions to address this CWD detection will have the greatest potential for success.

For more information regarding baiting and feeding regulations and CWD in Wisconsin, and how to have adult deer tested during the 2018/2019 hunting seasons, visit the department’s website, dnr.wi.gov, and search “bait and feeding” and “CWD sampling” respectively. To report a sick deer on the landscape, search keywords “sick deer” or contact a local wildlife biologist.

Last Revised: Friday, April 20, 2018

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