Contact(s): Jeff Pritzl, DNR Northeast District wildlife supervisor, 920-662-5127
MADISON – The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has confirmed that a wild deer has tested positive for chronic wasting disease in southeast Marquette County. The CWD-positive deer was an adult doe harvested during the 2018 gun deer season and tested as part of disease surveillance efforts. This is the first CWD positive wild deer for Marquette County.
State law requires that the Wisconsin DNR enact a ban on feeding and baiting of deer in counties or portions of counties within a 10-mile radius of a captive or free-roaming domestic or wild animal that tests positive for CWD or tuberculosis. As required by law, this will create a three-year baiting and feeding ban in Marquette County and a two-year baiting and feeding ban for Green Lake County beginning March 1, 2019. This detection will also designate Green Lake County as a CWD-affected county.
“We are committed to working closely with local communities, including the citizen-based County Deer Advisory Councils as we explore future management options for this disease in Marquette and surrounding counties,” said Jeff Pritzl, DNR Northeast District wildlife supervisor.
In response to the detection of these CWD positive deer, the department will:
- Work with local County Deer Advisory Council members from the counties impacted by this detection.
- Continue 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
- Continue to establish CWD sampling locations during the 2019 deer seasons.
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 hunting seasons, visit the DNR’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.
End of article. Article courtesy of WI DNR https://dnr.wi.gov/news/Weekly/?id=679#art2.