NW Wisconsin deer tests +CWD

[Gardner Swamp]

http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/news/wis ... onsin-deer

[dan]

CWD found in northwest Wisconsin deer

Updated: Monday, 02 Apr 2012, 3:49 PM CDT
Published : Monday, 02 Apr 2012, 3:28 PM CDT

By TODD RICHMOND Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Chronic wasting disease, long contained to the southern half of the state, has leapt into northwestern Wisconsin, state wildlife officials announced Monday.

Department of Natural Resources Lands Division Administrator Kurt Thiede said test results the agency received from the National Veterinary Services lab in Ames, Iowa, on Friday evening confirmed a three-and-a-half-year-old doe found just outside Shell Lake was infected.

Thiede had few details on how the deer was discovered. He said someone reported a sick deer to the Washburn County Sheriff's Department on opening day of the state's gun hunt in November 2011. DNR field staff submitted samples from the deer to agency officials in Madison in late February. Tests performed at the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Lab in early March came back positive for the disease, but the agency wanted confirmation from Ames.

Thiede said the agency likely will ask hunters in northwestern Wisconsin to submit samples from deer they kill this fall for testing and could enact a baiting and feeding ban in the area around where the doe was found.

Chronic wasting disease produces microscopic holes in animals' brain tissue, causing weight loss, tremors, strange behavior and, eventually, death.

It was discovered in Wisconsin near Mount Horeb in 2002, marking the first time it had been found east of the Mississippi River. Realizing the disease could threaten the state's $1 billion hunting industry, the DNR has worked for the last decade to contain it by adopting a contentious policy calling for hunters to kill as many deer as possible in areas with infected animals and employing its own sharpshooters in those areas.

But hunters and landowners never bought into the effort. A state audit in 2006 declared the policy was a failure, noting that the deer population in the disease zone had grown, but the disease had largely faded from the public eye as the years passed.

[dan]

They find it where ever they look for it

Realizing the disease could threaten the state's $1 billion hunting industry, the DNR has worked for the last decade to contain it by adopting a contentious policy calling for hunters to kill as many deer as possible

I always laugh at that statment they use so often... The deer herd in Wisc. is a $1 billion industry, so they are going to "save it" by killing all the deer.

[dan]

Seems kind of suspicious that CWD gets found right when Kroll is about to release his plan to fix the deer heard up there.

[Gardner Swamp]

Seems kind of suspicious that CWD gets found right when Kroll is about to release his plan to fix the deer heard up there.

I was thinking the same thing.

[Mountain Man]

I have to wonder if the DNR has done or will do any strontium isotope tests on bone from this doe. That would give some info on whether the doe was native to that area or not (i.e. possibly from a game farm or transported there if the Sr data were different from the Sr data for the Shell Lake area). In addition to the strontium isotopes there are a few other isotopes that could be used to supplement that data.

Here is an article with a basic description of how that could be done with the strontium isotope and how it helped solve a poaching case. Some of you in WI or MI might recall hearing about this case.
http://www.whitetailinstitute.com/info/news/apr03/1.html

[straitnarrow]

There has to be a better way than taking out the whole herd in those areas.

[GRFox]

Not to Hi jack this thread, but I always here the Wisconsin guys saying that the DNR wants all the deer dead. Why? Is it just for the sake of crop damage and auto accidents? or is there another motive?

[dan]

Not to Hi jack this thread, but I always here the Wisconsin guys saying that the DNR wants all the deer dead. Why? Is it just for the sake of crop damage and auto accidents? or is there another motive?

I think there are several things going on... 1st off, the Governor of Wisc. is the Chief of the DNR. He gets to assign jobs, and agendas. Its been really hard getting ( or keeping ) a Governor in office that has the hunters best intrests in mind. Past Democratic Governor Doyle had a history of getting rid of any body with a degree or brain in the DNR and assigning the jobs to campain donators as paybacks. So jobs that should of went to degreed biologists went to people like Doyles neighbor, his lawyer, etc.
Doyle also recieved campaign donations from the Auto insurance collation, and right after that CWD was found right in the exact same area car accidents with deer were highest. DNR workers who spoke up about the slaughter were fired. We now finally got a Republican conservitive Gov. but the Liberals are trying to recall him. If they do, we are going back to the slaughter.
The other issues with the DNR include poor deer mangment skills, refusal to acknowlege issues ( such as wolve and bear predation ) and corruption. Some of the corruption that comes to mind are things like doing studys about wildlife in Wisconsin and funding the University scientists doing the studys based on the results being what they want to achieve before the study. On woman researcher was asked to study how CWD will spread slower when the population is reduced. When her study found that the lowered population meant bucks ( the usual carriers of CWD ) actually increased there home range when there was less does and the disease spread faster, she was immeadiaty fired for her results, she will basically recieve no more grant money from the DNR, which was her income. I could right a book here, but that should give you a basic idea of what we are up against.

[forgehunter]

Seems kind of suspicious that CWD gets found right when Kroll is about to release his plan to fix the deer heard up there.

I was thinking the same thing.

Me as well!

[addisonlee]

[Black Squirrel]

Sad news..... either way, the deer herd will suffer.

[Brad]

They need to give up on CWD, many other states have it as well and although there deer density isn't generally as high as ours, they are not losing the deer at astonishing rates. Most deer die before the age of 3 anyway so even if they do get CWD, most will die of other causes before CWD takes them out. We have spent (wasted) tons of money on this and have nothing to show for it. If the deer dies from CWD or dies from being slaughtered, the end result is the same.

[Kodiakman]

Not to Hi jack this thread, but I always here the Wisconsin guys saying that the DNR wants all the deer dead. Why? Is it just for the sake of crop damage and auto accidents? or is there another motive?

On woman researcher was asked to study how CWD will spread slower when the population is reduced. When her study found that the lowered population meant bucks ( the usual carriers of CWD ) actually increased there home range when there was less does and the disease spread faster, she was immeadiaty fired for her results, she will basically recieve no more grant money from the DNR, which was her income. I could right a book here, but that should give you a basic idea of what we are up against.

I laughed when I read that. Typical though. Don't confuse the theory with the facts.

And Yeah, it's everywhere. Start looking for it and you will find it.... The policy on CWD that has been carried out here has been a crime. What a pity.