WISCONSIN Washburn County deer test positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)

DATE: April x, 2012 CONTACT:

Kurt Thiede, Division Administrator Lands (608) 266-5833

Bill Cosh, Agency Spokesperson (608) 267-2773


SUBJECT: Washburn County deer test positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)

ShellLake – The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has announced that CWD was detected in a wild adult doe found on private property just west of Shell Lake in Washburn County.

Tissue samples have been confirmed as CWD-positive at both the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Lab, and USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa. The DNR received the final test results late on Friday, March 30. The 3 1/2-year old doe was euthanized by the Washburn County Sherriff’s Office on a small parcel of private land.

In order to find out if the disease is present in other wild deer in the area, this fall DNR will begin a focused disease surveillance effort within a 10-mile radius around the positive location. “The fall archery and gun deer hunting seasons provide an excellent, cost-effective method to collect valuable samples,” said Kurt Thiede, Land Administrator for DNR.

This is the first wild CWD-positive deer to found in northern Wisconsin and within the Ceded Territory where the Ojibwe Tribes maintain harvest and gathering rights.

“No changes are anticipated this fall in the broad framework of the hunting seasons,” said DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp. “We are reviewing today’s news with our wildlife experts and are reaching out to notify the DNR Board, tribal representatives, the DATCP and the MN DNR. In addition, we have relayed this information to Dr. Kroll.”

Under state statutes, the DNR is required to enact a ban on the feeding and baiting of deer in any county that is within 10 miles of any captive or free-roaming deer that tests positive for either CWD or Tb. This CWD-positive deer is within Washburn County and may be within 10 miles of Barron, Burnett and Polk Counties. We anticipate the ban on baiting and feeding within these counties to take effect this fall.

Thiede noted, “The location of this deer was more than 100 miles from the nearest known cases of the disease in either wild or captive deer. Our field staff will be working with local citizens, registration stations, processors and taxidermists to collect tissue samples to learn if any other sick deer exist near this case.”

In addition, the DNR will begin to implement other steps, such as collecting adult road kill deer to gather additional samples.

CWD is a nervous system disease of deer, moose, and elk. It belongs to the family of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) or prion diseases. CWD occurs only in members of the cervid or deer family, both wild and captive. Current information suggests that CWD may be transmitted both directly through animal to animal contact and indirectly from a CWD-prion contaminated environment. Recent studies indicate that CWD prions exist in the saliva, urine, and feces of infected deer.

To learn more about CWD, please visit our web site at dnr.wi.gov and enter the search key word CWD.





http://dnr.wi.gov/news/BreakingNews_Lookup.asp?id=2337







see map location ;







http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/WildlifeHabitat/documents/CWDwash.pdf

 
 

 


http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/wildlifehabitat/regulations.html







http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/wildlife/captive/captive.htm







http://www.wrn.com/2012/04/dnr-finds-more-cwd/





FEBRUARY 21-22, 2012




Page 1 of 14





View the February 21-22, 2012 Agenda, information briefs (green sheets) on each item, and other meeting materials at: http://dnr.wi.gov/about/nrb/2012/February/02-12-NRB-Agenda.htm





NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD





MINUTES





An informal meeting of the Natural Resources Board (NRB) and Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection Board (ATCPB) was held on Tuesday, February 21, 2012 in the Board Room at the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, 2811 Agriculture Drive, Madison, WI. The meeting was called to order at 1:07 p.m. The meeting adjourned at 5:05 p.m.





ORDER OF BUSINESS





1. Organizational Matters



1.A. Calling the roll



NRB:



William Bruins – present Preston Cole – present



Christine Thomas – present Jane Wiley – present



Terry Hilgenberg – present David Clausen – present



Greg Kazmierski – present



ATCPB:



Andy Diercks – present John Koepke– present



Richard Cates, Jr. – present Margaret Krome – present



Mike Dummer – present Miranda Leis – present



Enrique Figueroa – absent Mark Schleitwiler – present



Pamela Garvey – present



Chronic Wasting Disease and Federal Funding. Presentations were given by Dr. Bob Ehlenfeldt, DATCP State Veterinarian, and Tom Hauge, DNR Wildlife Management Bureau Director.

Discussion followed on the whether the lack of funding in the upcoming federal budget for indemnity and managing CWD on captive deer farms may drive the disease underground and adversely affect captive and wild deer; what portion of the WI Veterinary Diagnostic Labs $26 fee was paid by federal funds; what are the efforts are to manage CWD in the wild herd and the protocol going forward; whether the prevalence level in the southern portion of Wisconsin is at a manageable level; whether the BSE connection is important; which year the DNR changed testing baseline for CWD prevalence primary tissues; whether testing lymph nodes for CWD changed the prevalence; whether there are any updates on a potential CWD vaccine from Saskatchewan, Canada; whether scrapie infection can jump from one species to another and cause CWD symptoms (scrapie’s and Zoonoses handouts); whether the DNR has developed a protocol process by which they determine when and if CWD becomes endemic to Wisconsin; what the joint Board’s can do to facilitate reducing the spread of CWD going forward; whether there are many deer farm fences scheduled to be removed in 2013; whether there is an established length of time prions stay in the soil, whether DATCP has a role in purchasing CWD contaminated farms; concerns with baiting and feeding spreading CWD; whether DATCP has a relationship with the Hall Farm in Portage County since it is no longer an active farm; whether DNR has a baiting and feeding resolution; and what DATCP’s concerns with CWD are.







http://dnr.wi.gov/about/nrb/2012/February/02-12-NRB-Minutes.pdf









I wonder about rivers and streams that run through cwd infected game farms, and if prions travel with the water, outside of the game farm, down stream, to infect the wild, over a long period of time ???







Detection of protease-resistant cervid prion protein in water from a CWD-endemic area





T.A. Nichols,1,2 Bruce Pulford,1 A. Christy Wyckoff,1,2 Crystal Meyerett,1 Brady Michel,1 Kevin Gertig,3 Edward A. Hoover,1 Jean E. Jewell,4 Glenn C. Telling5 and Mark D. Zabel1,*



1Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology; College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences; Colorado State University; Fort Collins, CO USA; 2National Wildlife Research Center; Wildlife Services; United States Department of Agriculture; Fort Collins, CO USA; 3Fort Collins Utilities; Fort Collins; CO USA; 4Department of Veterinary Sciences; Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory; University of Wyoming; Laramie, WY USA; 5Department of Microbiology, Immunology, Molecular Genetics and Neurology; Sanders Brown Center on Aging; University of Kentucky; Lexington, KY USA





Key words: prions, chronic wasting disease, water, environment, serial protein misfolding cyclic amplification





Abbreviations: CWD, chronic wasting disease; sPMCA, serial protein misfolding cyclic amplification; PrPC, cellular prion protein; PrPSc, disease-related, misfolded murine PrP; PrPCWD, disease-related, misfolded cervid PrP; PrPRES, protease-resistant PrP; FCWTF, Fort Collins water treatment facility Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is the only known transmissible spongiform encephalopathy affecting free-ranging wildlife. Although the exact mode of natural transmission remains unknown, substantial evidence suggests that prions can persist in the environment, implicating components thereof as potential prion reservoirs and transmission vehicles.1-4 CWD-positive animals may contribute to environmental prion load via decomposing carcasses and biological materials including saliva, blood, urine and feces.5-7 Sensitivity limitations of conventional assays hamper evaluation of environmental prion loads in soil and water. Here we show the ability of serial protein misfolding cyclic amplification (sPMCA) to amplify a 1.3 x 10-7 dilution of CWD-infected brain homogenate spiked into water samples, equivalent to approximately 5 x 107 protease resistant cervid prion protein (PrPCWD) monomers. We also detected PrPCWD in one of two environmental water samples from a CWD endemic area collected at a time of increased water runoff from melting winter snow pack, as well as in water samples obtained concurrently from the flocculation stage of water processing by the municipal water treatment facility. Bioassays indicated that the PrPCWD detected was below infectious levels. These data demonstrate detection of very low levels of PrPCWD in the environment by sPMCA and suggest persistence and accumulation of prions in the environment that may promote CWD transmission.







http://www.landesbioscience.com/journals/prion/NicholsPRION3-3.pdf



 

 




P35

ADAPTATION OF CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE (CWD) INTO HAMSTERS, EVIDENCE OF A WISCONSIN STRAIN OF CWD

Chad Johnson1, Judd Aiken2,3,4 and Debbie McKenzie4,5 1 Department of Comparative Biosciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison WI, USA 53706 2 Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Sciences, 3 Alberta Veterinary Research Institute, 4.Center for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases, 5 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton AB, Canada T6G 2P5 The identification and characterization of prion strains is increasingly important for the diagnosis and biological definition of these infectious pathogens. Although well-established in scrapie and, more recently, in BSE, comparatively little is known about the possibility of prion strains in chronic wasting disease (CWD), a disease affecting free ranging and captive cervids, primarily in North America. We have identified prion protein variants in the white-tailed deer population and demonstrated that Prnp genotype affects the susceptibility/disease progression of white-tailed deer to CWD agent. The existence of cervid prion protein variants raises the likelihood of distinct CWD strains. Small rodent models are a useful means of identifying prion strains. We intracerebrally inoculated hamsters with brain homogenates and phosphotungstate concentrated preparations from CWD positive hunter-harvested (Wisconsin CWD endemic area) and experimentally infected deer of known Prnp genotypes. These transmission studies resulted in clinical presentation in primary passage of concentrated CWD prions. Subclinical infection was established with the other primary passages based on the detection of PrPCWD in the brains of hamsters and the successful disease transmission upon second passage. Second and third passage data, when compared to transmission studies using different CWD inocula (Raymond et al., 2007) indicate that the CWD agent present in the Wisconsin white-tailed deer population is different than the strain(s) present in elk, mule-deer and white-tailed deer from the western United States endemic region.



http://www.istitutoveneto.it/prion_09/Abstracts_09.pdf




http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/






Saturday, February 04, 2012 Wisconsin 16 age limit on testing dead deer Game Farm CWD Testing Protocol Needs To Be Revised http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2012/02/wisconsin-16-age-limit-on-testing-dead.html



PLEASE STUDY THIS MAP !



SEE CWD MAP, RELATE TO DATES OF GAME FARM INFECTION, TO DATE OF INFECTION RATE IN WILD, SURROUNDING SAID INFECTED GAME FARMS.



http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/18/3/11-0685-f1.htm






*** Chronic Wasting Disease CWD CDC REPORT MARCH 2012 ***

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Occurrence, Transmission, and Zoonotic Potential of Chronic Wasting Disease

CDC Volume 18, Number 3—March 2012



http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/ahead-of-print/article/18/3/11-0685_article.htm





SNIP...



Long-term effects of CWD on cervid populations and ecosystems remain unclear as the disease continues to spread and prevalence increases. In captive herds, CWD might persist at high levels and lead to complete herd destruction in the absence of human culling. Epidemiologic modeling suggests the disease could have severe effects on free-ranging deer populations, depending on hunting policies and environmental persistence (8,9). CWD has been associated with large decreases in free-ranging mule deer populations in an area of high CWD prevalence (Boulder, Colorado, USA) (5).

SNIP...



*** Chronic Wasting Disease CWD CDC REPORT MARCH 2012 ***

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Occurrence, Transmission, and Zoonotic Potential of Chronic Wasting Disease

CDC Volume 18, Number 3—March 2012



SNIP...

Long-term effects of CWD on cervid populations and ecosystems remain unclear as the disease continues to spread and prevalence increases. In captive herds, CWD might persist at high levels and lead to complete herd destruction in the absence of human culling. Epidemiologic modeling suggests the disease could have severe effects on free-ranging deer populations, depending on hunting policies and environmental persistence (8,9). CWD has been associated with large decreases in free-ranging mule deer populations in an area of high CWD prevalence (Boulder, Colorado, USA) (5).

SNIP...



http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/ahead-of-print/article/18/3/11-0685_article.htm





see much more here ;



http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2012/02/occurrence-transmission-and-zoonotic.html





50 GAME FARMS IN USA INFECTED WITH CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD



2012

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD WISCONSIN Almond Deer (Buckhorn Flats) Farm Update DECEMBER 2011

> > > The CWD infection rate was nearly 80%, the highest ever in a North American captive herd.

Despite the five year premise plan and site decontamination, The WI DNR has concerns over the bioavailability of infectious prions at this site to wild white-tail deer should these fences be removed. Current research indicates that prions can persist in soil for a minimum of 3 years.

However, Georgsson et al. (2006) concluded that prions that produced scrapie disease in sheep remained bioavailable and infectious for at least 16 years in natural Icelandic environments, most likely in contaminated soil.

Additionally, the authors reported that from 1978-2004, scrapie recurred on 33 sheep farms, of which 9 recurrences occurred 14-21 years after initial culling and subsequent restocking efforts; these findings further emphasize the effect of environmental contamination on sustaining TSE infectivity and that long-term persistence of prions in soils may be substantially greater than previously thought. < < <



http://dnr.wi.gov/org/nrboard/2011/december/12-11-2b2.pdf





SNIP...SEE FULL TEXT ;


http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2011/12/chronic-wasting-disease-cwd-wisconsin.html





Thursday, February 09, 2012

50 GAME FARMS IN USA INFECTED WITH CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2012/02/50-game-farms-to-date-in-usa-infected.html



TSS