Wisconsin State officials kept silent on CWD discovery at game farm
State officials kept silent on CWD discovery at game farm
By Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel April 4, 2014 6:25 p.m.
A state agriculture official acknowledged Friday that a second case of
chronic wasting disease at a shooting preserve in Marathon County turned up on
Feb. 24, but the agency declined to publicize the discovery.
The Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection released a
statement on the first case on Dec. 2. But State Veterinarian Paul McGraw said
the agency opted not to inform the public of a second finding because it
occurred on the same farm as the first.
The first deer had been shot in November 2013. In the second case,
agriculture officials on Friday said personnel were not available to locate
records showing when the deer was killed.
McGraw also said deer on the shooting preserve only leave one way —
dead.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel learned of the newest case from veterinarian
and former Natural Resources Board member David Clausen of Amery.
Events surrounding the finding also provide a rare glimpse of a recent
tug-of-war over scientific issues between agencies under Gov. Scott Walker.
The Department of Natural Resources has raised questions over disease
transmission with its sister agency. Clausen also objected, specifically, to
McGraw's suggestion that CWD could suddenly appear in a new location by a
spontaneous occurrence.
Clausensays the agriculture department should make all discoveries public
because of the widespread interest in the fatal deer disease.
Chronic wasting disease was discovered in western Dane County in 2002. The
disease has since been found in 18 counties, both in the wild and on game farms.
The state has spent more than $35 million to combat it since 2002.
"I think the fact that they didn't release this one shows that CWD is not a
particularly high priority for the department of agriculture," Clausen
said.
Clausen's term on the policy-setting board of the Department of Natural
Resources expired in 2013. He has been critical of the DNR for not being
aggressive enough in trying to control the spread of the disease.
Clausen said he was frustrated with the agriculture department because
chronic wasting disease inevitably spreads, its prevalence increases, "and there
is always the chance of escape from a farm," Clausen said.
The biggest outbreak on a deer farm occurred in Portage County, where 82
deer tested positive in 2006. The outbreak is believed to be the highest
infection rate for a captive deer herd in the U.S. Authorities killed all of the
deer in the herd, but not before officials discovered a hole in the fence and an
estimated 30 deer escaped and were never found.
Portage County has since had four positive cases of the disease.
The disease is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, or TSE, caused by
an infectious agent known as a prion and is spread by deer-to-deer contact and
through a disease-contaminated environment such as soil.
The prions invade the brains of deer and eventually cause them to waste
away. There is no definitive research showing humans can be harmed from eating
diseased deer, but health experts don't recommend it.
McGraw agreed that more diseased deer are likely to be found at the
shooting preserve, Wilderness Whitetails. But he said the agency doesn't
routinely report new outbreaks of other diseases.
"It was a deer born in that preserve and there had already been a positive
in that preserve so it didn't change anything," McGraw said.
In the first case, the deer that tested positive had greater contact with
other deer because it lived for a time on a separate breeding farm. The
agriculture department traced 81 deer to farms in Wisconsin and seven other
states from the time the buck was housed there.
McGraw contacted the DNR on Feb. 25, the day he learned of the lab results;
he also contacted the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In Wisconsin, the agriculture department regulates captive animals and the
DNR regulates wildlife.
"We didn't feel it was our place to make an announcement," said Tom Hauge,
director of the bureau of wildlife management at the DNR. "Since they regulate
captive cervid facilities, we try not to get in their sand box."
The DNR routinely makes announcements when the disease reaches a new county
in the wild, but not when there are new finds within the county, Hauge
said.
The initial discovery at Wilderness Whitetails was the first in five years.
In trying to explain the sudden appearance, McGraw cited several possibilities
for transmission, including the chance it occurred spontaneously.
That drew attention of Clausen and wildlife staff at the DNR. Clausen said
he knew of no peer-reviewed research showing the disease turned up that way.
Tami Ryan, wildlife health section chief with the DNR, asked the
agriculture department to back up the claim.
Richard Bourie, a veterinarian, pointed to a paper by Nobel Laureate
Stanley Prusiner of the University of California, San Francisco, who discussed
spontaneous occurrence in TSEs.
Ryan wrote back and said, "to the best of our collective knowledge,
spontaneous CWD in wild deer has not been substantiated," although she said the
DNR wasn't trying to pick a fight.
Said McGraw: "There is no battle going on here. We all read science here.
Everybody looks at different possibilities."
Monday, December 02, 2013
WISCONSIN CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD DISCOVERED MARATHON COUNTY HUNTING
PRESERVE
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Wisconsin Second CWD positive deer found in Grant County
Wisconsin : 436 Deer Have Escaped From Farms to Wild
Date: March 18, 2003 Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Contacts: LEE BERGQUIST lbergquist@journalsentinel.com
State finds violations, lax record keeping at many sites, report says
A state inspection of private deer farms, prompted by the discovery of
chronic wasting disease, found that 436 white-tailed deer escaped into the wild,
officials said Tuesday
The Department of Natural Resources found that captive deer have escaped
from one-third of the state's 550 deer farms over the lifetime of the
operations. The agency also uncovered hundreds of violations and has sought a
total of 60 citations or charges against deer farm operators.
snip...
CWD found on 2 farms
Seven deer have tested positive for the disease on game farms - one on a
Portage County farm and six on a Walworth County farm - since the disease was
discovered in three wild deer killed near Mount Horeb in western Dane County.
One deer that tested positive on the Walworth County farm escaped and roamed
free for six months.
snip...
The audit found that most farms were in compliance, but the DNR found many
violations and instances of poor record keeping. Also in numerous instances,
fences did not stop wild and captive deer from intermingling.
At least 227 farms conducted part of their business on a cash basis, making
it hard to track animal movement with financial records.
For example, both the Internal Revenue Service and the state Department of
Revenue have been contacted about a deer farm near Wild Rose in Waushara County
that is suspected of selling six large bucks for $45,000 in cash and not using
live deer shipping tags as required.
The DNR found that game farm operators have more deer in captivity than
their records show, which is "due in part because the owners of a number of
large deer farm operations were! unable to accurately count the number of deer
within their fences," the audit found.
Hundreds of deer escape
The DNR found a total of 671 deer that escaped farms - 436 of which were
never found - because of storm-damaged fences, gates being left open or the
animals jumping over or through fences.
In one example in Kewaunee County, a deer farmer's fence was knocked down
in a summer storm. Ten deer escaped, and the farmer told the DNR he had no
intention of trying to reclaim them. The DNR found five of the deer, killed them
and cited the farmer for violation of a regulation related to fencing.
Another deer farmer near Mishicot, in Manitowoc County, released all nine
of his whitetails last summer after he believed the discovery of chronic wasting
disease was going to drive down the market for captive deer.
The DNR found 24 instances of unlicensed deer farms and issued 19
citations.
Journal Sentinel correspondent Kevin Murphy contributed to this
report.
Game Farms Inspected
A summary of the findings of the Department of Natural Resources'
inspection of 550 private white-tailed deer farms in the state: The deer farms
contained at least 16,070 deer, but the DNR believes there are more deer in
captivity than that because large deer farms are unable to accurately count
their deer. 671 deer had escaped from game farms, including 436 that were never
found.
24 farmers were unlicensed. One had been operating illegally since 1999
after he was denied a license because his deer fence did not meet minimum
specifications.
Records maintained by operators ranged from "meticulous documentation to
relying on memory." At least 227 farms conducted various portions of their deer
farm business with cash. Over the last three years, 1,222 deer died on farms for
various reasons. Disease testing was not performed nor required on the majority
of deer. Farmers reported doing business with people in 22 other states and one
Canadian province. Click these links for more information
Friday, February 03, 2012
Wisconsin Farm-Raised Deer Farms and CWD there from 2012 report Singeltary
et al
*** Spraker suggested an interesting explanation for the occurrence of CWD.
The deer pens at the Foot Hills Campus were built some 30-40 years ago by a Dr.
Bob Davis. At or abut that time, allegedly, some scrapie work was conducted at
this site. When deer were introduced to the pens they occupied ground that had
previously been occupied by sheep. ...
also, see where even decades back, the USDA had the same thought as they do
today with CWD, not their problem...see page 27 below as well, where USDA stated
back then, the same thing they stated in the state of Pennsylvania, not their
damn business, once they escape, and they said the same thing about CWD in
general back then ;
”The occurrence of CWD must be viewed against the contest of the locations
in which it occurred. It was an incidental and unwelcome complication of the
respective wildlife research programmes. Despite it’s subsequent recognition as
a new disease of cervids, therefore justifying direct investigation, no specific
research funding was forthcoming. The USDA veiwed it as a wildlife problem and
consequently not their province!” ...page 26.
”The occurrence of CWD must be viewed against the contest of the locations
in which it occurred. It was an incidental and unwelcome complication of the
respective wildlife research programmes. Despite it’s subsequent recognition as
a new disease of cervids, therefore justifying direct investigation, no specific
research funding was forthcoming. The USDA veiwed it as a wildlife problem and
consequently not their province!” ...page 26.
sound familiar $$$
Sunday, January 06, 2013
USDA TO PGC ONCE CAPTIVES ESCAPE
*** "it‘s no longer its business.”
Game Farm, CWD Concerns Rise at Boone and Crockett Club
Friday, March 28, 2014 Concerned about captive deer operations transmitting
diseases to wild herds, the Boone and Crockett Club now officially supports
state bans on commercial import and export of deer or elk.
The Club also opposes efforts to relax regulation of captive cervid
breeding operations or to remove management authority over such operations from
state wildlife agencies.
A full position statement, posted here, was passed at the Club’s December
meeting.
The Club’s concerns were reinforced at the recent Whitetail Summit hosted
by the Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA), the first summit to focus on
key issues and challenges facing free-ranging white-tailed deer.
“Of all the presentations, seminars and findings, I was most pleased to see
the attention given to the connections between chronic wasting disease (CWD) and
the game farming industry. This has been on our radar, and on the radar of QDMA,
other conservation groups, state agencies and sportsmen for quite some time,”
said Richard Hale, chairman of the Club’s Records Committee.
Hale added, “Congratulations to QDMA on one of the most impressive and
well-run summits I’ve had the pleasure of attending and for keeping this issue
front and center.”
CWD is a degenerative brain disease that affects elk, mule deer,
white-tailed deer, and moose. The disease can be transmitted by direct
animal-to-animal contact through saliva, feces and urine, and indirectly through
environmental contamination. CWD is fatal in deer, elk and moose, but there is
no evidence that CWD can be transmitted to humans, according to the CDC and The
World Health Organization.
Documented cases of CWD have been found in captive and/or wild deer and elk
in 22 states and two Canadian provinces. In some, but not all, cases where the
disease has been found in wild populations, the disease is present in captive
populations within these regions.
In 2002, the Boone and Crockett Club, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the
Mule Deer Foundation formed the CWD Alliance. Its purpose was to pool resources,
share information and collaborate on ways to positively address the CWD issue.
Other organizations have since joined the Alliance, including QDMA and the
Wildlife Management Institute, which now administers the Alliance website
www.cwd-info.org.
“Evidence strongly suggests that captive animals infected with CWD can
serve as the source for the spread of the disease to other captive animals, and
between captive animals and wild populations,” said Hale. “To reduce the risk to
wild deer populations, several states passed laws prohibiting game farming or
live captive deer and elk importation, but now they are fighting efforts to
expand captive deer and elk breeding and shooting operations within their
jurisdictions. The captive cervid industry is persistent in proposing new
legislations to overturn these laws, or transfer the authority of captive deer
and elk from state fish and game agencies to their respective departments of
agriculture.”
No vaccine or treatment is available for animals infected with CWD and once
established in a population, culling or complete depopulation to eradicate CWD
has provided only marginal results. In fact, the prevalence of CWD is rising at
an alarming rate in some infected wild deer populations. Prevention is the only
truly effective technique for managing diseases in free-ranging wildlife
populations. Consequently, what can be done is minimizing the spread of CWD by
restricting intra- and interstate transportation captive, privately owned
wildlife, which frequently occurs in game farming.
boone and crockett club position statement
REGULATION OF GAME FARMS First Adopted December 7, 2013 - Updated December
7, 2013
Situational Overview
The captive cervid industry, also referred to as game farming, uses
artificial means to breed captive deer, elk, and other cervids for sale in
shooting preserve operations. These game farms commonly transport captive deer
and elk to other shooting preserves in a state or in other states.
Transportation of captive, game farm animals has been shown to increase the
risk of spreading parasites and infectious, diseases, such as chronic wasting
disease (CWD) and bovine tuberculosis, to other captive and wild cervids in new
locations. There is currently no way of testing live animals for CWD, and
infected animals show no signs for at least 16-18 months post-infection. There
is no vaccine, and despite fenced enclosures, captive animals often come in
contact with wild populations thereby spreading diseases. Once CWD is present,
the area cannot be decontaminated even if infected animals are removed. As a
result, many states have banned or are attempting to ban the importation of
captive cervids (as well as intact carcasses of hunter-killed, wild cervids) to
lower the risk of spreading CWD and other infectious diseases.
Position
The Boone and Crockett Club supports state bans on importing or exporting
captive deer and elk by game farming operations in order to protect the health
of native populations. The Club opposes any legislation aimed at relaxing
regulations governing captive cervid breeding operations or removing management
authority over such operations from state wildlife agencies. The Club does not
oppose the transportation of wild cervids by state agencies and non-governmental
organizations for the purpose of re-establishing wild game animals to their
historic, open ranges.
The breeding of captive deer, elk, and other cervids for profit to create
abnormally large “trophy” animals for fenced shoots under non-fair chase
conditions are addressed in the Boone and Crockett Club’s positions on “Genetic
Manipulation of Game” and “Canned Shoots.”
THE LANCET Infectious Diseases Vol 3 August 2003
Tracking spongiform encephalopathies in North America
http://download.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/laninf/PIIS1473309903007151.pdf?id=baa1CkXPkhI3Ih_Vlh6ru
Friday, December 14, 2012
DEFRA U.K. What is the risk of Chronic Wasting Disease CWD being introduced
into Great Britain? A Qualitative Risk Assessment October 2012
snip...
In the USA, under the Food and Drug Administration’s BSE Feed Regulation
(21 CFR 589.2000) most material (exceptions include milk, tallow, and gelatin)
from deer and elk is prohibited for use in feed for ruminant animals. With
regards to feed for non-ruminant animals, under FDA law, CWD positive deer may
not be used for any animal feed or feed ingredients. For elk and deer considered
at high risk for CWD, the FDA recommends that these animals do not enter the
animal feed system. However, this recommendation is guidance and not a
requirement by law.
Animals considered at high risk for CWD include:
1) animals from areas declared to be endemic for CWD and/or to be CWD
eradication zones and
2) deer and elk that at some time during the 60-month period prior to
slaughter were in a captive herd that contained a CWD-positive animal.
Therefore, in the USA, materials from cervids other than CWD positive
animals may be used in animal feed and feed ingredients for non-ruminants.
The amount of animal PAP that is of deer and/or elk origin imported from
the USA to GB can not be determined, however, as it is not specified in TRACES.
It may constitute a small percentage of the 8412 kilos of non-fish origin
processed animal proteins that were imported from US into GB in 2011.
Overall, therefore, it is considered there is a __greater than negligible
risk___ that (nonruminant) animal feed and pet food containing deer and/or elk
protein is imported into GB.
There is uncertainty associated with this estimate given the lack of data
on the amount of deer and/or elk protein possibly being imported in these
products.
snip...
36% in 2007 (Almberg et al., 2011). In such areas, population declines of
deer of up to 30 to 50% have been observed (Almberg et al., 2011). In areas of
Colorado, the prevalence can be as high as 30% (EFSA, 2011).
The clinical signs of CWD in affected adults are weight loss and
behavioural changes that can span weeks or months (Williams, 2005). In addition,
signs might include excessive salivation, behavioural alterations including a
fixed stare and changes in interaction with other animals in the herd, and an
altered stance (Williams, 2005). These signs are indistinguishable from cervids
experimentally infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
Given this, if CWD was to be introduced into countries with BSE such as GB,
for example, infected deer populations would need to be tested to differentiate
if they were infected with CWD or BSE to minimise the risk of BSE entering the
human food-chain via affected venison.
snip...
The rate of transmission of CWD has been reported to be as high as 30% and
can approach 100% among captive animals in endemic areas (Safar et al., 2008).
snip...
In summary, in endemic areas, there is a medium probability that the soil
and surrounding environment is contaminated with CWD prions and in a
bioavailable form. In rural areas where CWD has not been reported and deer are
present, there is a greater than negligible risk the soil is contaminated with
CWD prion.
snip...
In summary, given the volume of tourists, hunters and servicemen moving
between GB and North America, the probability of at least one person travelling
to/from a CWD affected area and, in doing so, contaminating their clothing,
footwear and/or equipment prior to arriving in GB is greater than negligible.
For deer hunters, specifically, the risk is likely to be greater given the
increased contact with deer and their environment. However, there is significant
uncertainty associated with these estimates.
snip...
Therefore, it is considered that farmed and park deer may have a higher
probability of exposure to CWD transferred to the environment than wild deer
given the restricted habitat range and higher frequency of contact with tourists
and returning GB residents.
snip...
Singeltary submission ;
Program Standards: Chronic Wasting Disease Herd Certification Program and
Interstate Movement of Farmed or Captive Deer, Elk, and Moose
*** DOCUMENT ID: APHIS-2006-0118-0411
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Game Farm, CWD Concerns Rise at Boone and Crockett Club
Wednesday, September 04, 2013
*** cwd - cervid captive livestock escapes, loose and on the run in the
wild
*** Spraker suggested an interesting explanation for the occurrence of CWD.
The deer pens at the Foot Hills Campus were built some 30-40 years ago by a Dr.
Bob Davis. At or abut that time, allegedly, some scrapie work was conducted at
this site. When deer were introduced to the pens they occupied ground that had
previously been occupied by sheep. ...
also, see where even decades back, the USDA had the same thought as they do
today with CWD, not their problem...see page 27 below as well, where USDA stated
back then, the same thing they stated in the state of Pennsylvania, not their
damn business, once they escape, and they said the same thing about CWD in
general back then ;
”The occurrence of CWD must be viewed against the contest of the locations
in which it occurred. It was an incidental and unwelcome complication of the
respective wildlife research programmes. Despite it’s subsequent recognition as
a new disease of cervids, therefore justifying direct investigation, no specific
research funding was forthcoming. The USDA veiwed it as a wildlife problem and
consequently not their province!” ...page 26.
”The occurrence of CWD must be viewed against the contest of the locations
in which it occurred. It was an incidental and unwelcome complication of the
respective wildlife research programmes. Despite it’s subsequent recognition as
a new disease of cervids, therefore justifying direct investigation, no specific
research funding was forthcoming. The USDA veiwed it as a wildlife problem and
consequently not their province!” ...page 26.
sound familiar $$$
Sunday, January 06, 2013
USDA TO PGC ONCE CAPTIVES ESCAPE
*** "it‘s no longer its business.”
Saturday, June 29, 2013
PENNSYLVANIA CAPTIVE CWD INDEX HERD MATE YELLOW *47 STILL RUNNING LOOSE IN
INDIANA, YELLOW NUMBER 2 STILL MISSING, AND OTHERS ON THE RUN STILL IN LOUISIANA
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Chronic Wasting Disease CWD quarantine Louisiana via CWD index herd
Pennsylvania Update May 28, 2013
*** 6 doe from Pennsylvania CWD index herd still on the loose in Louisiana,
quarantine began on October 18, 2012, still ongoing, Lake Charles premises.
Thursday, October 03, 2013
*** TAHC ADOPTS CWD RULE THAT the amendments REMOVE the requirement for a
specific fence height for captives
Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC)
ANNOUNCEMENT
October 3, 2013
Friday, April 04, 2014
No New Positives Found in 2013-14 Trans Pecos CWD Surveillance
Monday, March 03, 2014
*** APHIS to Offer Indemnity for CWD Positive Herds as Part of Its Cervid
Health Activities ???
Saturday, February 04, 2012
*** Wisconsin 16 age limit on testing dead deer Game Farm CWD Testing
Protocol Needs To Be Revised
Sunday, November 3, 2013
*** Environmental Impact Statements; Availability, etc.: Animal Carcass
Management [Docket No. APHIS-2013-0044]
Sunday, September 01, 2013
*** hunting over gut piles and CWD TSE prion disease
Monday, October 07, 2013
The importance of localized culling in stabilizing chronic wasting disease
prevalence in white-tailed deer populations
Friday, March 07, 2014
37th Annual Southeast Deer Study Group Meeting in Athens, Georgia (CWD TSE
Prion abstracts)
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Potential role of soil properties in the spread of CWD in western Canada
Inactivation of the TSE Prion disease
Chronic Wasting Disease CWD, and other TSE prion disease, these TSE prions
know no borders.
these TSE prions know no age restrictions.
The TSE prion disease survives ashing to 600 degrees celsius, that’s around
1112 degrees farenheit.
you cannot cook the TSE prion disease out of meat.
you can take the ash and mix it with saline and inject that ash into a
mouse, and the mouse will go down with TSE.
Prion Infected Meat-and-Bone Meal Is Still Infectious after Biodiesel
Production as well.
the TSE prion agent also survives Simulated Wastewater Treatment Processes.
IN fact, you should also know that the TSE Prion agent will survive in the
environment for years, if not decades.
you can bury it and it will not go away.
The TSE agent is capable of infected your water table i.e. Detection of
protease-resistant cervid prion protein in water from a CWD-endemic area.
it’s not your ordinary pathogen you can just cook it out and be done with.
that’s what’s so worrisome about Iatrogenic mode of transmission, a simple
autoclave will not kill this TSE prion agent.
Sunday, March 30, 2014
*** Chronic Wasting Disease Agents in Nonhuman Primates ***
*** our results raise the possibility that CJD cases classified as VV1 may
include cases caused by iatrogenic transmission of sCJD-MM1 prions or food-borne
infection by type 1 prions from animals, e.g., chronic wasting disease prions in
cervid. In fact, two CJD-VV1 patients who hunted deer or consumed venison have
been reported (40, 41). The results of the present study emphasize the need for
traceback studies and careful re-examination of the biochemical properties of
sCJD-VV1 prions. ***
Thursday, January 2, 2014
*** CWD TSE Prion in cervids to hTGmice, Heidenhain Variant
Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease MM1 genotype, and iatrogenic CJD ??? ***
OLD HISTORY ON CWD AND GAME FARMS IN USA
Terry S. Singeltary Sr.
posted by Terry S. Singeltary Sr. at
7:52 PM
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