More than 300 deer will be killed at a Wisconsin farm found to have chronic wasting disease
More than 300 deer will be killed at a Wisconsin farm found to have chronic wasting disease,
Paul A. Smith
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
July 22, 2022
GILMAN – The largest depopulation of a deer farm in Wisconsin history is scheduled to take place this month at a Taylor County facility, according to the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
The action was ordered by DATCP after chronic wasting disease was discovered at the facility, Maple Hill Farms near Gilman, in August 2021.
Wrangling about details of the depopulation, including whether some bucks could be sold and transferred to a CWD-positive shooting preserve, the source of indemnity and method used to kill the animals, has delayed the process until this summer.
About 325 to 350 white-tailed deer are in pens on the 40-acre property, said Laurie Seale, owner of Maple Hill Farms.
The number isn't known with certainty because fawns continue to be born at the site.
"(CWD) is devastating me and my business," Seale said. "I know some of my animals will test positive, but it's wrong to kill all of them."
Seale started deer farming in 1989; the primary revenue was obtained by selling big-antlered bucks to hunting ranches.
Maple Hill Farms shipped 387 deer to 40 facilities in seven states since July 2016, according to DATCP records.
Chronic wasting disease is a fatal neurological disease of deer, elk and moose caused by an infectious protein called a prion that affects the animal's brain, according to the CWD Alliance. The disease is mostly spread through close animal contact but the prions are also stable in soil and water.
The disease has not been found to cause illness in livestock or humans. However, health officials do not recommend humans consume meat from a CWD-positive animal.
Since being found in Colorado in the 1960s, CWD has been documented in 30 states and several foreign countries, according to the National Wildlife Health Center of the U.S. Geological Survey. The disease was detected in Wisconsin in wild and captive deer in 2002.
Wisconsin has 301 registered deer farms and 38 are CWD-positive, according to state data. Twenty, or 54%, have been found to be CWD-positive in the last three years. Twenty of the 38 have been depopulated and indemnity paid to the owners.
The disease was found at eight Wisconsin captive deer facilities – in Eau Claire, Langlade, Outagamie, Portage, Sauk, Taylor, Vilas and Waukesha counties – in 2021 alone, according to DATCP reports. Two more, in Walworth and Waukesha counties, were added this year.
The disease also has continued to spread, slowly but unrelentingly, among Wisconsin's wild deer.
Regulations, enforcement and technology are failing to prevent the spread of CWD in both the deer farming industry and the wild deer herd.
And the ramifications of the disease, including closing down businesses, tying up agriculture and wildlife officials and costs to taxpayers, continue to mount.
Seale said she doesn't know how the disease found its way onto her farm. Maple Hills Farm has a double-fenced perimeter and had been a closed herd since 2015, she said, and was attempting to cultivate a CWD-resistant herd through selective breeding.
She lamented that work on her farm to identify more CWD-resistant strains of deer will be wiped out with the depopulation.
The first CWD-positive animal found at the site was a 6-year-old doe born at Maple Hills, Seale said. At least one of its fawns has also tested positive as have several other animals since.
The last animal Maple Hills Farm transferred in was from a Pennsylvania herd that is CWD-free, Seale said.
Seale sought permission last fall to sell and transfer some mature bucks to a CWD-positive hunting ranch, a move she said would have provided her revenue to feed her remaining animals and saved taxpayers money. It ultimately was denied by DATCP since the farm was under quarantine.
Federal indemnity will be used to compensate Seale for the elimination of the captive herd, according to Kevin Hoffman, DATCP public information officer.
The federal fund allows a maximum payment of $3,000 per animal.
Maple Hill Farms stands to be the largest CWD-related deer farm depopulation in state history both in number of animals removed and size of indemnity payment.
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The largest previous depopulation was in November 2015 when 228 deer were killed by DATCP at Fairchild Whitetails in southeastern Eau Claire County.
The state paid the farm owner $298,000 in indemnity in that case. Thirty-four deer from the culled herd tested positive for CWD.
State agriculture officials have allowed more than a dozen CWD-positive deer farms to remain open, but on May 18 did depopulate Van Ooyen Whitetails in Antigo. That action, the first in more than a year, removed about 50 deer. The animals were killed by sharpshooters.
Indemnity payment to Van Ooyen also came from federal funds, according to DATCP. The amount was not disclosed.
Seale refused a DATCP plan to kill her deer with sharpshooters and instead will pay a veterinarian to remove them by lethal injections.
"I've always taken very good care of my deer," Seale said. "That's why I said I don't care what it costs me, if I'm forced to do a depopulation, I'm going to do it the most humane way possible."
The depopulation is expected to take from two to four days. Personnel from DATCP, U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources will be involved.
All dead deer will be removed from the site and tested for CWD.
4 MOST ENDANGERED WHITETAIL DESTINATIONS IN AMERICA
Mark Kenyon
MARK KENYON Jun 3, 2022
4 Most Endangered Whitetail Destinations in America
It would not be hyperbole to say that we’re quite possibly living in the “golden age” of whitetail deer hunting.
Deer populations might be higher now than ever before and, at least since records have been kept, bigger, older bucks have never been more numerous. Hunters smash world and state records every year. The good times sure seem to be rolling.
But this isn’t true across all aspects or locales within the whitetail range, nor is it guaranteed to remain true into the future. All good things can and do come to an end.
The future of deer and deer hunting, as is the case with almost every aspect of the natural world today, exists on a precipice. Serious threats like disease, habitat loss, resource management, and public opinion all loom on the horizon. Four specific threatened locations, in particular, stand out as representative of larger issues threatening our nation’s deer hunting future. These are, in our estimation, the four most endangered whitetail destinations in America.
Read on for an introduction to these special yet threatened whitetail locales. And find out what we can do as deer hunters and stewards of the land to address the challenges in these specific locations and across the nation.
SOUTHWESTERN WISCONSIN
Greatest Threat: Chronic Wasting Disease
Southwest Wisconsin, a world-renowned big buck destination, is also ground zero for chronic wasting disease. The 100% fatal neurological disease impacting whitetails and other deer species has now spread to 29 states across the country. CWD is widely recognized as possibly the greatest existential threat to the future of whitetail hunting, and no place is it more ubiquitous than Wisconsin’s driftless area.
In some regions here, hunters are observing population-level impacts and CWD prevalence rates have hit as high as 30%. In more practical terms, this means that some areas of the whitetail-crazy state of Wisconsin might be experiencing the beginnings of downward trends in populations due to CWD. Almost one in three deer tested in these areas are testing positive. While CWD’s large-scale impact on deer populations is no joke, an equally concerning risk is the impact that positive tests have on the desire to hunt and eat deer at all. While transmission from deer to humans hasn’t been documented, it’s theoretically possible—akin to what happened with Mad Cow Disease in the 1990s. For this reason, the CDC currently advises hunters not to consume venison from a CWD-positive deer. The result of all this is that a lot of hard-earned venison is getting thrown in the dump already, and things, hypothetically, stand to worsen.
This worst-in-class state of affairs is partly due to a passive approach to CWD management that Wisconsin adopted in 2012, moving away from their “earn a buck” rule, stopping targeted population controls, and making testing in known CWD areas only voluntary.
“Because of the passive management approach taken by Wisconsin, CWD is endemic to five southwest counties, has spread to surrounding counties, and has been found in 38 of the state’s 72 counties,” said southwestern Wisconsin resident, hunter, and land consultant Doug Duren. “In some areas in those counties where prevalence is being studied, over 50% of adult bucks and over 35% of adult does are CWD positive.”
In conversations with other area residents, Duren heard anecdotal reports of seeing fewer older deer and mature bucks, increasing numbers of late-stage infected animals in need of putting down, and already dead deer. “One member of a group of hunters with a lease in Iowa County, Wisconsin told me they decided to give up their lease and find opportunity elsewhere as every buck they killed in the past three years tested positive for CWD,” he said. “This is a cautionary tale.”
While there is no single simple fix to this problem, the recently introduced Chronic Wasting Disease Research and Management Act would designate $35 million in badly needed funding for CWD research and another $35 million for management and surveillance that would certainly help the situation in Wisconsin and beyond. Click here to let your senators know this is an issue of supreme importance to deer hunters in your state.
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TEXAS
Greatest Threat: Captive Deer Industry
The great state of Texas sports one of the most robust and proud deer hunting cultures in the nation, but it’s also home to what some consider the greatest threat to deer hunting in all of America: the captive deer industry. The debate around the captive deer industry is complicated, long-standing, and fraught, but the issues can be distilled into two main categories. First is the well-documented risk of spreading CWD by way of the transfer and sale of captive deer. Second is the negative impact that captive deer shooting facilities, and the media created around them, can have on the public perception of hunting in America and the North American Model of Conservation.
Texas is home to more captive deer facilities than any other state by a long shot, with 858 locations. The conditions present at such facilities, with high numbers of animals in close quarters, are well known to be a perfect storm for the spread of CWD. Not to mention the fact that given the transactional nature of captive deer breeding, many animals are sold and shipped across wide swaths of the country, potentially cross-contaminating new herds of deer all along the way.
While there have been increasing amounts of testing and monitoring of these herds for CWD, the effectiveness of these efforts are feared to be sub-par at best. “The profit motive is so great, it is common for deer breeders to hide infections, or simply not test, and thus spread the disease,” writes Whit Fosborg, CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.
All of this makes Texas a likely ground zero for future CWD issues, a perfect example being a 2021 investigationthat identified the release of more than 1,700 deer from seven Texas captive deer facilities that could have been exposed to chronic wasting disease. “Overwhelmingly, the CWD hot zone maps radiate from captive facilities across the state,” said Texas resident and bowhunter K.C. Smith.
Furthermore, the proliferation of captive deer facilities and “canned shooting preserves” threaten to shine a poor light on the larger hunting public, potentially hemorrhaging support for the free-range pursuit of whitetails in Texas and elsewhere. While the vast majority of non-hunters support hunting for food, those figures reverse when considering “trophy hunting.” Animals that are custom-bred to grow the largest antlers possible and then housed in high-fenced small enclosures and sold off to be shot by the highest bidder represents the most egregious example of what trophy hunting could be percieved as. Regardless of whether or not most high-fence facilities fit this description, the worst offenders are unfortunately what most people notice. We as whitetail hunters risk being defined by our most fringe element, especially in the Lone Star state.
It’s important to note that many of the high fence deer facilities in Texas very well might be well-managed and owned by good honest deer-loving people, Smith was quick to remind me. This is not as cut and dry of an issue as some non-Texans want to believe it is.
“I have an easy set of values to live by: don’t hurt people and don’t take their stuff,” he said. “However, when the deer ‘owned’ by another person are threatening to take away the future of my kids’ and everyone’s deer hunting, something must be done.”
Support for the Chronic Wasting Disease Research and Management Actwill help just as much here as in Wisconsin, as would advocating for greater oversightof the captive deer industry in Texas and beyond.
Wisconsin Chronic Wasting Disease Positives in Farm-Raised Deer
Revised: 6/2/2022
County (Premises #) Sample Collection Date of First CWD Positive in Farm-Raised Deer Sample Collection Date of Last CWD Positive in Farm-Raised Deer Total CWD Positive in Farm-Raised Deer
Portage(1) 9/4/2002 1/18/2006 82
Walworth(1) 9/20/2002 12/13/2002 6
Manitowoc 3/5/2003 3/5/2003 1
Sauk(1) 10/3/2003 10/3/2003 1
Racine 5/1/2004 5/1/2004 1
Walworth(2) 7/28/2004 11/3/2004 3
Crawford 1/19/2005 1/25/2007 2
Portage(2) 9/22/2008 11/18/2008 2
Jefferson 12/1/2008 12/1/2008 1
Marathon 11/7/2013 11/3/2021 114
Richland(1) 9/13/2014 11/19/2014 8
Eau Claire(1) 6/8/2015 11/24/2015 34
Oneida 11/4/2015 11/22/2021 30
Iowa(1) 1/22/2016 5/4/2022 6
Oconto 9/4/2016 4/20/2022 457
Shawano 9/18/2017 3/16/2022 89
Waupaca 9/21/2017 12/7/2017 12
Washington 2/18/2018 11/15/2018 12
Richland(2) 5/11/2018 5/11/2018 1
Dane 5/16/2018 5/16/2018 1
Iowa(2) 5/18/2018 5/18/2018 21
Marinette 5/19/2018 12/7/2021 4
Sauk(2) 6/4/2018 11/23/2021 4
Portage(3) 10/23/2018 10/23/2018 1
Portage(4) 11/16/2018 5/1/2019 8
Forest 1/8/2019 12/17/2021 10
Burnett(1) 7/30/2019 7/30/2019 1
Trempealeau 11/7/2019 11/11/2021 4
Burnett(2) 9/3/2020 9/3/2020 1
Sauk(3) 7/19/2021 7/19/2021 1
Taylor 7/24/2021 12/31/2021 12
Outagamie 8/12/2021 9/3/2021 2
Langlade 8/13/2021 8/13/2021 1
Portage(5) 9/8/2021 10/17/2021 2
Vilas 9/9/2021 9/9/2021 1
Eau Claire(2) 10/13/2021 11/1/2021 3
Waukesha 12/3/2021 12/3/2021 2
Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection Division of Animal Health 2811 Agriculture Dr., P.O. Box 8911, Madison, WI 53708 https://www.datcp.wi.gov
https://datcp.wi.gov/Documents/FRDCWDWebData.pdf
“Regrettably, the gravity of this situation continues to mount with these new CWD positive discoveries, as well as with the full understanding of just how many other facilities and release sites across Texas were connected to the CWD positive sites in Uvalde and Hunt Counties,” said Carter Smith, Executive Director of TPWD.
TEXAS CWD STRAIN
77. Assessing chronic wasting disease strain differences in free-ranging cervids across the United States
Kaitlyn M. Wagnera, Caitlin Ott-Connb, Kelly Strakab, Bob Dittmarc, Jasmine Battend, Robyn Piercea, Mercedes Hennessya, Elizabeth Gordona, Brett Israela, Jenn Ballarde and Mark D Zabela
aPrion Research Center at Colorado State University; bMichigan Department of Natural Resources; cTexas Parks and Wildlife Department; dMissouri Department of Conservation, 5. Arkansas Game and Fish Commission CONTACT Kaitlyn M. Wagner miedkait@rams.colostate.edu
ABSTRACT
Background/Introduction: Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is an invariably fatal prion disease affecting captive and free-ranging cervids, including white-tailed deer, mule deer, moose, elk, and reindeer. Since the initial description of the disease in the 1960’s, CWD has spread to 23 states, 3 Canadian Provinces, South Korea, Norway and, most recently, Finland. While some outbreaks of CWD were caused by transport of infected animals from endemic regions, the origin of CWD in other epizootics is unclear and has not been characterized. Previous studies have shown that there are two distinct strains of CWD. However, the continuous spread and the unclear origin of several outbreaks warrant continued surveillance and further characterization of strain diversity.
Materials and Methods: To address these knowledge gaps, we used biochemical tests to assess strain differences between CWD outbreaks in Michigan, Texas, Missouri, and Colorado, USA. Brain or lymph node samples were homogenized and digested in 50 µg/mL proteinase K (PK). These samples were then run on a Western blot to assess glycoform ratio and electrophoretic mobility. Texas samples were digested in 100 µg/mL PK. To assess conformational stability, brain or lymph node homogenates were incubated in increasing concentrations of guanidine hydrochloride from 0 M to 4 M in 0.5 M increments. Samples were then precipitated in methanol overnight, washed and PK digested in 50 µg/mL PK before slot blotting.
Results: Our results have found significant differences in glycoform ratio between CWD from Michigan and Colorado, but no differences were observed in conformational stability assays. Interestingly, when testing our CWD isolates from Texas to analyse electrophoretic mobility and glycoform ratio, we found that these samples did not exhibit the characteristic band shift when treated with PK, but PK resistant material remained. Additionally, results from our conformational stability assay demonstrate a unique profile of these Texas isolates. Testing of samples from Missouri is currently underway.
Conclusions: Thus far, our data indicate that there are strain differences between CWD circulating in Michigan and CWD in Colorado and provide important insight into CWD strain differences between two non-contiguous outbreaks. We have also identified a unique strain of CWD in Texas with biochemical strain properties not seen in any of our other CWD isolates. These results highlight the importance of continued surveillance to better understand this devastating disease. These results have important implications for CWD emergence, evolution and our understanding of prion strain heterogeneity on the landscape.
“Regrettably, the gravity of this situation continues to mount with these new CWD positive discoveries, as well as with the full understanding of just how many other facilities and release sites across Texas were connected to the CWD positive sites in Uvalde and Hunt Counties,” said Carter Smith, Executive Director of TPWD.
The disease devastating deer herds may also threaten human health
Scientists are exploring the origins of chronic wasting disease before it becomes truly catastrophic.
Rae Ellen Bichell
Image credit: David Parsons/Istock
April 8, 2019
This story was published in collaboration with the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.
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One day in late February, in their laboratory in Fort Collins, Colorado, Wagner and Zabel compared the prions from the brains of CWD-infected deer in Texas with those of elk in Colorado. They want to know if the proteins were all mangled in the same way, or not. “If they are different, this would suggest that we have different strain properties, which is evidence as we're building our case that we might have multiple strains of CWD circulating in the U.S.,” says Wagner.
Step one is to see if they’re equally easy to destroy using a chemical called guanidine. The shape of a prion dictates everything, including the way it interacts with an animal’s cells and the ease with which chemicals can unfold it.
“Moment of truth,” said Wagner, as she and Zabel huddled around a computer, waiting for results to come through. When they did, Zabel was surprised.
“Wow,” he said. “Unlike anything we've seen before.”
The prions from the Texas deer were a lot harder to destroy than the ones from the Colorado elk. In fact, the guanidine barely damaged them at all. “We’ve never seen that before in any prion strain, which means that it has a completely different structure than we've ever seen before,” says Zabel. And that suggests that it might be a very different kind of chronic wasting disease. The researchers ran the same test on another Texas deer, with the same results.
Now, these are only the preliminary results from a few animals. Wagner and Zabel have a lot more experiments to do. But if future tests come to the same conclusion, it would support their hypothesis that there are multiple strains of chronic wasting disease out there, all with different origins. That, in turn, could mean that this disease will become even trickier to manage than it already is.
And, Zabel adds, there’s something else. “If it's still evolving, it may still evolve into a form that could potentially, eventually affect humans,” he says.
Zabel is not the only one worried about that possibility.
OSTERHOLM, THE EPIDEMIOLOGIST from Minnesota, is also concerned. He directs the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, and is serving a one-year stint as a “Science Envoy for Health Security” with the U.S. State Department. In February, he told Minnesota lawmakers that when it comes to chronic wasting disease, we are playing with fire. “You are going to hear from people that this is not going to be a problem other than a game farm issue. You're going to hear from people that it's not going to transmit to people, and I hope they're right, but I wouldn't bet on it,” he said. “And if we lose this one and haven’t done all we can do, we will pay a price.”
If that wasn’t warning enough, he added: “Just remember what happened in England.”
He was talking about mad cow disease. Decades ago, Osterholm got involved in studying the potential for the newly emerging condition — bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE for short — to be transmitted to humans.
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***> TEXAS BREEDER DEER ESCAPEE WITH CWD IN THE WILD, or so the genetics would show?
OH NO, please tell me i heard this wrong, a potential Texas captive escapee with cwd in the wild, in an area with positive captive cwd herd?apparently, no ID though. tell me it ain't so please...
23:00 minute mark
''Free Ranging Deer, Dr. Deyoung looked at Genetics of this free ranging deer and what he found was, that the genetics on this deer were more similar to captive deer, than the free ranging population, but he did not see a significant connection to any one captive facility that he analyzed, so we believe, Ahhhhhh, this animal had some captive ahhh, whatnot.''
“Regarding the current situation involving CWD in permitted deer breeding facilities, TPWD records indicate that within the last five years, the seven CWD-positive facilities transferred a total of 2,530 deer to 270 locations in 102 counties and eight locations in Mexico (the destinations included 139 deer breeding facilities, 118 release sites, five Deer Management Permit sites, and three nursing facilities).'' ...
It is apparent that prior to the recent emergency rules, the CWD detection rules were ineffective at detecting CWD earlier in the deer breeding facilities where it was eventually discovered and had been present for some time; this creates additional concern regarding adequate mitigation of the risk of transferring CWD-positive breeder deer to release sites where released breeder deer come into contact with free-ranging deer...
Commission Agenda Item No. 5 Exhibit B
DISEASE DETECTION AND RESPONSE RULES
PROPOSAL PREAMBLE
1. Introduction.
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A third issue is the accuracy of mortality reporting. Department records indicate that for each of the last five years an average of 26 deer breeders have reported a shared total of 159 escapes. Department records for the same time period indicate an average of 31 breeding facilities reported a shared total of 825 missing deer (deer that department records indicate should be present in the facility, but cannot be located or verified).
Counties where CWD Exposed Deer were Released, September 2021
Number of CWD Exposed Deer Released by County, September 2021
THURSDAY, JULY 14, 2022
Texas Rancher Refuses To Kill Captive Deer Despite Contagious Brain Disease, risk further spread of CWD TSE Prion to wild herds, thanks to Governor Abbott
FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2022
Texas Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion Positives Increase By 8 to 369 TOTAL Confirmed To Date
Terry S. Singeltary Sr.
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