CWD still a concern, says DNR secretary
* Deer diseasecan be spreadthrough
saliva
Spooner Advocate
Last Updated:
Wednesday, November 15th, 2006 10:46:04 AM
In a communication Oct. 26 to Natural Resources Board members regarding the
management of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), Department of Natural Resources
(DNR) Secretary Scott Hassett stated that hunter harvest alone will not be
sufficient to control the disease. “Non-traditional and potentially
controversial methods will be required,” he said in a six-page memo.
Hassett said that the agency has spent $26.8 million from 2002, when CWD was
first discovered near Mount Horeb, into 2006 toward controlling the disease.
The stated goal of the Department and its allies in the endeavor is to
minimize the negative impact of CWD on cervid populations, the state’s
economy, hunters and others who are affected by deer management.
“The sobering conclusion of the department’s CWD leaders is that we have not
made as much progress as we would have hoped in managing this disease,”
Hassett wrote. He said that despite increased hunting opportunity and
incentive, “we have not made sufficient progress in reducing the deer herd.”
“If Wisconsin is going to avoid the statewide, negative impacts of CWD,” he
said, “we are going to have to do things differently.”
Exact tactics adopted to reduce the herd, he said, will be arrived at with
significant public input. Discussions have reportedly included the
possibility of sharpshooters, bounty hunters or killing deer from above with
helicopters. Despite unrestricted hunting opportunities and season length,
hunters often are uncomfortable with the responsibility of unrestricted
killing of deer without consumption and have not universally embraced state
goals or theories related to CWD.
The disease has spread in Wisconsin, from Dane and Iowa counties to other
pockets in southern Wisconsin. Tom Hauge, wildlife director of the DNR, said
in an interview Oct. 26 that “sparks” of the disease also threaten other
areas, with a study published the last week in October in the Science
Journal offering credible evidence, it said, that CWD is spread through
saliva. Such transmission would make highly concentrated deer even more
susceptible to the spread of CWD.
Hassett’s report said that the DNR has a preferred approach to fighting CWD
that would include: containment, to demonstrate that Wisconsin can contain
the disease within a limited area of the state; control, to be sought after
containment to reduce the prevalence or intensity of the disease in the
affected areas; and eradication, “if and only if” containment and control
are successfully under way, Wisconsin would work toward eliminating CWD.
“I have heard people question whether Wisconsin has the collective resolve
needed to even contain, let alone control or eradicate CWD,” said Hassett.
“I am not ready to accept their conclusion without first speaking with the
citizens of our state. We believe that to give up on the goal of a healthy
deer herd would be irresponsible, and would forever change the landscape of
Wisconsin. We believe that working with the public we can find strategies
that hunters, landowners and the public can embrace. Without the public’s
support we can’t succeed.”
Unwilling to discuss possible specific controls on the herd that might be
viewed as “controversial” until after public input has been received,
Wildlife Director Hauge did say in the interview that “hunter will, freezer
space, and attitude” had played a role in keeping the kill far less than
eradication in CWD zones. Some residents, he said, do not believe the DNR or
science while some landowners working closely with the DNR may live adjacent
to other landowners threatened by that very work.
“So how are you going to contain the disease?” he said. “If you were dealing
with a human infectious disease, what would be the consequences of someone
not getting with the program? It’s a shared deer herd and a shared disease.
The sobering view is that if we keep doing things the way we’re doing it,
the disease will spread.”
Hauge also said that expense of testing for CWD is placing a great strain on
the agency and that as the disease spreads the cost of testing each animal
for the disease will increase even more. Currently, he said, the state pays
approximately $100 for each deer tested from fish and game license revenues.
“That doesn’t leave many dollars for other needs,” he said. “And it will
cost more as the disease spreads unless someone comes up with a five-cent
test.”
Monumental expense and the belief that little more is known about CWD today
than five years ago when the disease was first discovered is also the reason
Rep. Scott Gunderson (R-Waterford), 83rd District, a Natural Resources Board
member, believes the DNR should not attempt an aggressive program to kill
more deer. Contacted recently, Gunderson said that license fees should
instead be directed to programs like habitat restoration and fish stocking.
“What do we know different today about CWD that we didn’t know five years
ago?” he said. “Five years ago they believed the disease was transmitted
through urine, feces and saliva. This study just came out that offers
evidence that it’s transmitted through saliva, but we still don’t know it.
“Hunters are never going to buy into the idea of eradicating the deer herd –
$26.8 million has been spent, and we’re no better off than we were five
years ago. Just test the deer for the hunter, and forget about the rest of
it. We can then re-evaluate it in five years.”
Hassett said the DNR would prepare a presentation for the Natural Resources
Board February meeting regarding the CWD issue.
“We will be seeking your approval to develop the next phase of CWD
management by the Department and to consult the public during development,”
he said.
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