Editor's note: The following Q&A session is with Alan Crossley, the lead state Department of Natural Resources biologist in charge of fighting chronic wasting disease present in some of the state's white-tailed deer herd. CWD has the potential to severely damage Wisconsin's $1 billion deer-hunting revenue stream if it spreads statewide. The DNR is planning a February 2007 CWD meeting that will involve the public and hunters in particular, as hunters may be the ultimate solution to this health problem.

Question: In light of new evidence that CWD may be spread by saliva, has this raised new concerns by you or the DNR? Are there any plans to change any procedures in the next year or two?

Answer: Since 2002, when we first began managing for this disease, it has been suspected that saliva played a role in disease transmission. It was the notion of the importance of deer-to-deer transmission that drove much of our recommendation that to try to manage this disease we would need to reduce deer populations. So the confirmation of the role of saliva just reinforces the fact that the disease is contagious — and that reducing deer-to-deer transmission by reducing deer populations is an important strategy.

Q: The DNR hoped to eradicate deer from certain areas. Do you think this was a feasible goal? Did hunters come close to achieving this?

A: Our goal all along has been to eradicate the disease. But as DNR Secretary Hassett told the board in late October, going into our fifth year of responding to this disease, we have not made as much progress on reducing deer populations or changing disease prevalence as we had hoped. I believe we have set the table for hunters to kill many more deer with the longer seasons, unlimited tags, incentives, provision of a food pantry option in the DEZ, etc. At the moment, I'm not sure how much more we could do to try to create the opportunity for hunters to shoot deer. I still believe that if hunters supported the idea of eradicating the disease, or even containing it, by dramatically reducing deer populations, that physically, technologically, it would be possible.

Q: What are the economic impacts to deer hunting-based businesses if CWD were to spread statewide? How much did hunting fall off the first year of CWD?

A: The economic impacts of CWD spreading could be significant. Deer hunting is a $1 billion industry in Wisconsin, enjoyed by 700,000 hunters and providing 7 million days of hunting recreation. Although hunting license sales did drop about 10 percent in 2002, they have rebounded in subsequent years, although not to the point they were prior to 2002. The key to projecting the economic impacts depends on whether the disease can be transmitted to humans (uncertain), whether it can be transmitted to livestock (seems unlikely, but not certain) and what effect the disease will have on deer populations (all models I have seen and some data coming out of Colorado show that deer populations will decline in the face of high disease prevalence). But our premise is that the long-term consequences of not being able to at least contain the disease where it is will not be good for Wisconsin. A healthy deer herd is very important to the economy of the state.

Q: Do you think CWD will continue to be an issue for decades, or can it be contained/controlled before then?

A: I think that all indications are that the management of this disease is a very long-term endeavor for some of the reasons that we talked about above. I'm hesitant to predict a timetable in decades, but I am confident that it is not a short-term proposition.

Q: What is the future of baiting and feeding deer in Wisconsin?

A: Regarding baiting and feeding, I have seen a variety of editorials from papers scattered across Wisconsin, calling on the Legislature to revisit the statewide ban on baiting and feeding in light of the saliva finding that was part of your first question. As I said earlier, the confirmation of the role of saliva in disease transmission again solidifies the notion that this is a contagious disease. Those editorials have correctly, in my estimation, gone the next step to say that the role of saliva is further evidence why baiting and feeding should be banned.

Q: What would you like to tell the general public about the disease?

A: Probably the most important message I try to deliver is that CWD is an issue of statewide importance. I think people around the state should be concerned about this disease and be rooting for us to be successful in at least containing the disease, if not eradicating it.

Q: Although it is not supposed to be present in the meat of contaminated deer, do you feel a CWD-positive deer is OK to eat?

A: Although there is no evidence that humans can get the disease from eating venison, they each recommend that people not eat venison from deer that test positive. That recommendation is based on the fact that CWD is in the same family of diseases as mad cow disease that has been shown to affect humans in rare instances. Thus the prudent response from the human health perspective is to urge caution and that is the message we try to deliver.

Q: What are your biggest concerns remaining about CWD?

A: I guess one of my big concerns is that people don't believe this disease is as important to the state of Wisconsin as we do. We made an unprecedented effort trying to communicate our concerns to hunters and landowners. Yet that message is not resonating with folks. Again, I never try to frame this as a "hunter" issue. It's basic human nature. My concern is that we can't afford to wait until a majority of the citizens of the state are affected by CWD, because it has spread across the state and prevalence is high.

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. If Wisconsin is going to avoid the statewide, negative impacts of CWD, we are going to have to do things differently.

Finally, what are the consequences of our success or failure to manage the disease and is the public willing to accept those consequences? These will be challenging and frank discussions. Choices we make today will determine the health of the deer herd we hand down to our children and grandchildren. Potential troubling impacts of our choices include: a steady increase in the distribution and prevalence of the disease across the Wisconsin landscape, affecting more people and deer herds each year and growing negative impacts to the state's $1 billion deer hunting industry.