# New test procedure finds four more CWD-positive deer



## Tom Morang (Aug 14, 2001)

DNR News Release
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources 
PO Box 7921 
Madison WI 53707 
(608) 266-6790 
Fax: (608) 264-6293
FOR RELEASE: May 22, 2002 

CONTACTS: Tom Hauge (608) 266-2193 
Julie Langenberg (608)266-3143 
Bob Manwell (608) 264-9248 

New test procedure finds four more CWD-positive deer


MADISON, Wis. -- Additional testing of tissues from a sample of 516 deer shot in March and April of this year and submitted for CWD testing has yielded four additional CWD-positive deer from the sample area. The test uses lymph node tissue and is still experimental but seems to compare well to the accepted test standard that uses brain stem tissue. 

This brings the total number of CWD cases found in the 516-deer sample taken from western Dane-eastern Iowa counties to 15. 

"Several research facilities have been working at developing reliable alternate CWD tests that detect CWD earlier in the disease cycle," said DNR's wildlife veterinarian Julie Langenberg. "This test is an immunohistochemical staining (IHC) process, similar to the IHC test currently used on the brain stem." 

"The brain stem test continues to be the currently accepted standard for determining the presence of CWD in a wildlife population," said Langenberg, "but working with research partners to use new tests to better diagnose CWD will improve our chances of successfully eradicating the disease." 

Wisconsin wildlife officials are confident enough of the lymph test results to add them to the list of positive CWD diagnoses noting that the tell-tale staining indicating CWD under the microscope is a characteristic and reliable indicator. Lymph tissue collected from the 11 deer previously determined infected via the brain stem test also proved positive in the additional testing. 

The four deer announced as CWD-positive today did not show up positive in the earlier brain stem testing. One of the reasons for developing a lymph test according to animal health experts is that it shows promise for detecting the disease at an earlier stage, before there is sufficient build-up of the disease causing agent to be detected in the brain stem test. 

DNR wildlife managers had informed landowners submitting deer for testing in March and April via letter that additional tests might be run on deer shot on their properties and that the possibility existed for additional positive results. 

One of the four new CWD finds is near the southwest edge of the current CWD Eradication Zone. (see map). Based on the state's CWD management plan, the CWD Eradication Zone now will be modified to incorporate the new findings. The management plan calls for extending the CWD Eradication Zone if a CWD positive deer is found near the edge of the current boundary by including those sections within approximately 4 miles of a section containing a CWD positive deer. This will add approximately 41 square miles to the Eradication Zone bringing it to 328 square miles. 

"We've said all along that this is a fluid situation and that we'll adjust our management strategy for new data and new science as it comes in," said Tom Hauge, director of DNR's wildlife management bureau. "We'll continue to pursue new knowledge of this disease and work to further develop our detection abilities. If in time this newer test becomes the standard in the way that brain stem testing has, it looks like we'll have a new tool to detect CWD at an earlier stage. It still isn't the easy, rapid test we'd like to have, but it's progress."


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## Tom Morang (Aug 14, 2001)

Original URL: http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/may02/45486.asp 


Four more deer in state found to be diseased

Chronic wasting cases reach 18; officials expand eradication zone

By MEG JONES
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: May 22, 2002

Minocqua - Four more deer near Mount Horeb have tested positive for chronic wasting disease - including a doe that was shot just outside a 287-square-mile "eradication zone" where other diseased deer were discovered, state officials said Wednesday.

Since one of the infected animals was found outside that zone - where the Department of Natural Resources wants to kill every white-tailed deer to stop the spread of the deadly brain disease - the zone will be expanded by 74 square miles, officials said.

That brings the total number of deer that have tested positive for the disease to 18 - three deer shot during the November gun hunt and 15 from a group of roughly 500 deer that were killed and tested in March and April, after the state learned that the disease was in Wisconsin.

DNR officials also announced Wednesday that they were scaling back plans for hunting in the eradication zone because of concerns from residents. Initially, the DNR planned to allow landowners in that area to obtain permits that would let them hunt continuously on their property.

However, the DNR said Wednesday that instead of continuous hunting, each landowner permit would be issued for a seven-day period once each month from June through September.

That will give landowners three weeks each month when shooting will not be allowed on their property, said Tom Hauge, the DNR's director of wildlife management.

"They want some normalcy in their life, especially during the summer," Hauge said of property owners.

The first of the permits will be issued for June 8 to 14.

When the DNR announced its eradication plan, the agency said its goal was to try to kill nearly 15,000 deer in the zone in Dane, Iowa and Sauk counties as quickly as possible in hopes of stopping the spread of the disease.

But the DNR now said it doesn't expect many deer - probably only 500 - to be killed during the summer, which means the bulk will have to be shot in the fall.

Board takes no action
The Natural Resources Board, which held its monthly meeting in Minocqua, was briefed on the disease Wednesday, but it did did not take any action on the issue. The board is expected to vote next month on an emergency rule giving the DNR powers to stop the spread of the disease, which is similar to mad cow disease.

The deadly neurological disease caused by an infectious protein called a prion has cast uncertainly over the safety of eating venison. The DNR has said that it cannot guarantee the safety of Wisconsin venison.

Board Chairman TrygveSolberg said that while he wasn't surprised to learn that more deer tested positive, he was worried about the health of the state herd and the effect it would have on hunters and the hunting economy.

"It's terrible. It's one of the worst things that's happened in the state of Wisconsin," Solberg said.

DNR veterinarian Julie Langenberg told the board that tests of brain stem tissue of the four deer initially came back negative, but additional tests of lymph node tissue were done, and those tests showed infection. That suggests the two does and two bucks, ranging in age from 21/2 to 41/2 years old, were in earlier stages of infection than those whose brain stems showed evidence of chronic wasting disease, she said.

Because one of the infected does was found just outside the nine-mile-radius eradication zone, another 4-mile-radius zone will be drawn around the spot where that doe was killed.

Langenberg said officials were not surprised to find the infected deer outside the zone. "She represents a situation that we expected with this outbreak," Langenberg said. "We expected sparks out in front of this infection."

The new eradication zone is near Ridgeway, southwest of where the other infected deer were discovered. Just how many additional deer will be killed in the new area is not known.

The DNR also said Wednesday that plans to determine whether the disease has spread elsewhere in the state probably will wait until this fall when hunters head into the woods for bow and gun seasons. The DNR hopes to test some deer, but not all, in each deer management unit, but it will take several months for labs to test so many deer.

"So we won't get a statewide picture (of whether herds are infected) until late spring or early summer" 2003 because of the time needed to test thousands of deer, Hauge said.

Testing a high priority
Researchers are working on developing quicker and easier tests to determine whether a deer is infected. About a dozen private labs have contacted the DNR to express an interest in testing deer carcasses, Langenberg said.

Board member James Tiefenthaler asked whether hunters would be able to test their carcasses in the field to see if the venison was safe to eat. Langenberg said experts were trying to speed up the testing process, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture will require strict standards for such tests, which will lengthen the time before a field test might be available.

"How far off that is, I would say hunting season 2003" at the earliest, Langenberg said.

About 4,000 people attended public hearings around the state on chronic wasting disease, with more than 2,000 filling out questionnaires with their opinions of what the DNR should do to combat the ailment. Some also filed their responses on the DNR's Web site.

Bill Vander Zouwen, DNR section chief for wildlife ecology, said twice as many people said they would be willing to pay to have their deer tested, as compared with those who wouldn't. The average amount they were willing to pay was $30.

In a related development Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) announced that a key Senate committee had approved $19 million in emergency funding to monitor and manage the disease nationwide and another $2 million for research into it and similar animal diseases.

The funding, approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee, is part of the homeland security supplemental appropriations bill. The bill still must be approved by the full Senate and be reconciled with the House version of the measure.

That action came as members of a bipartisan group of state legislators urged Wisconsin's congressional delegation to push for more federal money.

State Sens. James Baumgart (D-Sheboygan), Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center), Rob Cowles (R-Green Bay) and Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) sent a letter to the delegation, seeking its help in finding federal funding. They underscored the need for funding to help achieve quick testing of deer for the disease.

"We are discovering that a significant percentage of hunters may be unwilling to hunt this year unless they are confident they will be able to obtain a prompt and affordable CWD test on deer they harvest," they wrote.

Dennis Chaptman and Jesse Garza of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.




Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on May 23, 2002.


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## Tom Morang (Aug 14, 2001)

New test to identify CWD more sensitive than old one 
Found 4 cases missed before 

By Samara Kalk 
May 23, 2002
The Capital Times

The four new cases of chronic wasting disease discovered Wednesday were found in deer that had previously tested negative and then tested positive through a new, still experimental test. 

The newly positive deer came from the same batch of 516 deer that the Department of Natural Resources sampled after they were shot mainly by hunters in south-central Wisconsin in March and April. 

All the deer in that sample were retested at the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, to try out a new method that tests lymph node tissue instead of the brain stem. 

The lymph test is an important new tool in the detection of the fatal deer and elk disease, DNR wildlife veterinarian Julie Langenberg said. 

While it is not a quicker test, it is a more sensitive test, she said. That means it can detect CWD at an earlier stage of the disease before it moves into the brain. The test uses the same immuno-histochemical staining that the brain stem tests do, she added. 

"Its value is demonstrated by the identification of these four cases," she said. "I think testing the lymphoid tissue is going to be part of the routine testing procedures in the future." 

One of the newly positive deer came from the southwest border of the original 287-square-mile eradication zone, about four miles from the Illinois border, state veterinarian Clarence Siroky said. 

With the discovery of that deer, the eradication zone was expanded to include an overlapping circle that includes Ridgeway in Iowa County, which before was just outside the zone. The added territory brings the size of the zone to some 359 square miles, according to information released Wednesday by the DNR. 

The DNR's plans call for trying to reduce the population of deer in the zone - estimated at about 15,000 - to zero. 

Chronic wasting disease has been found in Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas, Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming. In Wisconsin, the first CWD discovery came Feb. 28 when three deer killed by hunters in the Mount Horeb area during the 2001 gun deer season were found to have the disease. 

The DNR then launched a special hunt to collect a 500-deer sample in western Dane and eastern Iowa counties and determine the extent of the disease in the wild deer herd. Of the 516 deer killed and tested, 11 came back positive, bringing the total to 14. With the discovery of the four new cases Wednesday, the total number of CWD-positive deer in Wisconsin stands at 18. 

The DNR collected not only brain stem samples from the 516 deer but also lymph node and tonsil tissue to save until some of the newer tests could be performed, DNR spokesman Bob Manwell said. 

The DNR plans to use the new tests "across the board" once its eradication efforts begin early next week. All of those deer are expected to be tested. 

The experimental lymph node tests are far enough along in the research process that the DNR considers them a reliable indicator, Langenberg said. 

All the deer already identified as brain-positive also tested positive for CWD in their lymph nodes, she said. "It tells us we could throw out the brain maybe and just test the lymph nodes. This is how you develop new, better tests." 

The fact that the Iowa testing lab had to, in effect, duplicate its testing efforts by running tests on animals that had already been tested is not an issue, Langenberg said. The doubling-up will not last forever, she noted. 

Siroky, of the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, was unfamiliar with the new test and said he intends to talk with experts at the National Veterinary Services Laboratory to see whether it is valid. 

Information on CWD is a work in progress as states devote more time and resources to tackling the problem. "It's not an exact science but it's the best we've got," Siroky said. 


Published: 10:27 AM 5/23/02


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