# Freep story



## Pinefarm (Sep 19, 2000)

Disease may jeopardize deer hunting in Michigan 

April 22, 2002





BY ERIC SHARP
FREE PRESS OUTDOORS WRITER




The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources will try to stop the spread of chronic wasting disease by killing 90 percent of the deer in the area of southwestern Wisconsin where the infection has been found. 

Bob Garner, a member of the Michigan Natural Resources Commission, said Sunday he hopes to raise enough money through private organizations "to create a picket line in the four UP counties" that border Wisconsin by testing far more deer than the 500 for which the Michigan DNR has budgeted. 

Bill Vander Zouwen, a Wisconsin DNR official, said: "We didn't think it could jump the Mississippi, but it's here." 

CWD is a transmissible spongiform encephalitis related to mad cow and Creutzfeldt-Jakob diseases. It seems to infect only cervids, members of the deer family. There is no evidence it can spread to humans. 

First discovered in Colorado, this fatal ailment spread rapidly in deer and elk there, Montana and Nebraska, despite relatively low densities of cervids and efforts by the states to control the disease by killing every deer and elk they can in the infected areas. 

Garner said: "If they can't stop it spreading in Colorado, where you have five to seven deer per square mile, what happens when it gets into a place like the UP, where you can have hundreds of deer in a winter yard? How about parts of the Lower Peninsula with 30 to 50 deer per square mile? 

"And the big question is how CWD jumped 900 miles to Wisconsin. It could have been through a live animal shipped to a deer or elk farm, but we also know that several Wisconsin hunters dumped emaciated Colorado elk carcasses that they didn't want to mess with," Garner said. 

The Michigan United Conservation Clubs board voted unanimously at its weekend meeting in Thompsonville for resolutions demanding that the state stop licensing new cervid facilities; forbid the expansion of existing ones; require that all existing big-game ranches be double-fenced, and ban the importation of all exotic animals, dead or alive. 

The only exceptions would be antlers, skins and boned meat from animals killed by hunters, which experts say pose no risk. 

"I told the board that (CWD) is without question the most serious threat to hunting in Michigan in my lifetime," MUCC executive director Sam Washington said.


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## Steve (Jan 15, 2000)

Good to see MUCC getting involved with this. The faster the better.


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## Pinefarm (Sep 19, 2000)

If they can find the money, I think the MDNR should shoot and test a couple hundred deer in some western UP counties right now! This disease won't be nice enough to wait until October 1 to decide if it will spread here. We shouldn't wait until October 1 to find out either.


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## Tom Morang (Aug 14, 2001)

April 23, 2002 Contact: Amanda Hathaway,
Public Relations Manager, 517/346-6488
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MUCC RESOLVES TO PREVENT SPREAD OF CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE IN WHITETAIL DEER
HERD

LANSING - Michigan United Conservation Clubs' Board of Directors unanimously
passed a resolution aimed at preventing Chronic Wasting Disease from
reaching Michigan's whitetail deer herd at its April 21 meeting.
The resolution calls for a ban on the importation of all deer, elk and
exotic game species except boned meat, capes and antlers into Michigan. It
also calls for a moratorium on the registration of new privately owned
cervid farms. Cervids are members of the deer and elk family.
The recommendation on existing facilities included no expansions and the
installation of double fencing. The Michigan Department of Agriculture has
already banned the import of deer and elk from Wisconsin, Colorado, Wyoming,
Nebraska, Montana, South Dakota, Kansas and Oklahoma, where the disease has
been discovered in their populations.
Recent disease survey results have revealed that Chronic Wasting Disease
(CWD) exists in free-ranging whitetail deer in Wisconsin. In Western
states, the highest prevalence rates have occurred in captive cervid
facilities and game ranches, where animals are in close contact with one
another.
"Too little is known about the ways this disease is spread to take any
chances with Michigan's deer herd," exclaimed MUCC Executive Director Sam
Washington. "Wisconsin is just too close for comfort. We don't know how
the pathogen is spread, and it's extremely difficult to eradicate."
Research has revealed CWD spreads slowly and at present cannot be diagnosed
with live animal testing procedures. CWD is a progressive and always fatal
neurological disorder affecting cervids.
Infected animals experience drastic weight loss, listlessness, frequent
urination and salivation, leading to eventual starvation. Mad Cow Disease
and CWD are in the same transmissible spongiform encephalopathies family.
Unlike Mad Cow Disease, there is no record of CWD spreading to humans.
MUCC has nearly 100,000 members and over 500 affiliated clubs whose mission
is uniting citizens to conserve Michigan's natural resources and protect our
outdoor heritage. For more information, visit www.mucc.org.
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