On Friday, we posted Douglas County deer farm investigation leads to discovery of Pine County captive doe CWD case.
That's not all the chronic wasting disease news in Minnesota. On Saturday, the Star Tribune's Tony Kennedy reported in CWD, lower walleye limit on agendas at Capitol:
State lawmakers attuned to hunting and fishing will revisit chronic wasting disease (CWD) next month when they return to St. Paul for a session that could also touch on lake impairments, a new walleye limit and youth programs.
“There’s lots to talk about,” said Rep. Rick Hansen, D-South St. Paul.
Like Hansen, Senate committee leaders Bill Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria, and Carrie Ruud, R-Breezy Point, said the ongoing spread of CWD in the state’s wild whitetail population clearly needs more attention. The latest outbreak involves a small deer farm in Ingebrigtsen’s home district of Douglas County. State officials said Friday that a related deer farm in Pine County also has experienced an outbreak.
“It’s something I take very serious because [deer hunting] has such a huge heritage in Minnesota,” Ingebrigtsen said.
Ingebrigtsen is chairman of the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Finance Committee, while Hansen chairs a similar House committee. Last year, the Legislature considered various crackdowns on deer farms, mandating that herd owners double-fence their gates.
Deer farms aren’t the only vector for the spread of CWD. Carcass dumps can also be infectious. Hansen said he’d like more roll-off dumpsters set out at public sites for hunters to discard deer remains.
Hansen and Ingebrigtsen also said they are eager for researchers to speed CWD testing of hunter-harvested deer. . . .
We're encouraged to see a divided legislature take action of CWD, since Dan Fabian, R-Roseau, resisted Jamie Becker-Finn's efforts to address CWD when he chaired the environment committee when the Republicans controlled the Minnesota House.
Meanwhile in Wisconsin
Via the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, we read in the News Scan for Jan 09, 2020 CWD on Wisconsin deer farms; Minnesota CWD deer ban defier; Autism caregivers' vaccine view:
Wisconsin officials have confirmed 405 cases of chronic wasting disease (CWD) on state deer farms and hunting ranches since 2002, with 105 of those occurring since November 2018, Wisconsin Public Radio reported yesterday.
CWD is a deadly prion disease that affects deer, elk, and other cervids but has not yet been detected in people.
CWD cases in captive Wisconsin deer have steadily increased since a 2013 policy change by Wisconsin's Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) allowed deer farms that had infections to remain active rather than depopulate their animals. Among Wisconsin's 338 registered hunting ranches and deer farms, 7 hunting ranches and 3 deer farms are currently operating despite previous detections of CWD, the story says.
DATCP State Veterinarian Darlene Konkle, DVM, said the agency is concerned and tracks CWD-positive results in captive deer. But she said many positive tests are from ranches purposely reducing deer herds via increased hunting.
"In a couple of those cases, especially where you're seeing large numbers of positives over the past year, those are active efforts on the part of those farms to depopulate part of their populations," said Konkle. "They're also testing at 100 percent."
But George Meyer, executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, said the number of CWD infections among captive deer in the state is alarming and current regulations aren't working.
He said, "We have a handful of shooting-range facilities in the state which, in fact, still maintain large populations of CWD-infected deer, and we also know that every year there's between 20 and 30 incidents of escapes from individual deer farms in the state." At least 181 deer escaped from farms and ranches from 2013 to 2018 because of storm damage or gates being left open, the DATCP says.
Jan 8 Wisconsin Public Radio report
Read the rest about deer farmer Steve Porter's economic interests and the persistence of an autism origin myth at the University's site.
Related BSP posts:
MN DNR emergency rule prohibits all movement of farmed white-tailed deer for next 30 days
Minnesota Chronic Wasting Disease test results update-- and a case of regulatory capture
Photo: A white-tail doe.
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