Perkins County, South Dakota is in the northwest part of the state, just on the North Dakota border.
According to a press release sent out by the South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks agency, it's now part of the state's Chronic Wasting Disease endemic area:
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) was recently confirmed in a new area in western South Dakota. Confirmation of the disease was obtained from sick surveillance efforts coming from an adult male mule deer in Perkins County.
Perkins County is now considered in the CWD endemic area. South Dakota has now confirmed CWD in 17 counties of western and central South Dakota.
The GFP Commission recently modified carcass transportation and disposal regulations for the entire state that are effective beginning with the 2021 hunting seasons. The goal of the new CWD regulations is to help reduce the spread of CWD into new areas of South Dakota.
CWD is a fatal brain disease of deer, elk, and moose caused by an abnormal protein called a prion. Most harvested individuals with CWD will appear healthy and display no clinical signs. Animals in the later stages of infection with CWD may show progressive loss of weight and body condition, behavioral changes, excessive salivation, loss of muscle control and eventual death. CWD is always fatal for the afflicted animal. CWD poses serious problems for wildlife managers, and the implications of long-term management for free-ranging deer and elk is unknown.
For more information on CWD, visit gfp.sd.gov/chronic-
wasting-disease or contact your local GFP office.
Chronic Wasting Disease has yet to reach Roberts County, here in the northeastern corner of the state (marked 55A on the map at the top of this post). If and when it does arrive, this will be a blow to our neighbors and visiting hunters as well. Our next-door neighbor is a Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate citizen, one heckova of hunter whose venison feeds his extended family.
Should CWD arrive on the Lake Traverse Reservation, this may end. The SDFGP page on CWD states:
Research in Wyoming and Colorado has shown that if prevalence of CWD gets to high levels, population may not be able to sustain themselves and hunting of these populations may have to cease in order to maintain desired population levels.
We sure hope not.
Map: CWD in South Dakota, screengrab via SDGFP ARCGIS app.
Related posts:
- UMN MNPRO’s latest research detects CWD prions in cervid muscles using RT-QuIC
- MNReformer Radio podcast interviews Jamie Becker-Finn on Chronic Wasting Disease politics
- Listen to MN House environment committee chair Rep. Rick Hansen talk CWD on Matt McNeil Show
- Special Board of Animal Health meeting to review farmed Cervidae rulemaking postponed
- Bad news from the North: CWD sweeps through Alberta & Saskatchewan deer & elk herds
- Forum News Service: MN Deerhunters Association wants to end deer farming
- Just in: House DFL Lawmakers urge resignation of Minnesota Board of Animal Health President
- Star Tribune: Deer farming and "CWD-infested dump site on public land" in Beltrami County
- Are deer farmers posing against MN DNR rule pausing movement of captive whitetails?
- MN DNR temporarily bans movement of farmed whitetails in state to protect wild deer health
- 5 more MN deer farm herds exposed to CWD; Beltrami carcass dump site inquiry continues
- News release: U of M testing finds presence of CWD prions at Beltrami Co. carcass dump site
- BAH: Southern Minnesota CWD investigation identifies new infection in Beltrami County
- Concerned about CWD in MN deer? Learn about new research from MNPRO's Peter Larsen
- Some of the science at the center of Update on Chronic Wasting Disease Efforts hearing
- VIDEO: MNHouse passes bill for process to extend funding for ENRTF projects for one year
- Session Daily: Experts want to study how CWD flows in state's waterways
- Sen. Andrew Lang seems behind the curve on current funding & progress of CWD test research
- VIDEO: University of Minnesota scientists share CWD research, search for test with lawmakers
- Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund plan from U of M for CWD diagnostic test
- Peter Larsen slideshow: Development of Advanced Diagnostic Tests for CWD by U of M
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