A reader sent us a link to Paul A Smith's article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Agriculture officials grappling with fate of CWD-positive deer farm in Taylor County, adding the question, "Straw, meet camel's back?"
Smith reports:
Although chronic wasting disease has been found at about 30 deer farms in Wisconsin since 2002, each new detection still garners attention.
But the Aug. 11 announcement that the fatal deer disease was found at a Taylor County facility has has done more than create news.
The detection at Maple Hill Farms near Gilman, which sent hundreds of deer to 40 facilities in seven states in the last five years, has sent shock waves through the deer farming industry and agricultural agencies.
Officials with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and U.S. Department of Agriculture are sorting through years of records and conducting trace-outs of hundreds of animals sent to and from the facility.
Maple Hill Farms shipped 387 deer to other facilities since July 2016, according to DATCP records.
The sales were made to deer farms in 18 Wisconsin counties as well as inter-state deals with captive cervid facilities in Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.
It's one of the most, if not the most, extensive web of deer shipments from a CWD-positive facility on record, according to industry officials. . . .
Some facilities that received deer from Maple Hills killed the animals to be cleared from quarantine, assuming testing came back negative.
In all, five Wisconsin deer herds that received deer from Maple Hills are already under quarantine, said Kevin Hoffman, DATCP public information officer. Investigations into non-enrolled herds that received animals are underway and will result in additional quarantines, he said.
The finding of CWD at a deer farm can signal the end of the line for the business, since in many cases they are depopulated by state or federal authorities.
Maple Hills had been a closed herd since 2015 and had done everything possible to keep CWD out, said owner Laurie Seale. In addition, the farm was attempting to cultivate a CWD-resistant herd through selective breeding.
The last animal it bought was from a Pennsylvania herd that is CWD-free, Seale said.
The CWD-positive animal was a 6-year-old doe born at Maple Hills, Seale said. At least one of its fawns has also tested positive.
"It's a death sentence for us," Seale said. "My farm of 32 years will be done with one test. That's why we had done everything we could to keep it out."
Maple Hills is holding more than 300 deer in pens on 22 acres, according to Seale.
Seale said she had no idea how the disease could have entered Maple Hills, which is surrounded by a double fence. But she said one unusual thing she did this year was buy hay from North Dakota. She normally purchases feed only locally.
It's unproven whether the disease, which is caused by a prion, or mis-formed protein, can be contracted through feed.. . .
While Hunters, tribes, conservation groups and St. Louis County call on state to get rid of deer farms after testimony before the Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee, there's always Wisconsin, just next door.
Maple Hills Farms' operator Laura Seale was interviewed last January by Miranda Suarez for a Wisconsin Public Radio article, For The First Time, Chronic Wasting Disease Proteins Found In Deer Semen:
. . . The scientists detected CWD prions in 59.3 percent of the CWD-positive samples. Of the CWD-positive deer in the late pre-clinical stage — or those who were just short of exhibiting symptoms — 93.3 percent of samples contained prions.
"In terms of disease transmission, the presence of prions in semen begs the question on whether sexual contact is plausible route of CWD transmission," the study reads.
The study concludes that further research is needed to answer that question.
Laurie Seale runs Maple Hill Farms, a white-tailed deer farm in Gilman, and is the vice president of Whitetails of Wisconsin (WOW), a deer-farming industry organization. She said they still don’t know for sure how CWD is spread, and it will take a lot more study for her to be concerned about prions in semen. . . .
As we read the new story at the Journal Sentinel, as well as the earlier story about CWD coming to Bemidji County, Minnesota, we gather it has something to do sometimes with treating deer like livestock.
Who knew?
Related posts:
- Hunters, tribes, conservation groups and St. Louis County call on state to get rid of deer farms
- Tune in to House Enviro Committee hearing tomorrow morning for latest CWD information
- MN DNR press release: Return to mandatory testing in chronic wasting disease zones this season
- South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks: CWD detected in mule deer in new area, Perkins County
- 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
Photo: Wild white-tailed deer in a woods.
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Photo: Deer in a woods.
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