Madison, Wisconsin – The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has confirmed that a wild deer in Trempealeau County has tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD). The deer was shot in the town of Hale.
This detection will have the following consequences:
- Baiting and feeding bans already in place will be extended in Trempealeau and Jackson counties.
- Eau Claire County currently has a ban on baiting and feeding for positive detections in the county. The ban in Eau Claire is not renewed by this detection because it is longer than the two-year ban that would have resulted from this detection.
The deer is a 3-year-old doe that was shot by a hunter. This is the first confirmed case of a wild deer infected with chronic wasting disease in Trempealeau County.
State law requires the DNR to impose a three-year baiting and feeding ban in counties where CWD is detected, as well as a two-year ban in neighboring counties within 10 miles of where CWD is detected. If additional CWD cases are detected during the baiting and feeding ban, the ban would be extended for another two or three years.
The DNR also reminds the public that it is illegal to hunt in an area where bait and feed have previously been legally placed until the area has been completely free of bait or feed for 10 consecutive days.
More information on baiting and feeding regulations can be found on the DNR website A website dedicated to baiting and feeding.
Baiting or feeding deer causes them to congregate unnaturally around a common food source, allowing infected deer to spread chronic wasting disease through direct contact with well deer or indirectly by shedding infectious prions in their saliva, blood, feces and urine.
Hunters can support
The DNR is asking deer hunters in Trempealeau, Jackson and Eau Claire counties to support identify CWD hotspots on the landscape by testing deer for the disease. CWD sampling is crucial to assessing the presence of CWD in the statewide deer population.
In addition to submitting samples for chronic wasting disease testing, hunters are also encouraged to properly dispose of deer carcass waste by finding a designated trash container, transfer station or landfill. Proper carcass disposal helps ponderous the spread of chronic wasting disease by removing potentially infected deer carcasses from the landscape. A map of chronic wasting disease sampling and carcass disposal locations is available from the DNR CWD Sampling Website.
CWD is a fatal, infectious disease of the nervous system in deer, elk, elk, and reindeer/caribou. It belongs to a family of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) or prion diseases. The DNR began monitoring the state’s wild deer population for CWD in 1999. The first positive results were found in 2002.
More general information about chronic wasting disease can be found on the DNR website CWD website.
