CWD found in Michigan

[Redeye]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                        
Aug. 25, 2008

Contacts: Bridget Patrick (MDA) 517-241-2669 or Mary Dettloff (DNR)
517-335-3014                              
         
                                   
       
Michigan’s First Case of Chronic Wasting Disease Detected at Kent
County Deer Breeding Facility
                                   
     
LANSING - The Michigan departments of Agriculture (MDA) and Natural
Resources (DNR) today confirmed the state’s first case of Chronic
Wasting Disease (CWD) in a three-year old white-tailed deer from a
privately owned cervid (POC) facility in Kent County.

The state has quarantined all POC facilities, prohibiting the movement
of all - dead or alive - privately-owned deer, elk or moose.  Officials
do not yet know how the deer may have contracted the disease. To date,
there is no evidence that CWD presents a risk to humans.

DNR and MDA staff are currently reviewing records from the Kent County
facility and five others to trace deer that have been purchased, sold or
moved by the owners in the last five years for deer and the last seven
years for elk. Any deer that may have come in contact with the
CWD-positive herd have been traced to their current location and those
facilities have been quarantined.

“Michigan’s veterinarians and wildlife experts have been working
throughout the weekend to complete their investigation,” said Don
Koivisto, MDA director.  “We take this disease very seriously, and are
using every resource available to us to implement response measures and
stop the spread of this disease.”

CWD is a fatal neurological disease that affects deer, elk and moose.
Most cases of the disease have been in western states, but in the past
several years, it has spread to some midwestern and eastern states.
Infected animals display abnormal behaviors, progressive weight loss and
physical debilitation.

Current evidence suggests that the disease is transmitted through
infectious, self-multiplying proteins (prions) contained in saliva and
other fluids of infected animals. Susceptible animals can acquire CWD by
direct exposure to these fluids or also from contaminated environments.
Once contaminated, research suggests that soil can remain a source of
infection for long periods of time, making CWD a particularly difficult
disease to eradicate.

Michigan’s First Case of Chronic Wasting Disease Detected at Kent
County Deer Breeding Facility:  page 2

“Currently, one of our top concerns is to confirm that the disease is
not in free-ranging deer,” said DNR Director Rebecca Humphries. “We
are asking hunters this fall to assist us by visiting check stations to
allow us to take biological samples from the deer they harvest, so we
can perform adequate surveillance of the free-ranging white-tailed deer
herd in the area.”

Deer hunters this fall who take deer from Tyrone, Soldon, Nelson,
Sparta, Algoma, Courtland, Alpine, Plainfield, and Cannon townships will
be required to bring their deer to a DNR check station. Deer taken in
these townships are subject to mandatory deer check.

The DNR is also asking hunters who are participating in the private
land five-day antlerless hunt in September in other parts of Kent County
to visit DNR check stations  in Kent County so further biological
samples can be taken from free-ranging deer for testing. The DNR is in
the process of finding additional locations for check stations in Kent
County to make it more convenient for hunters.

The deer that tested positive at the Kent County facility was a doe
that had been recently culled by the owner of the facility. Michigan law
requires sick deer or culled deer on a POC facility be tested for
disease. The samples from the Kent County deer tested “suspect
positive” last week at Michigan State University Diagnostic Center for
Population and Animal Health, and were sent to the National Veterinary
Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa last Thursday for confirmatory
testing. The positive results of those tests were communicated to the
state of Michigan today.

Audits of the facility by the DNR in 2004 and 2007 showed no escapes of
animals from the Kent County facility were reported by the owner. Also,
there were no violations of regulations recorded during the audits.

Since 2002, the DNR has tested 248 wild deer in Kent County for CWD. In
summer 2005, a number of those deer had displayed neurological symptoms
similar to CWD; however, after testing it was determined the deer had
contracted Eastern Equine Encephalitis.

More information on CWD is available on Michigan’s Emerging Diseases
Web site at  www.michigan.gov/chronicwastingdisease.

###

[2-BIG]

Why in the world does a state that has over a million deer and is looking for ways to greatly reduce the herd even have a deer breeding facility?  :confused:  Oh yeah, it's for shooting deer on canned hunts. As David Peterson just wrote in TBM,"Let's put an end to this abomination!" Sportsmen need to speak up and do the right thing and outlaw canned hunting!  

[ChuckC]

Although no one will admit it.  Look at every single location east of the Mississippi that has a positive for CWD and you will find a (POC) nearby.    We have met the enemy, and it is us.

" Nevermind ruining the whole of our deer herds, by God, I have the right to make money by selling canned hunts......."   will we ever learn ?

ChuckC

[acadian archer]

The province of Nova Scotia has outlawed all scents and lures which contain any part of a deer. CWD might be transferred by this method and there's not enough good evidence about the spread.

[vermonster13]

A ban on baiting should be in the works for those areas. Corn piles congregate the deer too closely and the disease spreads real quick among the deer feeding at them.

[last arrow]

Dave, a ban on baiting, and recreational or supplemental feeding of deer and elk kicked in automatically per existing regulations that required baiting to be banned if CWD was confirmed in Michigan or withing a set distance of the border with neighboring states.  I am not sure how this will affect those feeding birds, as the deer here visit backyard bird feeders.

This means a big change for a lot of hunters and potentially the non hunting public that feed deer, turkeys, songbirds and other wildlife.

[vermonster13]

That's good for the herd but like all things will hurt some trying to make a living.

[last arrow]

I am sure the bait providers will soon be yelling becuase they have large stocks for the upcoming deer season that they will not be able to sell.  

My work is very regulation driven. I view changes in regulations a part of the risk in doing business.

[Brian Krebs]

Well; at least the Nuge still will have his own private ranch to hunt....

 why in the heck are their POC 'facilities' in Michigan? Brilliant work; totally brilliant. Did your fish and game OK all this? Did the 'wackem and stackem' groups wailing: drown out the average Joe with a stick for a bow?

 Well- you do understand the people that can afford this POC facilities can always afford to hunt somewhere else - this means nothing to them. they will go to texas or somewhere else for their great adventures in arrow flinging and inline muzzleloading and  bench rest 'hunting'........afterall - someone has to kill those 'management bucks'.

 I do have a reason to be angry- don't I ?

Well - DON'T I ?????

Oh and do NOT be surprised when these canned hunt people slap themselves on the back for being the ones that discovered CWD in Michigan... without them we might not have known until it was too late........

[vermonster13]

Are they a "hunting facility" or a scent facility? Lot's of places around with very closely kept together animals for the purpose of harvesting urine for the "attractant/cover scent" market.

[last arrow]

Brian, In Michigan POC facilities are regulated by the Department of Agriculture.  The State reconizes these facilities for what they are, farms.  The Department of Natural Resources does not regulate POC facilites and are only involved with this becuase of potential impacts to wild deer.  If you review the releases on the States website regarding this matter, most are jointly provided by the DNR and Dept of Agriculture.

David, The state is not releaseing a lot of information on the facility that the infected animal was found on.   The 22 remaining deer at the facility were reportably destroyed and taken to Michigan State University for testing and cremation. I hope the facility owner is bearing the cost of this and it is not being born by the taxpayers.  A quarentine has been issued for all Michigan POC falities that prohibits the removal of any animal or animal part from a facility.  The POC facility owners will be taking a huge financial hit before this is done with, another risk of being in business.


I personally feel we are doing ourselves a disservice by continuing to include the terms hunt, hunting and hunter when talking about these facilities (as they exist here in Michigan where the animals are raised in agricultural settings and released into larger fenced areas for shooting). The more appropriate terms are shoot, shooting, and shooter. People go to them to shoot an animal, period.  There is no hunt involved - this is something different. (my feelings only).