CWD in Marathon County brings questions
I’m guessing that most people interested in deer hunting heard about the announcement last week that two wild deer harvested in eastern Marathon County tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). The deer were harvested in the towns of Ringle and Elderon by hunters.
Both deer were does, a two year old harvested during the gun deer season and a four year old shot during the December antlerless hunt. In 2019 the first wild deer that tested positive for CWD in Marathon County was from the same general area. Previous to that a Marathon County “hunting ranch” in the same area had a deer killed that tested positive. Clark and Wood Counties have yet to have a deer test positive for CWD. Taylor County had a deer farm deer a couple years ago test positive for CWD and the farm has since been depopulated.
The first Wisconsin deer that tested positive for CWD was shot in 2001 in southwest Wisconsin and we found out in early 2002. Over the past 20 years the percentage of deer harvested that test positive for CWD in those counties has increased substantially. Some property owners are experiencing almost half the deer harvested on their properties testing positive with the always fatal disease. We have learned a few things about CWD in 20 years and that just leads to more questions, controversy, theories (science based is optional), and disagreements. We have all heard differing views. Some based on the sum of the whole data and some based upon what someone wants to be true. CWD is a permanent part of the Wisconsin landscape I’ve listened to many knowledgeable biologist and physicians and have read articles by more who state that there has never been a case of CWD being transferred to a human from deer. Yet when asked if they would eat the meat from a CWD positive deer they either say they wouldn’t or would need to think about it. None have ever said they would feed venison from a CWD infected deer to their children.
Several of those subject matter experts, also explain that given the prevalence of CWD and the annual harvest of deer in areas with CWD, that several deer infected with CWD have been consumed by humans. Despite this there has been no documented case of CWD infecting a human.
If humans have eaten a CWD infected deer in Wisconsin – wolves and bears certainly have and none of them seem to have been infected with CWD.
Would you feed venison from a known CWD infected deer to your children? Would you eat it yourself ? Will the answers to those questions eventually affect deer hunting? Since CWD is always fatal, will it cause the deer population to crash?
Usually when we are talking deer, it’s something we are passionate about. Sometimes I get the feeling when it comes to CWD we are passionate about not being passionate about CWD.
It’s not something we really want to talk about. I really don’t like to talk, read, or write about CWD. But ignoring it doesn’t make it go away.
Twenty years from now will half the deer we shoot be infected with CWD? Will I even be hunting deer 20 years from now? Do you think that CWD will still not have shown up by us? Will the Wisconsin River keep deer from crossing into this side of Marathon County?
We might like to tell ourselves that the river will protect us, but how did it get into Marathon County in the first place? I’ve personally seen several deer swim across the Wisconsin River in places a lot wider then it is in Marathon County.
CWD is far more complicated than space here allows. I’m pretty sure that my theories about it are less than half right. I’m pretty sure that several of the things that we are doing to combat CWD don’t matter. I’m pretty sure some of the things done to slow the spread of CWD actually do work. I’m pretty sure few people like any of those things.
Lyme disease, ehrlichiosis, or anaplasmosis affect us right now, right here. We all know several people who have had one or all three. Everyone that ventures out into the woods this spring, summer, and fall will end up with at least one tick on them. No human has ever had CWD.
What can be done to slow the spread of those diseases? Maybe the answer is the same for CWD.
Through a
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