Media Contact: Terry
Haindfield, Wildlife Management Biologist, Iowa Department of Natural
Resources, 563-380-3422.
Elkader,
Iowa - Johnson’s Reception Hall in Elkader hosted a standing room only crowd of
hunters, landowners and area residents on Monday night who were there to learn about
chronic wasting disease and then gave their thoughts on how they wanted to
address it.
The meeting was prompted after a deer
harvested during the 2016 hunting season in west central Clayton County tested positive
for chronic wasting disease. It was the first wild deer that tested positive
for chronic wasting disease outside of Allamakee County.
Dr. Dale Garner, who oversees the
Conservation and Recreation Division of the Iowa Department of Natural
Resources and has been involved with monitoring for the disease in Iowa since
its arrival in Wisconsin in 2001, was the main speaker during the nearly three
hour meeting.
Garner said chronic wasting disease
involves a misshapen protein called a prion, and since it is a protein, a
deer’s body does not recognize it as a foreign substance, so it does not
produce an antibody response.
“The disease is spread from animal to
animal through nose to nose contact and through environmental contamination
from urine, feces and saliva left by positive deer. It is nearly impossible
kill the prion and the disease is always fatal,” Garner said.
“We hope to collect 250 to 300 samples
from mature deer from a specific area and that will do two things – provide
information on specific areas in the target zone where we do not have any data
and to remove animals from the area where a CWD-positive deer has been found,”
he said.
Participants will be required to
provide the lymph nodes and will be notified of the test results. Once a sample is submitted, it can take
anywhere from three days to two to three weeks to get results back.
The collection effort will be Feb. 18
to March 5, and headquartered at the Clayton County Conservation Board’s Osborne
Nature Center, five miles south of Elkader on Hwy. 13. The Clayton County focus area extends west
of Elkader about 10 miles and, with the exception of the 43-acre Big Spring
Wildlife Area, nearly all of the deer collection will take place on privately
owned land.
“There is no good news when it comes
to chronic wasting disease. We know that if we leave it alone, it’s going to
spread. By removing adult deer, we are trying to target animals that are most
likely to carry the prion, which will slow the spread of the disease while
still allowing for quality deer hunting experiences each fall,” Garner said.
Participants must have a scientific
collectors permit and tags and must contact the DNR within 24 hours of
collecting deer to arrange for sample collection. There is no fee for the permits. Participants
may use shotguns, muzzleloaders, bows and rifles .24 caliber and larger. All
other regulations, including the blaze orange requirement and shooting hours
restrictions, apply.
Participation is voluntary and there
are ways other than removing deer to help slow the spread of CWD in this
area.
“We encourage everyone to not use
piles of feed or salt-mineral licks to attract deer. These baited sites increase the concentration
of deer which facilitates transmission of the disease,” said Garner. “And don’t leave a carcass or bones from this
region to decay on the land. Place
remains in heavy-duty plastic garbage bags to be properly disposed of in a
landfill.”
The Iowa DNR began collecting deer
tissue samples in 2002 after the CWD outbreak in Wisconsin. Since then, more
than 61,000 samples from wild deer and 4,000 samples from hunting preserve deer
have been collected and tested.
Chronic wasting disease is not just an
Iowa issue; Minnesota has had a spike in deer testing positive for the disease
as well. Illinois, Nebraska, Missouri and
Wisconsin are all battling this disease.
Audience participation
The estimated audience of 375 spent
about 45 minutes asking questions ranging from baiting versus food plots, about
the possibility of live testing animals, and whether or not hunters should keep
using bottled urine to attract deer.
“There is no practical live test for chronic
wasting disease available for free ranging wild deer,” Garner said. “And healthy looking deer can carry chronic
wasting disease from 16 months to three years before showing clinical signs.”
He said it is possible for bottled urine
collected from a CWD positive deer to contain the prions and encouraged hunters
who use the bottled urine and are concerned about spreading the disease to look
for products with the Archery Trade Association seal. “It’s not 100 percent,
but those products have a higher standard of testing,” he said.
After the meeting, hunters and
landowners mingled with state wildlife experts to discuss their specific
situations.
Collection
effort yields 18th CWD positive deer
The Allamakee County scientific collection
effort that ended Feb. 5, has found a positive deer that was taken near
Waterville. It is the 18th
wild deer to test positive for chronic wasting disease.
Volunteers collected 263 deer in the
target area of Allamakee County, of which 203 were adults and 60 were fawns. The
DNR only submits adult deer samples for testing in an effort to maximize the
chance of finding the disease.
|