By KEVIN WALKER

Michigan Correspondent

LANSING, Mich. — The growing number of deer in Michigan recently found to be positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD) is getting to be a worry for state officials.

CWD, a contagious neurological disease affecting deer and elk, causes a characteristic spongy degeneration of the brains of infected animals. It results in emaciation, abnormal behavior, loss of bodily functions and death. It’s not believed that CWD can infect humans.

In August 2008 CWD was confirmed in a captive 3-year-old whitetail doe from a privately owned cervid facility in Kent County – however, most of the CWD-positive animals found since then have been free-ranging.

According to officials from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), 30 free-ranging deer from Clinton, Ingham, Kent and Montcalm counties have been identified either as CWD-positive or CWD-suspect since 2015. Officials say it would be highly unusual for a CWD-suspect deer to not be confirmed as CWD-positive after further testing.

Also, in January 2017 two whitetail does were submitted to the state for monitoring by a privately owned cervid facility in Mecosta County, and were positively confirmed with CWD later that month.

Several thousand additional samples are awaiting testing, so numbers for this deer season could still change.

“The fact that we have likely found so many additional CWD-positive deer is a major concern for Michigan’s deer population,” said Chad Stewart, deer specialist for the DNR.

The deer hunting season in this state normally lasts from late September to the end of the calendar year; that is when the DNR has many deer submitted for testing. Stewart described the deer hunter as “our best ally” in understanding and managing CWD in Michigan.

Also according to statistics from the state, Michigan hosts approximately 600,000 deer hunters each year who over the past 10 years have harvested an average of 340,000 deer per season. Hunting generates $2.3 billion each year for the state’s economy, the DNR says, of which $1.9 billion stems from deer hunting.

State Veterinarian Dr. James Averill echoed Stewart’s comments, saying CWD is a “concern both from a free-ranging and a captive cervidae standpoint. Is it spreading, or are we just now finding what was already there? Yes, it is a concern.”

Michigan has about 330 cervid facilities right now. Averill said although this business isn’t as big as cattle or pigs, it is nonetheless a “part of the livestock industry in the state.”

Cervid facilities operate as hunting preserves for deer and elk, breeding facilities that supply hunting preserves or other breeding facilities and breeding facilities for exhibition animals. Some facilities also raise cervids for meat for human or domestic animal consumption.

When a deer is initially tested and appears to have CWD, the DNR takes specific actions, including establishing a CWD Core and Management Zone where the disease has been detected; implementing deer feeding and baiting bans throughout the entire designated area; intensifying surveillance of free-ranging deer in CWD Management Zones, including mandatory checks and testing of all hunter harvested deer using Core areas; and opening and staffing additional deer check stations to better accommodate hunters within Core areas.

Although there have been no reported cases of CWD in humans, as a precaution health officials recommend that infected animals not be consumed by humans or domestic animals.