By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent
 
KENT COUNTY, Mich. — A finding of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in a whitetail deer last month hasn’t turned into a full-fledged outbreak – at least not so far, according to Michigan State Veterinarian Steven Halstead.

“I’m very pleased with the rate of progress that we’ve made considering the impact of this,” Halstead said. “We’re getting criticized a little for moving too rapidly. So far one animal isn’t really an outbreak.”

He said government agencies are usually criticized for moving too slowly, but he doesn’t apologize for how quickly the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) moved to get on top of this problem.
After the announcement of a CWD-positive deer in a privately owned cervid facility on Aug. 25, all the animals in that herd were euthanized and tested. None have come up positive for CWD. All the animals that had been moved from that facility to another facility were also found and tested. None of those have come up positive, either.

“Now we’re in the process of testing herds that were source herds, and we have about three of these,” Halstead said. “One of those, we cleared.”

They were able to clear the herd because they found all the animals that had been moved from that facility to another, but that isn’t the case with the other two herds. Because of this, the owners of the other two facilities must either agree to have their herds euthanized and then tested, or to have a quarantine on their herds for five years. One of the owners has volunteered to have his animals euthanized.

Halstead said the advantage for the facility owner is that he may be able to get back in the business once his herd is depopulated. The third facility owner in this group has to decide whether to have his herd euthanized or submit to the quarantine.

So far, 11 herds at privately owned cervid facilities have been removed from the quarantine, as of Sept. 15. A facility cannot consider its herd to be free from the quarantine until it receives an official document from the state. Halstead said he thinks 40-50 more herds will be released from the quarantine within the next several weeks.

The DNR is handling testing of wild deer. Although none have turned up positive so far, DNR spokeswoman Mary Detloff cautioned that not many results have come in yet.

“We’ve only gotten results from a handful that we’ve sent in,” Detloff said. “Once the deer hits the lab, it usually takes about a week to get a result.”

Detloff said with the special antlerless deer season this past week, the agency should get many more deer tested soon. On the issue of the deer feeding and bait ban, Detloff defended the state’s actions.

“Just because we only found one deer doesn’t mean it’s the only deer,” she said. “We still don’t know how the deer contracted the disease. It’s possible the deer could have gotten the disease nose-to-nose through the fence. I would just emphasize the economic impact of this issue.”

Detloff said that deer hunting alone accounts for $500 million a year in economic activity, dwarfing the economic impact of deer feeding and baiting.

She said the spread of CWD in the wild deer population would devastate the hunting industry.

She said she realizes there won’t be 100 percent compliance from hunters, but also stated the DNR won’t accept an excuse that a bait pile made of sugar beets, corn, carrots or potatoes was really meant for bear.

“You can only use meat or meat products, fish or fish products or bakery products for bear,” she said.