OCONTO, WI -- Chronic Wasting Disease is a growing threat to Wisconsin's deer herd.
With new cases in Northeast Wisconsin, the DNR wants to know how it got here, and they need hunters' help.
CWD is a progressive and fatal disease that attacks the nervous system and causes a deer's muscles to deteriorate. And now, biologists are working to figure out the extent of its presence in counties where it wasn't found last year.
Since 2002, wildlife biologist David Halfmann says the DNR has taken 347 samples from wild deer in the Oconto County area. But Halfmann says a positive sample in September didn't come from the wild herd.
"The new detection that we have in Oconto County is in a captive whitetail deer herd," explains Halfmann, "so, our job now is to determine whether it is in the wild population or not."
Halfmann says the deadly disease is spread by deer, among deer.
"Nose to nose contact, or feeding or accidental eating of urine or feces from infected deer," explains Halfmann. "It's slowly spreading across the state."
Which is why, in November, the DNR placed abaiting and feeding ban in Oconto, Shawano, and Menominee counties, which some hunters and nature lovers struggle with.
"Those people do get upset," says Halfmann, "but I think when you talk to them for a while, they tend to understand."
In an effort to get people on board with the bans, Halfmann is holding public meetings in impacted counties.
At a mid-November meeting at Underhill Town Hall, neighbors who live near the impacted farm are eager to know their options.
"I don't think we've got it on our land, [but] I don't know," says Roy Fischer, who lives in Oconto County, "so far, the deer we've.. harvested never had any [CWD]."
"That's only 3 miles down the road from me," says neighbor Fred Kair, "so I've got a concern about any possible diseased deer on my property."
Halfmann says landowners within a 2-mile radius of the impacted farm can get additional free deer harvest permits this season.
Hunters within a 10-mile radius of the farm are urged to bring deer heads for testing at one of five drop-off freezer sites from Shawano to Gillett.
"It's something you're going to throw out anyway," says Halfmann. "We're looking for the lymph nodes. They're right underneath the jaw, and kind of behind the jaw-the major lymph node in there. That's what we use for testing the disease."
Halfmann is clear: the more samples, the better.
And the information collected this year will help shape the future of this fight.
"Next year, we'll be sampling, as well," says Halfmann, "to continue watching for it."
If you see a sick or dead deer that seems suspicious, call a DNR biologist in your area immediately.
DEER HEAD DROP OFF SITES:
City: Shawano
Address: 647 Lakeland Road
City: Cecil
Address: 417 South Warrington St
Address: 417 South Warrington St
City: Gillett
Address: 5597 Cardinal Road
City: Gillett
Address: 6255 State Hwy 32N
City: Gillett
Address: N7284 County Road BB
