Infected deer harvested in town of Harrison

Waupaca County has its first confirmed case of chronic wasting disease in a wild deer.

A hunter harvested the 2-year-old doe in the town of Harrison in the northwestern part of the county, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.

DNR to host public meeting

The DNR and Waupaca County’s County Deer Advisory Council will host a public meeting from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 8, at the Manawa City Hall, 500 S. Bridge St. DNR staff will provide information at the meeting about CWD in Wisconsin, local testing efforts and disease surveillance options being considered.

The detection came within 10 miles of the Shawano, Marathon and Portage County borders. The DNR enacts three-year baiting and feeding bans in counties where CWD has been detected and two-year bans in adjoining counties that lie within 10 miles of a CWD detection.

A deer baiting and feeding ban has been in effect in Waupaca County since 2014, initially due to CWD detections in farm-raised deer in Marathon County within 10 miles of the county border.

The ban has been maintained due to CWD detections in wild and farm-raised deer in adjacent counties, as well as detections in farm-raised deer within the county.

The DNR will renew a three-year baiting and feeding ban in Waupaca County. Due to CWD-positive detections within Shawano, Marathon and Portage counties, the expiration date of the current baiting and feeding bans in those counties is unaffected by this recent detection.

Baiting and feeding encourages deer to congregate unnaturally around a shared food source where infected deer can spread CWD through direct contact with healthy deer or indirectly by leaving behind infectious prions in their saliva, blood, feces and urine.

CWD is a fatal, infectious nervous system disease of deer, moose, elk and reindeer. The DNR began monitoring the state’s wild white-tailed deer population for CWD in 1999. The first positive detections came in 2002.

For more information on baiting and feeding regulations, go to https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/hunt/bait.html