CWD rates continue to climbTests on deer in Wisconsin?s CWD core area west of Madison revealed the disease rate continued climbing in 2009.
The percentage of sick white-tailed deer in Wisconsin's core area for chronic wasting disease rose again in 2009, according to an analysis of CWD data by the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center in Madison.
The analysis by Bryan Richards, the USGS's CWD project leader, found CWD is still growing despite a slight decline in its prevalence among bucks in the 210-square-mile core west of Madison from 2008 to 2009. Richards put the annual growth rate at 6.6 percent for adult bucks and 9.9 percent for adult females, deer 18 months and older.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources collected 7,212 deer for CWD testing during the 2009 hunting season, including 6,986 from the 8,849-square-mile CWD management zone that stretches from Vernon County (southwestern Wisconsin) to Kenosha County. Of the nearly 7,000 deer tested within the CWD zone, 175 had the disease. No deer outside the zone tested positive.
Richards' review of DNR data focused on CWD's epicenter near Mount Horeb in western Dane and eastern Iowa counties. In that area, 905 hunter-killed deer were tested for CWD, and 68 of them -- 37 males and 31 females -- tested positive, or 7.5 percent.
When contacted Monday, DNR analysts said they had not finished reviewing data from the 2009 hunting season. However, they said Richards' findings were close, but not identical, to theirs.
"What we're seeing is pretty much an upward trend for all age demographics in the core area," said Daniel F. Jones, the DNR's CWD assistant biologist.
read more.... http://host.madison.com/sports/recreation/outdoors/article_96337c40-2be0-11df-98a1-001cc4c03286.htmlAn updated "Frequently Asked Questions" document is now available on the Wisconsin DNR's website
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/wildlife/whealth/issues/CWD/publications.htm
