By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — Several hunters attending a meeting on Chronic Wasting Disease in Whitetail deer said they would like to see in-person registration come back again.
The state Department of Natural Resources and the Dunn County Deer Advisory Council held the meeting on CWD February 12 at the Dunn County Judicial Center.
Representatives from the DNR who answered questions from the audience were Melissa Sparrow-Lien, a wildlife biologist with the DNR, and Jess Carstens, wildlife biologist and area supervisor for the DNR.
One person in the audience said CWD is like the “zombie apocalypse” for deer and and that mandatory in-person registration would help.
The bars, gas stations and other registration stations would “love it” if in-person registration came back. How did this happen? he asked.
Several years ago, a number of requirements were eliminated for deer hunting, such as deer hunters wearing back tags. The requirement that the registration tag be with the deer when it is taken to a meat processor for processing also was eliminated, and mandatory in-person registration was eliminated, allowing deer hunters to register their deer on-line using their computers or smartphones.
The changes in the registration procedure were legislative changes and were beyond the control of the DNR, Carstens said.
The on-line registration reflects a trend nationwide for cost savings, and it was a political decision, he said.
In-person registration was useful for gathering samples to test for CWD, Sparrow-Lien said.
DNR personnel could be at the registration sites and take samples from deer to test for CWD as the deer were brought in for registration, she said.
Is anyone calling for in-person registration? From a data standpoint, it’s a “no brainer,” said one person in the audience.
While there has been discussion of bringing back in-person registration, and many hunters favor mandatory in-person registration, it “has not gotten any traction and no politician has taken it up,” Carstens said.
Dane and Iowa
One person in the audience wanted to know about the deer population in Dane County and Iowa County.
CWD was first detected in those counties nearly 20 years ago.
The number of deer hunted in Dane County and Iowa County has not declined substantially. There are many mature deer killed and many trophy class bucks, Carstens said.
Over the years, however, an increasing percentage of deer in those counties are testing positive for CWD, and the prevalence is increasing, he said.
At this point, it is unknown when we will see a population decline because of the disease, Carstens said.
When CWD was first detected in Dane and Iowa County, the prediction was that the deer herd would be “wiped out” in five to 10 years, said Bob Bernier, a member of the Dunn C-DAC.
The idea in those counties was to kill as many deer as possible to stop the spread of CWD, but instead, those deer herds should have been isolated to keep CWD from spreading, he said.
“You can test and test” but CWD is still spreading, Bernier said.
“The way to stop it is to isolate it … they did it to themselves. They didn’t stop it,” he said.
Hunters need to work with their local state legislators, Sparrow-Lien said.
Deer carcasses
One person in the audience said he hunts in Arkansas in the Ozark Mountains and there are some areas where you cannot take a deer carcass out of that area and there are places where you cannot move the deer carcass until it has tested negative for CWD.
Could something similar be done in Wisconsin? he asked.
Various proposals have been made for carcass removal, but the proposal to allow hunters not to take the carcass out of the county where they killed the deer caused an uproar, Carstens said.
Under current regulations, a deer carcass cannot be moved into a non-CWD county, he said.
St. Croix County and Pierce County have not had any positive CWD deer, so deer carcasses from another county cannot be moved into those two counties, Carstens said.
If a hunter shot a deer in Iowa County, he or she could bring it back to Dunn County as long as the hunter did not travel through any unaffected counties on the way back, he said.
Deer farms
Another person in the audience noted a proposal for double fencing for deer farms and asked about CWD testing on deer farms.
Deer farms are regulated by the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, not by the DNR, Carstens said.
DNR wardens only do fence inspections, he said.
Mandatory double fencing is not in effect. Deer can be moved from deer farm to deer farm as long as the animals are tested for CWD and the test comes back negative, Carstens said.
If there are two detections of CWD in the wild deer herd five miles from the deer farm, then the animals cannot be moved unless the deer farm has double fencing, he said.
Disposal
If a group of hunters hunt together, and one deer comes back positive for CWD, what do we do with the carcass? one audience member wondered.
“That’s up to you,” Carstens said.
There are plenty of people across the state who are willing to eat the meat from a CWD deer. Hunters can test their deer and then “make the decision that is best for you,” he said.
The Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization advise against eating a known positive deer, Carstens said.
Another person in the audience wanted to know about the recommendation for disposing of carcasses
Everything that is left from the deer can be brought to a DNR Dumpster, Carstens said.
Disposing of deer carcasses in a landfill is the preferred disposal method, Sparrow-Lien said.
Hunters can also bury the carcass as long as it is buried six feet deep, Carstens said.
Landfilling is the preferred disposal method, but Dunn County contracts with a landfill in Eau Claire County, and the Eau Claire County landfill will not take deer carcasses, he said.
Since landfilling is not possible in Dunn County, then it it is a good idea to bring the carcass to a DNR Dumpster, Carstens said.
Last year, the DNR Dumpsters were set out one week before hunting started. This year, the Dumpsters will be out earlier, Sparrow-Lien said.
The Dunn County Transfer Station has a Dumpster for deer carcasses, but there is a fee of something like $5 or $7 per carcass. There is no charge for hunters to bring carcasses to the DNR Dumpster because Dunn County Fish & Game donated the Dumpsters, Carstens said.
The first year of having the Dumpsters at the DNR office “we learned a lot,” he said.
Another person asked about donating venison to food pantries.
Any deer that is donated to a food pantry must be tested for CWD, Carstens said.
Field tests
One person asked if there were any field tests hunters could do themselves to determine if the deer they just killed is positive for CWD.
Multiple universities are working on developing faster tests and self-tests, Carstens said.
Self-sample kits are available at DNR offices that hunters can pick up to take a sample of the deer’s lymph nodes out in the field, he said.
The kits are postage paid and contain everything you need to take your own samples and ship them off for testing, Carstens said.
The kits have been available at most DNR offices for several years, but they have never “taken off.” The kits cost about $25 to put together, and in the absence of the public showing more willingness to use the kits, the program probably will not continue, he said.
Deer estrus
One audience member asked about the bottles of deer estrus that hunters use to attract bucks and whether they are certified to be free of CWD.
A woman in the audience who has owned a deer farm for 30 years answered the man’s question.
Her deer farm supplies urine “for the nation,” she said.
The product is tested to verify there is no CWD before the product is moved off site, the woman said.
All deer urine that is used to attract bucks is not tested, she noted.
The deer farming industry has put quite a lot into researching CWD, the woman said.
A healthy pen-raised herd of deer does not want CWD transferred into the herd and vice versa, Carstens said.
“The cat’s out of the bag. It’s in both populations [wild and farm-raised]. Pointing fingers at this point is going to get us nowhere,” he said.
