Category: Chronic Wasting Disease

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Environmental Almanac: Supplemental feeding of deer a bad idea | By Rob Kanter

“If you struggle with the perception that, as a state, we too seldom get things right in Illinois, let me call your attention to the success we’ve had in managing a life-and-death wildlife issue that’s causing far more trouble in neighboring states, Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD).”

BILL MARCHEL • SPECIAL TO THE STAR TRIBUNE

” I’d like to be able to end this column right here, as a feel-good story, but unfortunately, I can’t. That’s because the Illinois Legislature is currently considering a bill (SB2493) that would undermine IDNR’s success managing CWD by creating conditions that would promote the transmission of diseases among wild deer.”

Read the whole story at The News-Gazette, here.

More news about deer feeding (Star Tribune) here.

 

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Soil characteristics may be related to chronic wasting disease persistence, study finds.

Relative influence of soil characteristics on the persistent presence of CWD. The relative influence is a scaled value that describes the contribution of each of soil characteristic to the prediction of the persistent presence of CWD based on the number of times a variable is used as a predictor in the model weighted by the improvement in model fit due to inclusion; see methods (Dorak et al. 2017).

 

CHAMPAIGN, IL – In the study, the team looked at the relationship between soil characteristics and presence of deer with the disease in five northern Illinois counties where infected deer are prevalent. They focused on seven physical and chemical properties of soil that could affect the ability for a prion to stick around in the environment.

Read the whole story at the ACES College News here.

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Chronic wasting disease in Illinois: resources and disease dynamics | By Nohra Mateus-Pinilla, Michelle L. Green and Jan Novakofski.

Deer with Chronic Wasting Disease. Photograph by Wisconsin DNR and CWD Alliance.

 

CHAMPAIGN, IL – We know that CWD is a lethal wasting disease. Death follows a period of weight loss and a debilitating progressive set of clinical signs that include an inability to swallow, excessive salivation, tremors, and increased drinking, urination, and weakness. Protecting the deer herd from this disease has economical value to the State of Illinois, recreational value to deer hunters, and a health value for CWD-susceptible animals.

Read the whole story at the Illinois Natural History Survey blog.

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Expanding The Reach Of Animal Science: Reproduction In White-Tailed Deer | UI News Bureau

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The CWD research team: Jan Novakofski, Nohra Mateus-Pinilla and Michelle Green. Photo by: L. Brian Stauffer

CHAMPAIGN, IL – In an effort to better understand the transmission dynamics of chronic wasting disease and the long-term health of the white-tailed deer herd in Illinois, the group recently investigated the trends in reproduction among females. The team has extraordinary access to samples through the state of Illinois Department of Natural Resources that annually collects fetuses from culled deer from January through March, a prime time for females to be pregnant.

Read the whole story at the “Tails” of Animal Sciences newsletter (March 2017, page 4).

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Targeted culling of deer controls disease with little effect on hunting | By Diana Yates

A new study found that the targeted culling of deer prevents the rampant spread of chronic wasting disease to healthy deer. Photo by L. Brian Stauffer.
A new study found that the targeted culling of deer prevents the rampant spread of chronic wasting disease to healthy deer. Photo by L. Brian Stauffer.

CHAMPAIGN, IL. – Chronic wasting disease, the deer-equivalent of mad cow disease, has crept across the U.S. landscape from west to east. It appeared first in captive mule deer in Colorado in the late 1960s. By 1981, it had escaped to the wild. It reached the Midwest by 2002. Little is known about its potential to infect humans.

Read the whole story by the University of Illinois News Bureau here.