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HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Game Commission will employ a new technique, and spend a lot more money, in an attempt to curb the spread of a deadly disease that affects deer and elk in the state.
On June 7, a wildlife conservation officer euthanized an adult buck on State Game Lands 87 in Clearfield County after it exhibited signs of being diseased. Subsequent tests confirmed the deer was infected with chronic wasting disease, marking the first case of a wild deer in that area with CWD.
The buck was within Disease Management Area 3 (DMA 3), which was established in 2014 after surveillance by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture detected CWD at two captive deer facilities in Jefferson County.
The location of the diseased deer is roughly 10 miles from the border of the area inhabited by Pennsylvania’s elk herd.
As a result, the Game Commission announced plans during a press conference on Thursday to utilize sharpshooters to remove deer from the area where the CWD-positive animal was found.
According to Wayne Laroche, the agency’s director of the Bureau of Wildlife Management, the targeted removal of deer in the area represents the best option for trying to prevent the spread of the disease. Laroche said the sharpshooters will be from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and will likely conduct the work in the winter, after the upcoming hunting season has concluded.
While Laroche said the deer population appears to be high in the area where the diseased deer was found, he anticipated hundreds of deer could be removed by sharpshooters.
“We’re not talking about removing thousands of deer,” he said, adding a similar measure has been successful in controlling the spread of CWD in Illinois.
Currently, there’s no vaccine to protect animals and no cure to control the spread of CWD. The Game Commission has established two Disease Management Areas in the state (in the southwest and southcentral) where the disease has been found and has implemented measures in those locations, including a ban on transporting high-risk deer parts and a prohibition of the use of lure and feeding deer.
The disease is primarily spread through deer-to-deer contact or contact with deer urine or feces, which can carry the prion that causes the disease. Laroche said the CWD prion can remain in the ground for 15 years.
And there’s a concern that other wild deer in the area of Clearfield County have already been exposed to the disease, adding to the need for additional measures such as sharpshooters.
“Deer are social, which suggests other animals were already exposed,” said Bryan Burhans, executive director of the Game Commission. “We must address this reality. We will begin a localized, targeted shooting of deer in the area.”
In Pennsylvania, CWD has been an increasing threat. The disease also exists among wild deer in the area of southcentral Pennsylvania defined as Disease Management Area 2. Twenty-five free-ranging deer tested positive for CWD in 2016. Four additional CWD-positive deer have been detected since, raising the total to 51 CWD-positives detected within the DMA 2 since 2012.
The Game Commission spends $1 million annually to monitor for CWD and test deer for the disease. Burhans said that figure will likely double in light of the new case in Clearfield County.
“We have to aggressively go after this with everything we have,” he said.
While the disease has yet to be found in Pennsylvania’s elk, they are susceptible and can be infected with CWD by contacting sick deer or prions. While the current case if the first instance of CWD appearing in a wild deer in DMA 3, the disease was found on a deer farm 8 miles away and other captive deer facilities within four miles of where the diseased animal was found have been under quarantine, according to Greg Hostetter, deputy secretary with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. Hostetter wasn’t aware of any reports of deer escaping into the wild from those farms and said of the 23,000 captive deer in the state, 3,000 are tested annually for CWD.
Laroche said the Game Commission is discussing the possibility of expanding the ban on deer lure to a statewide level.
The diseased deer in Clearfield County was actually discovered on a remote area of SGL 87. Agency wildlife veterinarian Justin Brown said it was in poor body condition, was unaware of its surroundings and not quick to flee – all of which are signs of disease.
And while there’s concern over the likelihood of other infected deer in the area and the disease spreading and possibly turning up in elk, Laroche remained optimistic.
“We have a chance. I’m not going to believe (the spread of the disease) is inevitable,” he said. “We need to be aggressive and think out of the box.”
And seek help.
Burhans said it’s important that citizens report any deer that appear sick and hunters comply with current protocols aimed at preventing the spread of the disease.
And when it comes to funding the battle against CWD, Burhans said the support of state legislators is critical.
“It’s not only the future of deer hunting at risk, it’s the future of wildlife management in the state that’s at stake here,” Burhans said. “If we don’t get that support this effort could fail.”
