Effective October 5, 2023, new baiting and feeding bans will be implemented in Washburn, Barron, Rusk, and Sawyer Counties in Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced the measures following a report from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP) that a farm-raised deer in Washburn County tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD).
In accordance with state law, the DNR has enacted a three-year baiting and feeding ban in Washburn County, where the CWD case was detected, and a two-year ban in the adjoining counties located within 10 miles of the detection site.
CWD is a fatal, infectious nervous system disease that affects deer, moose, elk, and reindeer/caribou. It’s part of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) or prion diseases family. The disease can spread through direct contact between healthy and infected deer or via infectious prions left behind in the saliva, blood, feces, and urine of infected deer.
Baiting or feeding deer encourages them to gather unnaturally around a shared food source, increasing the risk of disease transmission. It is illegal to hunt over an area previously used for legal baiting and feeding until that area is entirely free of bait or feed for 10 consecutive days.
The DNR is appealing to deer hunters in the affected counties to assist with efforts to identify the presence of CWD by having their deer tested for the disease. Proper carcass disposal is also encouraged to slow the spread of CWD by removing potentially infected deer carcasses from the landscape.
The Wisconsin DNR has been monitoring the state’s wild white-tailed deer population for CWD since 1999, with the first positive cases detected in 2002. More information about CWD and the new regulations can be found on the DNR’s website.
For more information, please contact Erin Larson, Deer Herd Health Specialist at Erin.Larson@wisconsin.gov or 608-516-2783.
Photo by Steve: https://www.pexels.com/photo/gray-deer-eating-grass-397850/