A degenerative neurological disease found in deer and elk called Chronic Wasting Disease regained prominence in the state Monday after test results from a deer killed in a hunting preserve tested positive for the disease, the first positive deer from a hunting preserve in five years.
The 5-year-old white tail buck was shot Nov. 4 on a 351-acre preserve in Marathon County that is home to approximately 370 other deer, according to a statement from the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
The official announcement came after a state veterinarian determined the results, which are required to be taken after all farm-raised deer and elk are killed, to be positive Monday. Officials first took the samples Nov. 7.
Dr. Paul McGraw, the state veterinarian, quarantined the preserve and three other farms associated with it, stopping any movement from the possibly contaminated deer population. DATCP said in the statement it would charge its Animal Health Division to investigate the Marathon County preserve and any other areas and herds that may have been contaminated.
The Monday discovery is the first of its kind since October 2008 and is a continuation of the efforts to control the disease after officials first discovered its presence in the state in 2002. There have been 97 reported cases of CWD since 2002.
