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CWD Found in Michigan

Michigan state officials have confirmed the state’s first case of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). According to Michigan Departments of Agriculture (MDA) and Natural Resources (DNR), CWD was found in a three-year old whitetail deer from a privately owned cervid (POC) facility in Kent County and the state has quarantined all deer farm/breeding facilities, prohibiting the movement of all — dead or alive — privately-owned deer, elk or moose.

The deer that tested positive was a doe that had been recently culled by the owner of the facility. Officials do not yet know how the deer may have contracted the disease but they reviewing records from the Kent County facility and five others to trace deer that have been purchased, sold or moved by the owners in the last five years for deer and the last seven years for elk. Any deer that may have come in contact with the CWD-positive herd have been traced to their current location and those facilities have been quarantined.

“Michigan’s veterinarians and wildlife experts have been working throughout the weekend to complete their investigation," said Don Koivisto, MDA director. "We take this disease very seriously, and are using every resource available to us to implement response measures and stop the spread of this disease.”

CWD is a fatal neurological disease that affects deer, elk and moose. Most cases of the disease have been in western states, but in the past several years, it has spread to some mid-western and eastern states. Infected animals display abnormal behaviors, progressive weight loss and physical debilitation. Current evidence suggests that the disease is transmitted through infectious, self-multiplying proteins (prions) contained in saliva and other fluids of infected animals. Susceptible animals can acquire CWD by direct exposure to these fluids or also from contaminated environments. Once contaminated, research suggests that soil can remain a source of infection for long periods of time, making CWD a particularly difficult disease to eradicate.

“It’s too early to tell just how significant this really is. All we know is that one animal is infected and Michigan's borders have been closed to the transport of deer since 2002, so this appears to be a very localized case,” says Shawn Schafer, executive director of the North American Deer Farmers Association. “Nevertheless, this incident demonstrates that we have far better disease and health controls in place for deer within cervid facilities than we do for animals in the wild. In this case, the system has worked.  My focus at this time is to make sure the producer and his family will be justly indemnified in the process and that all possible research opportunities are explored.”

DNR Director Rebecca Humphries commented that one of the agency’s primary goals is to confirm that the disease is not in free-ranging deer. The DNR is now asking hunters this fall to visit check stations to have their harvested deer tested. Deer hunters who take deer from Tyrone, Soldon, Nelson, Sparta, Algoma, Courtland, Alpine, Plainfield, and Cannon townships will be required to bring their deer to a DNR check station. Deer taken in these townships are subject to mandatory deer check.

In addition, the DNR is also asking hunters who are participating in the private land five-day antlerless hunt in September in other parts of Kent County to visit DNR check stations in Kent County so further biological samples can be taken from free-ranging deer for testing.

Michigan law requires sick deer/or culled deer on a POC facility be tested for disease. The samples from the Kent County deer tested "suspect positive" last week at Michigan State University Diagnostic Center for Population and Animal Health, and were sent to the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa last Thursday for confirmatory testing. The positive results of those tests were communicated to the state of Michigan today.

Audits of the facility by the DNR in 2004 and 2007 showed no escapes of animals from the Kent County facility were reported by the owner. Also, there were no violations of regulations recorded during the audits.

Since 2002, the DNR has tested 248 wild deer in Kent County for CWD. In summer 2005, a number of those deer had displayed neurological symptoms similar to CWD; however, after testing it was determined the deer had contracted Eastern Equine Encephalitis.

More information on CWD is available on Michigan’s Emerging Diseases Web site at www.michigan.gov/chronicwastingdisease.