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Help monitor for chronic wasting disease

By Tony Young
Media Relations Coordinator
Division of Hunting and Game Management
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is looking to hunters this coming season to help it monitor the state's deer herd for chronic wasting disease, or CWD, as it's more commonly called.

What's CWD you might ask?

CWD belongs to a group of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. Currently, scientists still have much to learn about CWD, which appears to occur only in the deer family but is believed to be caused by an abnormal protein called a prion.

The fatal CWD attacks the brains of infected cervids (mule deer, white-tailed deer, moose and elk), causing them to become emaciated, display abnormal behavior and lose control of bodily functions.

Warning signs of CWD that we hunters can be on the lookout for while in the field, include deer that are extremely thin or appear sick, or those exhibiting odd behavior such as excessive salivating or urinating, staggering, walking in circles, standing with a wide stance, head tremors or deer found dead from unknown causes.

Transmission of CWD occurs by direct contact with bodily fluids (feces, urine, saliva) or through contact with a contaminated environment. In this second scenario, the prion stays within the environment, and it may remain infectious for years.

The good news is, there's no evidence that CWD can be transmitted to humans or livestock, and it's not yet been found in Florida or any other southeastern state. But, it's going to take the help of all hunters and the FWC to keep it that way.
Currently, the only practical method for diagnosing CWD is through analysis of brain-stem tissue or lymph nodes from dead deer. Therefore, Florida's more than 240,000 hunters can play an extremely important role in CWD surveillance by helping FWC biologists collect samples from their harvested deer.

The goal of the FWC is to collect these samples throughout Florida, and it's asking private landowners and hunting clubs to please participate in this surveillance. Since 2002, the FWC has tested more than 3,400 hunter-killed and road-killed deer for CWD.

If you'd like to help, please contact your nearest FWC regional office or call the toll-free CWD Hotline at 1-866-CWD-WATCH (293-9282) for further information and to coordinate collection and pick-up of deer samples.

To date, CWD has been found in mule deer, white-tailed deer, moose and elk in Colorado, Illinois, Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Kansas, Montana, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, West Virginia and Utah. It also has been detected in Canada (Saskatchewan and Alberta) and in South Korea.

The primary objective of CWD management is to prevent it from entering our state, so Florida has adopted laws regulating the transport of harvested and live deer into Florida.

It's illegal for hunters to bring into Florida whole carcasses of any harvested cervid from any of these affected states or countries. From these areas, hunters can bring back only de-boned meat and finished taxidermy mounts, hides, skulls, antlers and teeth, as long as all soft tissue has been removed. And citizens are encouraged to report to the FWC any illegal importation of cervids from affected areas by calling its Wildlife Alert Hotline, toll-free, 1-888-404-FWCC (3922).

Farmers who raise deer for venison or hunting preserve managers wishing to "breed in" favorable genetics into their Florida deer cannot bring into Florida any live mule deer, white-tailed deer, moose or elk unless they come from a herd certified CWD-free by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS).

Should a CWD outbreak occur in Florida, the keys to effective management will be detecting it early and taking swift action to limit its spread. Because of this, the FWC has a CWD action team, made up of veterinarians, biologists, law enforcement officers and media folks, in place and ready to formulate a response plan and develop protocols with other government agencies, such as FDACS, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Florida Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This season, if you come across or harvest a deer that appears sick or emaciated, or one that has died from unknown causes, don't handle it. Instead, contact the FWC, 24-7 on its toll-free hotline at 1-866-CWD-WATCH.

It's important to call as soon as possible, because any testing must be done within 48 hours of a deer's death to produce reliable results.

We all can help take part in keeping CWD out of Florida's deer herd by staying well-informed, taking precautions and acting quickly when necessary.

If you'd like to learn more about CWD, including links to several state and federal government Web sites containing more in-depth information on this serious disease, click MyFWC.com/CWD.

I know it's hot as blazes outside, but be patient, cooler weather and huntin' season's just around the corner!