Chronic Waste Disease found near Shell Lake

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One wildlife leader calls it the “sportsmen’s worst nightmare.” The state D-N-R said yesterday that a deer found in the wild near Shell Lake in far northwest Wisconsin last fall was infected with chronic wasting disease. Until now, the region was immune from the fatal deer-brain disease, as a controversy raged over the last decade over a large number of deer killings and extra hunts to try-and-stop an outbreak in southern Wisconsin from spreading. Now, Wisconsin Conservation Congress vice-chairman Larry Bonde says some of the discontent could be re-sparked as C-W-D moves to a whole new part of the state. But the D-N-R tried to stave off a new wave of fear-and-anger, by announcing immediately that this fall’s hunting seasons will not change. They’ll collect road-killed deer in northwest Wisconsin for testing – and they’ll ask hunters this fall to submit tissue samples of the animals they take. The D-N-R also said hunters in Barron, Polk, Washburn, and Burnett counties can expect a ban on deer baiting-and-feeding this fall. That’s the law in areas where C-W-D is found. State agriculture officials say game farms and a hunting preserve are in good standing in the area. The disease has previously been found on a couple game farms outside of southern Wisconsin in recent years – but that was not the case here.

Tags: outdoors, wisconsin