20 deer tested positive for CWD this hunting season

This past hunting season, 16 mule deer tested positive for chronic wasting disease in Fish Wildlife and Parks Region 6 that starts in Hill County and stretches east, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 6 Supervisor Mark Sullivan said Teusday. Fifteen were older bucks and one was a doe, he added.

The total in the state was 20, including two more in Liberty County and two in the Missoula area.

Sullivan presented the information during a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 6 Citizens Advisory Council meeting in Havre Inn and Suites in which the department discussed items on its agenda including CWD.

Sullivan said FWP has been checking animals for CWD for the past 15 to 20 years, due to other regions surrounding Montana having cases. Alberta, Saskatchewan, Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota all have had animals with the disease for some time.

CWD can be spread to deer, elk and moose, Sullivan said, although the disease does not infect antelope or livestock and does not have any known risks to humans.

However, he added, FWP advises people not to consume the meat if an animal has tested positive.

CWD is caused by prions, free-living proteins. Once infected, these abnormal prions attack an animal's central nervous system over months or years, causing behavioral changes as the animal's body wastes away.

CWD can seriously impact affected herds. Sick animals infectious prions in saliva, urine and feces - and eventually their carcasses - contaminating their habitats and exposing additional animals. The prions are nearly indestructible and may persist in the environment for years. Because of the months-long incubation period of the disease, hunters may observe nothing out of the ordinary in harvested animals that were recently infected.

Sullivan said FWP started intensive testing for CWD last year when deer harvested by hunters in the Billings area tested positive for the disease, as did a deer harvested in Liberty County near the Canadian border.

This year, FWP tested in Region 6, the Hi-Line, South Phillips County, and Region 4, the Sweetgrass Hills area, Sullivan said.

Before hunting seasons, he said, FWP held three public meetings, in Glasgow, Scoby and Havre. During the hunting season, check stations were put in place for each weekend in those same areas and were staffed by one FWP technician with a biologist or warden working side-by-side, he added.

Sullivan said that, on weekdays, hunters could also bring the heads of their animals to the testing station to be tested.

He added that, after a few weeks, mule deer became the primary focus.

By the end of hunting season, FWP had collected approximately 1,900 samples, mostly mule deer, Sullivan said, throughout Region 4 and 6 and part of Region 2, in the Missoula area. Overall, 20 samples tested positive or were suspect of CWD.

Additional testing also took place in Region 5 this year, he added.

Sullivan said the primary way to test for CWD is to investigate the spinal cord and the brain.

Another deer tested positive in Liberty County this year, this time in the southern part of the county. FWP then classified the entire county as CWD-positive.

Halfway through the hunting season this year, a sample tested positive in northern Blaine County as well, Sullivan said, adding that after this more restrictions were put in place.

The restrictions were that a hunter cannot take the head or the spinal column outside of the restricted zone, which stretches from eastern Glacier County into Phillips County.

He said that, overall, everything went successfully, although FWP was concerned at first because the restrictions were put in place half-way through the hunting season.

FWP took precautions as well as making sure that the information about the restrictions was available, such as reader boards placed on U.S. Highway 2 and radio adds, he said.

He said FWP's Havre check station also had an area with tarps and tools for hunters to quarter out their deer at no cost to the hunter.

"It went a lot smoother than it could have gone, and hunters were also very reasonable as well," Sullivan said. "The public didn't want to see that disease spread, so hunters were very understanding and cooperated very well."

Sullivan said that after hunting season FWP received some more results. Forty-eight samples were taken the last week of deer season and FWP finished the study last week. The study showed that one deer infected with CWD was found in northern Hill County, two in Liberty County, nine in Blaine County, one in northern Phillips County, three in Valley County and two in Daniels County.

Of the two in Daniels County, one was found on Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Sullivan said. A tribal member brought in the sample on his way to the slaughter house and the entire reservation was informed immediately, he said.

He added that Blaine County likely tested high because more testing stations were in that area.

Sullivan said FWP is finishing their studies in the other areas and will start developing a plan for next season. He added that FWP will hold more public meeting in Region 6 and will try to set up restrictions without over-burdening hunters.

FWP will know what restrictions will be put in place for next year by the next Citizens Advisory Council meeting, he said.

"The staff worked great together on this," he said.

Next season, what FWP will look for is what percentage of the area's game is infected with CWD, Sullivan said, adding that Montana needs to keep the total to 5 percent at most. He said due to CWD being in the areas surrounding Montana, it will be impossible to completely eliminate the disease.

FWP needs a larger harvest next season and more testing stations, he added. Holding a late hunt this year if not enough data was collected during the season is a possibility, he said.

Sullivan said hunting season will remain a general five-week seasons.

He added that another concern FWP has about the disease is that it could infect the soil when bones or the hide of an infected animal is left in the habitat.

FWP recommends disposing the bones and hide in a Class 2 landfill, Sullivan said.