Two recent cases of chronic wasting disease in deer confirmed in Wyandot County
The recent discovery in Wyandot County of two Virginia deer infected with lethal chronic pulmonary tuberculosis conclusively puts Ohio on a path nobody wanted to tread.
The trail could lead to a spreading of the brain-wasting disease, known commonly as CWD, although an expanding outbreak shouldn't yet be assumed inevitable.
That said, the probability that more deer infected with CWD exists within the vicinity isn't zero, said Mike Tonkovich, deer specialist with the Ohio Division of Wildlife.
“We tested 171 deer, 111 of them year-old deer and older, out of something like 500 deer within the area,” he said. “The likelihood that we've found all the infected deer is low. Given the population, there are perhaps two, six, 10 infected deer out there.”
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Because CWD features a long time period covering a year or longer, the very fact that a diseased doe was taken in January within 2 miles of an infected buck taken in December isn't necessarily disastrous news, Tonkovich said.
The occurrences suggest that perhaps both stricken animals lived within the area a few times. The buck, the more inclined of the sexes to travel long distances and possibly bring infection from elsewhere, won't have arrived recently.
Does usually wander no quite a couple of miles from where they were birthed.
It’s possible, then, that a standard source of infection exists within the area, and thus the likelihood remains high that the outbreak is confined around that source.
For instance, the carcass of an infected deer delivered to the state and dumped by a hunter could leave prions, the proteins that cause the disease, within the soil for years.
Another potential source commonly related to outbreaks within the wild is captive herds, two of which exist within the area.
“The disease is often transmitted when a wild deer rubs moist noses through a fence with an infected deer,” Tonkovich said.
Regardless, the origin likely will remain a mystery.
“There is a small chance, if any, that the source of the disease will ever be known,” Tonkovich said.
Whatever the source, it seems “transmission (is) occurring within that doe’s home territory,” Tonkovich said. “The incontrovertible fact that the infected doe was found gives us a touch more confidence it’s an area infection.”
The range of a doe being as small as an area unit, the plan is to stay widening the search area in concentric circles until no more infected deer are found, he said.
The buck was killed on personal property, but the doe was taken at the Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area. And although owners of personal land can impose restrictions that theoretically can impede an investigation, the wildlife division likely would allow and even encourage hard hunting on the general public land, including the likelihood of a hunter taking multiple bucks.
Tonkovich acknowledged there’s “a lot we won’t know until we get more samples.”
Urine, feces, saliva, blood, deer parts, and living deer are often CWD sources, consistent with the National Deer Association. Identified in Rocky Mountain deer and elk decades ago, the disease has spread to 26 states and two Canadian provinces.
Border states Kentucky and Indiana, neither of which has had cases of CWD among its wild deer, will closely watch what happens in Ohio.
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