DNR Confirms CWD In Wood County Wild Deer

Thursday, January 21st, 2021 -- 6:46 AM

(DNR release) - The Wisconsin DNR confirms the first wild deer has tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD) in southern Wood County in the Town of Port Edwards, within ten miles of Juneau and Adams counties. As required by state law, the DNR will renew the baiting and feeding bans in Wood, Juneau and Adams counties.   

The CWD-positive deer was an adult buck harvested during the 2020 gun deer season and tested as part of the department’s disease surveillance efforts. State law requires that the DNR enact a ban on the baiting and feeding of deer in counties or portions of counties within a 10-mile radius of a wild or farm-raised deer that tests positive for CWD. Because the deer was harvested within 10 miles of Juneau and Adams counties, bans in those counties will also be renewed.  The DNR will continue surveillance near the CWD positive detection location.  

The Wood County Deer Advisory Council meeting will be held virtually tonight via Zoom starting at 7 pm to discuss deer population objectives and provide additional information on the new CWD detection. 

CWD is a fatal, infectious nervous system disease of deer, moose, elk and reindeer/caribou. It belongs to the family of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) or prion diseases. CWD occurs only in members of the cervid or deer family - both wild and captive. 

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