About 1 in 10 deer sampled this past year came up positive for Chronic Wasting Disease, with the wide majority of the positive tests in southern Wisconsin.
The DNR also reported more than 3,100 test samples were taken with 295 positives found. DNR wildlife section chief Tami Ryan says this was the first year of electronic deer registration and that might have affected the sampling...
".....electronic registration is presenting a different type of environment in which we continue to conduct our disease surveillance. It did maybe have a little bit of impact on reduced sampling this year. But we were very happy with the results we were able to acquire...."
Ryan says hunter cooperation was outstanding given the new registration system. CWD was first found in Wisconsin in 2002. While most of the cases are in southern Wisconsin, last fall two deer from a Three Lakes game farm tested positive for the disease. Monitoring efforts also included surveillance in Juneau, Adams and Portage counties. Since 2012, eight additional positives were found in Adams and Portage counties.
