A state advisory group has recommended about 60 ideas for renewing Wisconsin's fight against chronic wasting disease in the deer herd.
The panel completed four months of work by making its final proposals Wednesday.
DNR Big Game leader Bob Nack says the goals of the group are lofty...
"....the goal of the plan is to reduce the spread of CWD and to reduce the number of deer testing positive for CWD. That's a lofty goal I think the action items proposed here are the best effort we have to achieve that...."
Nack says the biggest measure involves what the committee calls "targeted culling" of deer on private and public lands that the D-N-R can reach. The "culling" would not be as complete as the controversial eradication of deer from diseased areas a number of years ago.
Former DNR Secretary and current Wisconsin Wildlife Federation Leader George Meyer was an advisory panel member...
"....obviously the horse is out of the barn and it's almost out of the pasture in terms of slowing the spread and clearly CWD is in our deer populations probably permanently. But there are a lot of good recommendations on how to stop it from spreading...."
Other proposals would seek to keep the fatal deer brain disease from spreading from wild deer to captive animals in game farms.
The report is here.
