An adult doe in Genesee County that walked up to a conservation officer was confirmed to be suffering from chronic wasting disease, the Department of Natural Resources said.
The fatal disease now has been found in 16 Michigan counties, the DNR said Wednesday, Sept. 22.
The CWD case was confirmed by the Michigan State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, which works with the DNR to identify CWD in Michigan’s wild deer herd. The sample will be sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa for secondary confirmation.
“We appreciate the support and cooperation of the public as they continue to report sick deer so our team can follow up with the necessary testing for confirmation,” said Brent Rudolph, DNR deer, elk and moose management specialist.
The 2.5-year-old doe in Gaines Township that tested positive was described as very skinny and drinking continuously. It walked directly up to a conservation officer who responded to a public report, the DNR said. Public reporting of sick acting deer is one of the best tools available to the DNR for identifying CWD that may exist at low prevalence in previously undetected areas, officials said.
What is Chronic Waste Disease?
Chronic wasting disease or CWD is a fatal neurological disease that affects white-tailed deer, elk and moose. There is currently no cure for CWD in deer.
Where has CWD been found in Michigan?
The disease has been detected in Clinton, Dickinson, Eaton, Gratiot, Hillsdale, Ingham, Ionia, Isabella, Jackson, Kent, Mecosta, Midland, Montcalm, Ogemaw and Washtenaw counties, according to the DNR.
A farmed white-tail deer in Osceola County was confirmed with chronic wasting disease, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said in a news release earlier this year.
How does CWD spread among animals?
Scientists think CWD spreads between animals through contact with saliva, blood, urine or feces from an animal with CWD, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Once an animal gets sick, the disease moves through the brain, spine and eventually kills the animal.
Signs of the disease in deer
According to the CDC harvesters should look out for:
Can humans get CWD?
CWD prions, a type of protein that can trigger normal proteins in the brain to fold abnormally, don’t infect human brain tissue, according to Science News.
The most common prion disease in people is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Another prion disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), has a similar name but is a different, much rarer, disease, according to the Center of Disease Control.
To date, there are no reported cases of CWD infections in people. As a precaution, the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that infected animals not be consumed.
How the DNR finds cases?
After initial testing near areas of the first CWD detections in the state, the DNR began a rotational approach to testing in 2021, selecting a group of counties every year with the aim of testing enough deer in every Michigan county, with the goal of early disease detection.
In 2021 and 2022, the rotational approach focused testing in areas of both the southwestern and southeastern Lower Peninsula. In 2023, the focus moved to the northern Lower Peninsula, and in 2024, testing focused on parts of both the northern Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula.
300 deer in Genesee County were tested in for CWD in 2022. None tested positive, the DNR said.
Since chronic wasting disease was first detected in wild deer in 2015, more than 109,000 deer have been tested for CWD in Michigan. In total, more than 143,000 wild deer have been tested through DNR surveillance efforts that started in 2002, with 260 CWD-positive deer identified. In addition, since direct hunter submissions of deer to the MSU laboratory began in 2020, more than 2,500 submitted samples have yielded 47 additional confirmed positives.
How can I submit deer for testing?
Deer for testing can be submitted through drop boxes staffed check stations and participating deer processors and taxidermists in the areas being targeted for testing.
Hunters can submit samples through direct submissions through free self-sample shipping kits in counties where CWD has been previously detected.
All deer from counties with previous confirmed cases of CWD or bovine tuberculosis that are donated to the Hunters Feeding Michigan program also are submitted directly to the MSU Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory for testing.
How can I avoid CWD?
Hunters are encouraged to use caution when field dressing or processing deer, including wearing rubber gloves, and minimizing contact with the deer’s brain and spinal tissue. Wash your hands with warm water after handling any parts of the carcass.
Deer carcasses and parts should go directly to a landfill or be disposed of through your regular bagged trash pickup. Deer harvested from known CWD areas should never be disposed of in the field.
Samples for 2024 are still being processed, according to the DNR. Once completed, analyses will help identify counties in need of additional CWD testing in 2025.
For more information on chronic wasting disease, visit Michigan.gov/CWD.
Jalen Williams is a trending reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at jawilliams1@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Sick deer that walked up to officer had CWD. Where officials confirmed the wasting disease
Reporting by Jalen Williams, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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