Commission Adopts CWD Action Plan

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission has adopted an action plan to deal with the threat of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). Meeting in Pocatello October 3-4, the Commission unanimously approved the plan recommended by Dr. Mark Drew, Idaho's wildlife veterinarian, and the department's wildlife bureau. CWD is a rare but always fatal brain disease that affects deer and elk. The disease has been recognized in one region that includes parts of Colorado and Wyoming for more than 30 years. It has not been shown to affect livestock or humans but recent discoveries of CWD in western Colorado, South Dakota, Nebraska and Wisconsin as well as two Canadian provinces have raised questions among media and hunters. No case of CWD has ever been detected in Idaho despite monitoring since 1997. The Commission-adopted plan, however, is aimed at increasing the monitoring effort, preventing the introduction of the disease into Idaho, and dealing with it should CWD ever be found in the state. Under the plan, Fish and Game will no longer issue permits to bring live, wild deer or elk into Idaho. The Idaho Department of Agriculture, not Fish and Game, controls the import of captive deer and elk. Fish and Game will also work toward eliminating the feeding of wild deer and elk because concentration of animals could cause the spread of undetected CWD. Winter feeding operations tend to draw animals together from more than one herd area, allowing diseases to be carried back into widely scattered populations that would otherwise rarely mix. Fish and Game check station workers are taking 50-100 tissue samples in each region of Idaho during this hunting season. If CWD is found in a wild population outside a fenced facility or a captive population inside a facility, 50 deer in the immediate area would be tested. If those 50 deer test negative for CWD, the department would begin surveillance in the area and sample animals during the hunting season. If deer or elk test positive, then an effort will be made to eradicate all deer and elk within a mile of affected animals and reduce herds by 25-50 percent within a five-mile radius.