As the New Year tolled the end of many big game hunting seasons around the country, it opened a fresh season of anxiety for state wildlife agencies awaiting the results, for better or worse, of their chronic wasting disease (CWD) testing programs. For Maryland and Minnesota, the news was not good, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.

On February 10, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) received confirmation that a white-tailed deer taken by a hunter in Allegany County was infected with CWD. It was the first documented case of the disease in the state's deer population. The Maryland DNR has tested more than 6,800 deer statewide since 1999, but specifically targeted its 2010 surveillance efforts on Allegany and Washington counties. Both counties are adjacent to border lands of Virginia and West Virginia where CWD has been documented only six miles from the Maryland state line.

Less than three weeks earlier, on January 25, the Minnesota DNR announced that a wild white-tailed deer harvested by an archery hunter last November tested positive for the disease. Although Minnesota has been managing CWD in its captive deer and elk facilities since 2002, this newest case marks the first time the disease has been found outside the fence.

While Maryland is in the process of initiating its existing CWD response plan, the Minnesota DNR used the weeks following its discovery to complete much of the critical groundwork needed to launch a rapid, coordinated and aggressive disease-management program. Fortunately, wildlife managers were primed for action, since suspicion of the presence of CWD in the area already was high.????

"You could say that we discovered this deer in large part because we were looking for CWD in the area," said Lou Cornicelli, Big Game Program Coordinator for the DNR. Taken near Pine Island in southeastern Minnesota, the infected animal was tested as a result of the significant CWD surveillance effort the DNR initiated in the area after a female elk was diagnosed with CWD on a nearby captive elk facility in 2009. Coincidentally, that facility, now depopulated, is only three miles from where the infected deer was taken last fall.

Since 2002, the Minnesota DNR has sampled more than 32,000 deer across the entire state. This year alone, 400 were tested within 10 square miles of where the infected deer was located. "Although time will tell, we think we're on the front edge of outbreak," said Cornicelli.

Following the confirmed positive, the DNR conducted aerial surveys of the deer populations within 10 square miles of the infected deer, classifying the region as the Winter Surveillance Area (WSA). Due to heavy winter snows, recreational deer feeding and good habitat, current deer numbers in the WSA average 20 per square mile and are as high as 80 per square mile near the center of the WSA.

"The deer densities in the surveillance area were higher than we expected," noted Cornicelli. "Our first goal is to get enough samples from the area to determine what the disease prevalence is, and we plan to use landowners and hunters help us get those samples and manage deer densities." According to Cornicelli, the DNR has begun issuing shooting permits to landholders within the WSA. ?Given that the area is nearly 100 percent privately held, the DNR will rely heavily on landowner cooperation to reach its goal of 900 samples from the WSA. Where hunters can't provide enough samples, the DNR will partner with U.S. Department of Agriculture sharpshooters to fill in the surveillance gaps.

In addition to its goal of determining local CWD prevalence rates, the DNR also has issued a deer-feeding ban in the four counties in and around the WSA. According to the DNR,? "The feeding ban includes a wider area because the potential extent of the CWD infection is not known and one of the most probable mechanisms for CWD spread among deer is over a food source that concentrates animals."

Cornicelli noted that landowners and hunters alike have thus far issued strong support for the DNR's response and current management strategy. However, he proffered no illusion about combating the seemingly unstoppable disease. "In the short term, hunters can expect liberal hunting and increased opportunities. But, in the long term, that means lower deer densities." Only time will tell if it's a worthy trade-off.???

For current updates and information regarding CWD, please visit the CWD Alliance website?or go to the Minnesota DNR or Maryland DNR?CWD information websites. (mcd)