DNR Confirms First CWD Detection In Wild Deer Harvested In Waupaca County

MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) confirms a wild deer tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD) in Waupaca County in the town of Harrison, within 10 miles of the Shawano, Marathon and Portage County borders. The deer was a hunter-harvested 2-year-old doe and is the first confirmed wild CWD-positive deer detection in Waupaca County.

The DNR and the Waupaca County Deer Advisory Council will be hosting a public meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023, from 6 to 8 p.m.  The meeting will be held at:

Manawa City Hall
500 S Bridge St.
Manawa, WI 54949

DNR staff will provide information about CWD in Wisconsin, local CWD testing efforts and disease surveillance options being considered.

As required by state law, the DNR enacts three-year baiting and feeding bans in counties where CWD has been detected and two-year bans in adjoining counties that lie within 10 miles of a CWD detection. Deer baiting and feeding have been banned in Waupaca County since 2014, initially due to CWD detections in farm-raised deer in Marathon County within 10 miles of the county border.

The ban has been maintained due to CWD detections in wild and farm-raised deer in adjacent counties within 10 miles, as well as CWD detections in farm-raised deer within the county. Following state law, the DNR will renew a three-year baiting and feeding ban in Waupaca County. Due to CWD-positive detections within Shawano, Marathon, and Portage counties, the current expiration date of the current baiting and feeding bans in those counties is unaffected by this recent detection in Waupaca County.

Baiting and feeding encourages deer to congregate unnaturally around a shared food source where infected deer can spread CWD through direct contact with healthy deer or indirectly by leaving behind infectious prions in their saliva, blood, feces and urine.

More information regarding baiting and feeding regulations is available on the DNR webpage.

CWD is a fatal, infectious nervous system disease of deer, moose, elk and reindeer/caribou. It belongs to the family of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) or prion diseases. The DNR began monitoring the state’s wild white-tailed deer population for CWD in 1999. The first positives were found in 2002.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.