by Anthony Grabski, Ph.D.
Wisconsin CWD Watch Home Page

Wisconsin CWD Watch News Links Archives


Journal Review:

" A Critique of CWD Models - Chronic Wasting Disease in Deer & Elk: a critique of current models and their application."

Eric M. Schauber, Ph.D.
Alan Woolf, Ph.D

~~~~~~~~~~~

“The best kept secret in this field is that (prions) in any form have never shown infectivity,”

Laura Manuelidis, head of the neuropathology section at Yale University's Surgery Department in New Haven, Conn.

--from Washington Times Article on Prion Diseases

2005 Wisconsin CWD Update

Archives - Stories & News from 2004

October 30 Deer Harvest data in 70A tell the real story. Harvest data from the previous shooting season continue to be modest, but DNR pencils produce a dramatic reduction in overall population.

October 10 Fire in the Sistine Chapel: How Wisconsin Responded to Chronic Wasting Disease. Full text of article by Prof Thomas Heberlein appearing in "Human Dimensions of Wildlife" a peer-reviewed journal. (PDF file)

ABSTRACT: The discovery of CWD in the Wisconsin deer herd in February 2002 was treated by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as if it was a fire. Rapid action led to abandoning stakeholder concerns while human dimensions expertise and research was largely ignored and opportunities to learn from innovations were missed. After two years, neither the biological nor the social goals of the program have been achieved. Hunters killed fewer rather than more deer, deer densities in the eradication zone remained high, and efforts to end recreational feeding failed. Deer hunting license sales dropped by over 90,000. Revenues to the agency declined and other programs suffered as money was reallocated to fight CWD. Hunters were hardest hit, losing about 60 million in recreational benefits or a 20% decline in the annual surplus value of deer hunting in the state. This article examines the Wisconsin response to CWD to help better understand why the human and biological goals were not met.

Sept 1 Overreaction to CWD? UW emeritus professor of Sociology reviews impact of DNR management of CWD issue.

April 29 Wisconsin DNR Board expands Deer Eradication Zone but turns deaf ear to claims from hunting groups that the program needs massive overhaul.

Statement by Anthony Grabski

Statement by Ross Reinhold

March 25 Deer shot near Crivitz, Wisconsin tests positive 3 times on IDEXX CWD test but DNR claims the negative finding on the older CWD test is the correct interpretation.

March 15 Is CWD more widespread than the Wisconsin DNR choses to admit? Deer hunters wonder what to make of the unreported CWD postives from the new IDEXX screening test.

March 11 Hunter Group lodges formal complaint re: DNR withholding vital CWD test results from hunters and general public. Current DNR policy " makes it impossible for citizens to make informed decisions using the best information available. At worst, it knowingly places the citizens of Wisconsin at an increased potential health risk."

March 11 Associated Press Report discloses evidence of CWD in 14 *new* Wisconsin Counties. Over 100 hunters were not told that their deer tested CWD Positive in one of the battery of two tests employed by the DNR. Food safety and peace of mind takes a back seat to politics?

Click Here for more info on this ongoing investigation into CWD testing irregularities

February 17 Texas Trophy Hunters TV Show re-visits Wisconsin to get an update on the "Chronic Wasting Disease panic in Wisconsin." Produced by Jerry Johnson and Horace Gore. Air dates Feb 19th, 22nd, and 24th.

February 4 Whitetail fawns at Wildlife Rehabilitation Center receive DNR death sentence. Because the fawns were born in the new Fontana Eradication Zone, they must be killed and tested . . . according to Dept. of Natural Resources bureaucrats.

January 25 Rocky Mountain Labs Scientist Bruce Chesebro believes CWD and other TSEs likely to be caused by a virus: “ While conventional wisdom holds that TSEs are caused by an infectious protein, Chesebro thinks it is just as likely - maybe even more so - that these diseases are really caused by some hearty 'ubiquitous virus' science has yet to identify."

January 20 DNR fiddles leaving some Wisconsin Hunters still waiting for CWD test results . . . while in Colorado hunters get excellent service: “For the second year in a row, DOW employees have collected thousands of samples, had them tested and returned results to hunters in less than two weeks,” said Russell George, former DOW director and current head of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.

January 9 DNR acknowledges CWD cases in Kenosha, Walworth and Rock Counties may require establishment of a new Eradication Zone. Despite evidence that the known extent of infection now covers a 130 mile swath across southern Wisconsin, DNR continues to believe it can "eradicate" the disease through massive deer kills.

January 8 A Calgary Beef Industry Journalist outlines the possible links - Mad Cow, Mad Deer, Mad Mink? The University of Wisconsin connection.

Archives Featured News Links - prior to June 2003

Duncan proposed: ". . . If the deer are so numerous, why not shoot them . . .?"

For a moment Arthur sat pondering, then began slowly ". . . you must forgive my plain speaking, but you are a stranger in our parts and don't understand our ways. Hereabouts we hunt deer, we don't shoot them."

From the "The Running of the Deer"
by Ewan Clarkson

 


support our troops

 

Formerly Featured Stories & News Links

9-2002 to 12-2003

August 28 Deer McManagement to continue. "Random deer eradication from over 1,000 square miles of hilly, wooded, private property, as a means to eliminate CWD is not only irrational and impractical, but also impossible. Conclusions from the scientific literature support this view."

August 13 Rapid CWD test offered only to hunters in CWD counties. In other news, despite massive undersampling last season in the north woods, the DNR will halt all surveillance testing in northern Wisconsin. Apparently surviving one round of "Russian Roulette" was a risk they dare not repeat.

August 12 CWD disclosed among wild deer in Walworth County. DNR releases test results from a suspicious deer shot last March by a police officer. The current case is about 70 miles outside of the borders of the newly expanded "Eradication Zone".

August 3 Wisconsin's new game of chance?DNR Secretary considering offering a $1000 prize for each confirmed deer kill with CWD.

July 7 Wisconsin Commercial Deer and Elk Farmers Association Initiates Participation in Ongoing Validation of GeneThera's Live Test of Chronic Wasting Disease. Dr. Antonio Milici stated, "Our ability to study these animals without slaughtering them is invaluable to helping us learn more about this disease.

June 14 CWD Journalist concludes that "living with" CWD may be the only real option. The realist approach also has the added benefits of allowing the Wisconsin DNR to focus its financial and manpower resources towards finding better CWD tests and providing improved testing services to hunters.

June 11 Judd Aiken & UW Madison receives $5.2 million grant to study CWD to better understand the genetic variations, methods of transmission, susceptability of other species to the disease and investigating various barriers to the development of a viable live animal test for CWD. The grants were provided by the Department of Defense and the US Army office of medical research.

May 28 Assembly Commitee on Natural Resources finds creative way to control CWD. Committee decides 200 - 400 cases of CWD in Richland and Sauk Counties no cause for alarm.

May 14 The Smoking Gun at the Aiken Lab? Deer & Elk Farmers investigating CWD suspect the University of Wisconsin may be the source of Chronic Wasting Disease among wild deer near Mount Horeb. Massive cover-up explains McScience spin.

May 14 Protein Biochemist & Animal Nutritionist among many who oppose the DNR CWD experiment in eradication

April 25 University of Wisconsin CWD Symposium. The experts are no-show: McManagment and McScience are the opening acts for CWD Scientist Beth Williams

April 22 7 new CWD cases found north of Rockford, IL. . . . bringing the total to 14 cases south of Wisconsin's border. Illinois DNR officials eschew Eradication in favor of an adaptive management response.

April 04 Colorado Researcher identifies Spiroplasma Bacteria as possible transmission agent for CWD. If one can reasonably accept Spiroplasma as the probable causal agent of TSE disease then, perhaps, the role of insects in transmission is much more certain. If insect transmission is plausible, then selective deductions can be derived from the cacophony of disease information available.

Mar 18 A Black Hole for Deer, Dollars, & Deer Hunting! A scientist challenges the DNR rhetoric at Dodgeville area public meeting on Eradication.

Feb 28 US Rep Obey blasts Federal CWD Testing: ". . . The federal government's refusal to expand Wisconsin's chronic wasting disease-testing capacity by sending samples to Marshfield Laboratories is an example of a "petrified modern-day version of Sleepy Hollow,"

Feb 6 More CWD at White Sands Missle Base: ". . . the prevalence rate we are detecting at White Sands suggests CWD has been present there for a number of years." Kerry Mower, New Mexico Wildlife Disease Specialist

Jan 30 400 People attend Park Falls CWD Meeting: ". . . news media blasted for creating 'hysteria' over CWD during two-hour meeting at high school"

Jan 16 DNR Chronic Deer Wasting Program Costs Taxpayers $11.5 million dollars. . . .An estimated $209,000 per infected deer

Jan 10 The Other Shoe finally drops. 5 new confirmed Wisconsin CWD cases reported near Richland Center - all outside of the current endemic CWD area (aka Eradication Zone)

Jan 9 Texas Trophy Hunters Association President "sounds off" with plain talk and facts on the CWD Hysteria.

Jan 9 Moffet County Colorado - outside the endemic area - records 7 more CWD cases bringing total to 20. Officials elect to gather more test data over the next year before determining action plan.

Jan 5 3 New Illinois CWD cases reported in McHenry and Boone Counties. A total of 7 Illinois CWD cases have been found. . . all of them within 30 miles of the Wisconsin border.

Jan 2, 2003
 Citizens Group sends New Year's petition to new Wisconsin Governor to set aside Eradication as a viable solution to Wisconsin's Chronic Wasting Disease.

Dec 30 New wild deer CWD case in Northwestern Saskatchewan - a significant distance from the other six cases found in western part of the province.

Dec 30 LaCrosse deer hunter survey: 70% believe CWD has been in Wisconsin for more than 6 years, 35% believe it has been in the state for longer than 11 years.

Dec 28 A third case of chronic wasting disease has been confirmed in Carbon County in south-central Wyoming. Previously most of the positive cases have come from deer in eastern and east-central areas of Wyoming where the disease is considered endemic.

Dec 26 Wisconsin DNR's fanning fires of CWD fear causes 10% drop in licenses and harvest despite expanded hunting seasons in many parts of the state.

Sept 21 An insightful report from Eco-Detective & Researcher Mark Purdey: "The Wasting Lands - CWD epidemic in Deer"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Chronic Panic Disorder (CPD) is a cognitive disease known to spontaneously occur among Natural Resources bureaucrats. The disease is progressive in that it leads to implementing increasingly irrational programs and chronically wasting taxpayer dollars. To date the disease is confined to the State of Wisconsin but because of its unknown rate of infectivity, unknown cause, and unknown means of transmission, "experts" are cautioning against direct contact with Wisconsin DNR officials. Many experts believe there is no known cure for CPD and therefore urge that "removal of the infected individuals" from the Department is the only way to prevent its collapse.  

The Science of CWD & Chronic Wasting Disease

"Where's the Beef II?" The political management of Data and Statistics continues

Chronic Wasting Disease in Deer & Elk: a critique of current models and their application.

Articles and Papers on Wisconsin Chronic Wasting Disease and DNR proposals

Chronic Wasting Disease Symposium at the University of Wisconsin

Chronic Wasting Disease - CWD Links and Other Resources

Contact Information: Wisconsin CWD Watch

* While we oppose the WDNR's shoddy research methods and reporting, their "rush to judgment"
plan of action, and their expensive propaganda campaign, we applaud many rank and file DNR employees who have dedicated their careers and vocations to maintaining our fragile connection
with and understanding of the Wild . . . its strengths, frailties, its needs and misuses.



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