Chronic Wasting Disease Makes for Zombie Deer

 We are finally into the fall season and with the fall season also comes hunting. Bow season is in full swing, starting October 1st and ending November 14th. Last week in my fisheries class, I visited a deer station run by the Department of Natural Resources. A deer station is a place where hunters, depending on location, are required to go to have their deer tested and counted. Here a graduate of the fisheries and wildlife program spoke to my class about a disease in our area that affects deer called Chronic Wasting Disease.

          Chronic Wasting Disease is a contagious and neurological disease that essentially eats away at the brains of deer (our guide used the term “zombie deer”). The disease also results in emaciation and abnormal behavior. We learned about this because in June of 2015, an infected deer was found right here in Meridian Township. Because of that deer, deer killed in Meridian Township and the surrounding counties must be brought to various deer check stations to be tested for the CWD and to be counted for a general population purposes (Township Projects).

         The bad news is that an origin of the disease hasn’t been determined and the cause is neither bacteria or a virus but prions, infectious proteins without associated nucleic acids (CWD). The good news is that it has posed no serious health risks to humans, and out of over 6,000 deer tested in this area and the surrounding areas, only a handful of deer have tested positive (Township Projects).

         I think this is important to know about because I have hunters in my family and working for the DNR is a potential career path for me in the future and this is a big issue. Although CWD hasn’t affected many deer, there are still so many unknown factors surrounding CWD that it could become a bigger issue in the future. This current fieldwork is setting the first steps to discovering more about this disease.

A.C.

Works Cited

"Township Projects." Meridian Charter Townships, https://www.meridian.mi.us/indek.asp?     Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7BEF7A69F3-212F-477D-92AD-015F1A9972F0%7D.

"Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)” Michigan Emerging Disease Issues, http://www.michigan.gov/emergingdiseases/0,4579,7-186-25806-75978--,00.html

Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance. http://cwd-info.org/faq/  Accessed 16 Oct. 2016.