FWP gives update on CWD during meeting

Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 6 wildlife biologist Scott Hemmer said Monday that during the upcoming hunting season, FWP will once again be testing Region 6 for chronic wasting disease and will have transportation restrictions from Liberty County to the North Dakota border.

Hemmer spoke Monday during a public meeting in The Great Northern Inn to discuss CWD and steps the public and FWP are taking to manage the disease.

Last hunting season, FWP discovered CWD in deer across the Hi-Line and in other regions, one year after the first confirmation of the disease in Montana wildlife.

Previously, it only had been confirmed in Montana in a game farm near Phillipsburg in 1999, but it had been confirmed in Alberta and Sasketchewan and North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.

The contagious neurological disease can infect deer, elk and moose. It is always fatal and has no known cure. Because of the new discovery, transport restrictions are in place for deer harvested in locations where CWD has been detected.

CWD is caused by prions, free-living proteins. Once infected, these abnormal prions attack an animal's central nervous system over months or years, causing behavioral changes as the animal's body wastes away.

CWD can seriously impact affected herds. Sick animals can infect other animals or soil through saliva, urine, feces or decomposing carcasses, contaminating their habitats and exposing additional animals to the disease. The prions are nearly indestructible and may persist in the environment for years. Because of the months-long incubation period of the disease, hunters may observe nothing out of the ordinary in harvested animals that were recently infected.

No confirmed case of people contracting the disease from consuming wild game exists, but Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and FWP recommend people not eat meat from infected animals.

Hemmer said the disease is slow-moving, unlike bluetongue disease, which kills animals within weeks of infection. Animals could look healthy, he said, but within five to seven months of being infected they are contagious and do not show symptoms until approximately 14 to 16 months after being infected.

Because CWD is a neurological disease, he said, it affects the animal's muscle coordination. Symptoms may include the animal's legs being spread apart, the animal falling over, the head drooping down, increased salivation and the animal appearing unusually skinny. Although, he added, many of these symptoms could also be due to a variety of other factors and are not a sure sign of an animal being infected.

CWD could spread through deer-to-deer contact or through vegetation grown out of soil contaminated with the disease. Once soil is contaminated it could remain contaminated for up to 10 years, he said. Some soil does break down the prions quicker, although no way exists to specifically determine how long the soil is contaminated, he said. Hunters should dispose of the carcasses in landfills where other animals cannot be affected, he said.

Hemmer said CWD has been detected in at least 25 other states, three provinces in Canada and a number of other countries.

Some other states have tried to eradicate the disease by wiping out large numbers of deer population, he said, although this method has proven ineffective.

"My main objective is to manage it, not eradicate it," he said. "Some other states have gone in and kind of, what we call a 'scorched earth policy,' to try to hopefully wipe all the deer out with the idea that they might be able to get rid of CWD. It has pretty much failed everywhere, except maybe for New York, where I think that they had some success."

CWD was first detected in Colorado in 1967, he said, and because of the delay in seeing an effect it, has been able to spread quickly. The disease has also caused a decline in the size of herds where it has been detected for long periods of time, he said, with some states seeing a 40 percent decline in mule deer over the years.

Since CWD has been detected, FWP has prohibited transportation of animals from infected area, regulated the transportation of animals harvested in infected areas, placed bans on game farming and baiting or feeding wildlife and tried to utilize hunters to manage the spread of the disease.

"We're hoping to slow it, but you're not going to stop it," Hemmer said.

Animals infected by CWD are also more prone to die during winter months and get killed in traffic crashes, he said.

Last year, FWP had testing stations open during the hunting season where hunters could voluntarily have their animals tested, he said, but FWP also allowed people to drop off samples at the regional offices and the agency did additional testing on roadkill.

Hemmer said people could also test their animals themselves. A video on FWP's website shows people how to harvest the lymph nodes from their game.

The lymph nodes needed are the two inside of the throat, called retropharyngeal lymph nodes, which are located in the far back of the neck, far into the windpipe.

"It's a little hard the first time," he said. "Once you have done it once or twice it actually is not that hard."

These lymph nodes should then be sent to Colorado State University for testing, he said, and costs $18 for testing.

The FWP testing stations also send their samples to the university.

He added that people who test their animals will receive a card and an identification number. After two or three weeks, the results from the testing will be posted under a link on the FWP website.

Testing is generally accurate, he said, although animals could be in the early stages of infection and still appear to be not infected. Hemmer said the test results say whether CWD is detected or not detected in the sample, not whether the specimen is disease-free.

In 2017, Montana confirmed 10 cases of CWD, eight in mule deer and two in white-tail deer, he said. One of those was in Liberty County, the rest were south of Billings in Carbon County.

In 2018, out of 1,000 samples of deer, elk and moose 22 cases of CWD were detected, he added, with 20 mule deer - 19 bucks and one doe - and two white tail deer.

Hemmer said that every county from Liberty to the North Dakota border detected at least one case.

He added that due to Montana's location with infected areas on three sides of the state, there was no chance that Montana wouldn't have CWD detected, although it was at a higher rate than he expected.

For the upcoming year, FWP will once again be testing in Region 6 and have restrictions on transportation. He said, if people have their animals tested they can remove their animals from the restricted area, although they will have to dispose of the skull and the spinal cord before leaving.

FWP Region 4 Information Officer Bruce Auchly said this morning that according to the regulations online, Region 4, which includes Liberty County, is part of Northern Montana CWD Management Zone. The Northern Montana CWD Management Zone includes Region 4 with Region 6 and includes two hunting districts from Region 4, district 400 and 401.

The management zone would also include Region 4 in the transportation restrictions, he said, which prevent people from transporting specific parts of an animal outside of the management zone.

Hemmer said Monday that meat with the bone out, with no spine or head, can be taken from the restricted area, he said, as well as hides and skull plates and antlers, if they are properly cleaned out.

He added that FWP is also working with taxidermists and if people take their harvested animals to the taxidermist it would be fine as well.

Hemmer said he also suggests people wear gloves and eye protection when cleaning and working with their animal, as well as washing their hands and instruments. He said this is not only for CWD but to help prevent all diseases.

People should not eat the brain, eyes or lymph nodes of their animals even if they do not appear ill, he said, due to these being concentrated areas for CWD. CWD cannot be cooked out, he said.

He added that people should never eat meat from an animal that appears ill.

This year Fort Peck has also passed a resolution similar to the management program the FWP is taking toward managing CWD, he said, as well as Fort Belknap expressing interest in testing their own animals. He said he is unaware of the plans of the other tribes.

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Online: Fish, Wildlife and Parks Chronic Wasting Disease Management Page: https://bit.ly/2nf71iP/.