October 2, 2003

Despite trouble in neighboring states,
Iowa deer avoid fatal disease

Kelly Allen
digital iowa staff reporter
Drake University

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Iowa's deer population is nothing unusual, nothing out of the ordinary. Or is it? In recent years, misfortune has struck the deer herds of Iowa's neighboring states of Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. This misfortune has taken the shape of a neurological illness known as chronic wasting disease.

While the exact cause remains a mystery, scientists know much about chronic wasting disease and continue to learn more each year. The disease is similar to mad cow disease, although it is important that people remember no human cases of chronic wasting disease have been confirmed.

The disease was first documented in 1967 at a research facility in northern Colorado. While the most visible symptom of chronic wasting disease is weight loss, other changes in behavior may also be evident. These include, but are not limited to, decreased interactions with other animals, lowering of the head, blank facial expression and nervousness. In addition to being a progressive disease, chronic wasting disease is always fatal.

Attempts to curb and track the spread of the disease have sprung up in many states including Iowa, where deer are tested throughout the hunting season. "We plan to get about 4,000 samples from the entire state," Dale Garner of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources said.

Last year, hunters were extremely cooperative in supplying their kills for testing. This year the DNR will focus its sampling in Iowa's most vulnerable counties. This includes Dubuque, Clayton, Allamkee, and Winneshiek counties.

"We will take 3,000 samples from the northeast corner of the state, and 1,000 more from the remainder of the state," Garner said.

Hoping to continue in its good fortune, Iowa has also taken steps to prevent the disease from crossing its borders. Hunters traveling to other states in search of game must know if the area has been identified as having the disease. "We have passed a rule to prevent the carcasses from endemic areas being brought back into the state," Garner said. Deer being brought into Iowa must also be de-boned prior to their return, and all antlers must be on a clean bone.

Garner said each state has its own regulations, but states are also working together to fight chronic wasting disease. "Agreements exist between states so that if someone kills a deer and it tests positive in that state, say Colorado, then that state will contact us and we will conact the individual (hunter) to make sure that anything brought back that might be contaminated is properly disposed of," Garner said.

Besides infected deer, the Iowa DNR must also decide how it will deal with urine-based lures this hunting season. Using urine-based lures is common practice for hunters around the country, but authorities are still uncertain about the ability of urine-based lures to inadvertently spread chronic wasting disease.

"Right now, there are a lot of gray areas as to how chronic wasting disease spreads. Some places like Alberta, Canada have outlawed the use of urine lures, but so far no state has done that," Garner said.

It appears that in Iowa, the DNR will wait for proof before outlawing the lures. "The potential (for spreading the disease) exists, we have no scientific proof about how it is spread," Garner said.

Although chronic wasting disease will continue to be a worry for Iowa's hunters, it has not dampened their spirits thus far. Garner reported that last year Iowa hunters reported all-time record numbers, although he believed the neighboring state of Wisconsin, where the disease is present, reported a 10 percent decrease.

Prior to the 2002 hunting season, rumors swirling the state had some hunters worried, but in the end, the season was a success. Garner said, "Last year, people were saying that processors might not be accepting the meat, so then people would have no way to process it. I spent a lot of time on a whirlwind tour meeting with (meat) lockers and explained about the disease. After talking with them, they knew it would be business as usual."

In the unfortunate event that hunters, or other Iowa residents, should spot an animal they feel is carrying the disease, they should head to the phone. "We don't want people shooting the animals themselves. People need to contact the conservationist in their own counties," Garner said.

When an animal enters the later stages of the disease, it "isn't going anywhere," which gives the DNR opportunity to survey the area where the animal was sighted and kill the deer itself, he said. "What we want to prevent is people shooting a buck because it showed signs of the disease and then turning it in, but asking to keep the antlers," Garner said.

So far Iowa's deer herd has remained fortunate, but for how long? The Iowa Department of Natural Resources remains ready to act should additional efforts be required to prevent chronic wasting disease from entering the state. In the meantime, Iowans can continue to be thankful for their healthy, nothing-out-of-the-ordinary deer.