THE news keeps getting worse for New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation with chronic wasting disease showing up in wild whitetail deer in Oneida County.
The DEC said it received two positive results for the disease out of 292 wild deer sampled.
The first positive result was announced last week, and it came from a yearling whitetail sampled from the town of Verona. The second positive result is from a 3-year-old doe, located within a mile of the location where the first wild deer with CWD was detected.
New York state has implemented emergency regulations regarding the handling, transport and management of deer in the state.
The DEC said it filed emergency regulations to ensure proper handling of deer in an effort to prevent further spread of CWD. The regulations will establish a containment area in Oneida County. Initially, it will include the cities of Rome, Sherrill, Utica and Oneida, and the towns of Floyd, Marcy, Whitestown, Westmoreland, Verona, Vernon, Kirkland and New Hartford.
The new rules will prohibit movement of certain animal parts out of the containment area, establish mandatory check stations for any deer taken by hunters in the containment area, and prohibit possession of any deer killed by a motor vehicle so the DEC can acquire specimens for testing.
The emergency rules also will specify record keeping and reporting requirements for taxidermists, and wildlife rehabilitators will be prohibited from taking in wild deer at facilities that house live antlered animals.
CWD is a transmissible disease that affects the brain and central nervous system of certain deer and elk. There is no evidence that CWD is linked to disease in humans or domestic livestock other than deer and elk. More information on CWD can be found at DEC’s Web site at http://www.dec.state.ny.us.
There are number of question already being asked by hunters across the state. Is the disease somehow being spread through feed? If the DEC is really serious about keeping deer from private deer feeding and hunters baiting deer, why does every Agway or local sporting-goods store sell deer attractants by the gallon that are illegal? Sweet apple licks, salt blocks, mineral licks, liquid and powdered attractants. You name it, and they are all being sold.
It seems the DEC was turning a blind eye to it. The lack-of-manpower excuse doesn’t fly because all it would take is a phone call to the chain stores to stop this in most cases. Every feed store that sells livestock feed and cracked corn should be notified as well.
There is no proof as of yet how CWD is spread, but it is better to be safe than have a large portion of the state’s deer herd taken down by this deadly disease.
It is important that the DEC puts a net around this thing right now or the effects will reach into the state’s big-game season. There will be far fewer hunters, less licenses being sold and a loss of revenue to many in the upstate counties.