Ohio deer are testing positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), a neurological disease that is always fatal to animals like deer, moose and elk. It has infected more than 20 whitetail deer in five Ohio counties this past hunting season.
CWD was first found in the state in 2020. Since then, there’s been 73 total deer that have tested positive for the illness that’s closely related to Mad Cow Disease. The disease degrades brain tissue, causes abnormal behavior and ultimately kills the deer.
It’s just the start of the disease in the state, said Clint McCoy is a wildlife biologist with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
“There's no way that we know of yet that science has uncovered to get rid of it,” McCoy said. “We know that prevalence grows over time and that its geographic footprint is going to grow over time.”
Precautionary steps
The disease is very difficult to stop, said McCoy. Once it’s infected an area, there is no cure or vaccine to prevent its spread.
While there is very little the state can do to prevent the spread, McCoy said Ohio has implemented a few measures. The Ohio DNR has set up disease surveillance areas, where it's illegal for hunters to remove whole deer carcasses out of the area without testing for the illness.
Plus, the state’s been focusing on reducing the state’s deer population. The species’ population has multiplied forty fold in the last 50 years. McCoy said this overpopulation causes deers to be more vulnerable to the disease.
“Lower populations lead to less contact between individuals. Less contact between individuals leads to less chances for disease to be spread between them,” McCoy explained. “We've offered up additional opportunities within the areas that we have found disease for that to happen.”
It may seem odd to hunt more deer to protect them, but McCoy said that’s exactly what’s needed to protect the future of the species in the state. In other states where the disease has existed longer, like Wisconsin, the disease is beginning to outpace reproduction.
Ohio is still decades from that point, McCoy said.
“At some point in the future, maybe we'll be talking about CWD as a threat to conservation of deer species, or at least it would be a part of the conversation about how many deer we can allow hunters to kill because the disease is killing so many.”
Why it matters
Despite the most recent infections, CWD is still pretty rare in the state. The prevalence rate is well below 1% and is concentrated in counties like Hardin, Marion and Wyandot, according to McCoy.
And, as of now, the disease has not been contracted by humans. Although, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still cautions against eating meat of deer that has contracted the disease.
“We have ways for hunters to have their deer tested at no cost and they can have a peace of mind about the venison they're consuming if they so desire,” McCoy said.
Even so, McCoy said Ohioans need to pay attention to this issue. He said hunters carrying deer carcasses across county lines can exacerbate the spread of the disease and multiply its impact.
CWD is a slow-moving threat, but one that could be existential to deer. McCoy recognizes that many residents might not think about wildlife populations decades into the future, but it’s essential to protecting the state’s long tradition of deer hunting.
“It's difficult to make people care about something that seems so insignificant when the significance of that disease rears its head many, many years later, in kind of a slow burn,” McCoy said.
