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TWRA SEEKS INPUT ON CWD STRATEGIC PLAN
A 30-day public comment period is now open for the Tennessee Wildlife
Resources Agency’s new five-year chronic wasting disease (CWD) strategic
plan. The CWD Response and Management plan will serve as a guiding
document for TWRA staff and ensure the best science is applied in
efforts to control the disease.
The new plan includes five main overarching goals:
1. Prevent the introduction or spread of CWD to new areas.
2. Surveillance and monitoring to improve early detection of the disease
and better track the number and location of cases.
3. Activate management and responses to minimize the impacts of CWD
where the disease has been detected and proactively respond to any new
cases.
4. More research to optimize all of TWRA’s CWD programs.
5. Outreach and Communications to ensure the public and our hunters have
the information they need about CWD.
Hunters have an important role in helping manage CWD. The complete plan
can be found on the Public Notice section of the TWRA website. Comments
may be submitted by mail to: Wildlife Public Comments, TWRA, Wildlife
Division, 5107 Edmondson Pike, Nashville, TN 37211 or emailed to
Twra.huntingcomments@tn.gov. The comment period is open through Jan. 29.
Since December 2018, the TWRA and its partners have been responding to
the discovery of CWD in Tennessee. During the 2021-22 fiscal year, TWRA
sampled more than 16,000 deer, with 631 returning positive results.
Management of CWD is complex and requires numerous long-term techniques
to be applied, monitored, and adjusted over time.
Development of the new strategic plan has been an 18-month process for
the TWRA with the help of the Tennessee Department of Environment and
Conservation and the Tennessee Department of Agriculture with additional
input from a wide range of stakeholders.
WILDLIFE COMMISSION ADDRESSES CWD
With increasing concerns about the potential impact of chronic wasting
disease (CWD), the governing body of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources
Agency voted recently to amend a rule regarding import restrictions on
deer, elk, moose, and caribou carcasses.
The amended rule will now be sent from the 13-member Tennessee Fish and
Wildlife Commission to the State Attorney General’s Office for review.
Ultimately the amendment is intended to make every U.S. state outside of
Tennessee and all Canadian provinces subject to TWRA’s carcass import
restrictions.
Currently the rule only includes import restrictions on states where CWD
has been documented. The amendment would change the rule to include all
states, regardless of CWD status. Right now 25 states and two Canadian
provinces have documented chronic wasting disease.
“This change will make our import restriction rule easy to understand,”
explained Chuck Yoest, an assistant chief in TWRA’s Wildlife Division.
“No matter where a hunter travels outside of Tennessee, import
restrictions must be followed. “It also helps strengthen our message
about how serious this disease is.”
CWD is a contagious and deadly neurological disorder that affects
members of the deer family known scientifically as cervids. It is
transmitted through animal-to-animal contact, animal contact with a
contaminated environment, and with contaminated feed or water sources.
Prions are responsible for CWD transmission, not a bacteria or a virus.
Prions are misfolded or abnormal proteins found throughout a diseased
animal’s body, but are concentrated in an animal’s eyes, brain, tonsils,
spleen and lymph nodes.
White-tailed deer are common in Tennessee, while a small population of
elk can be found in the eastern portion of the state. Import
restrictions have been designed to protect these native herds.
“We have hunters who often return from trips with an elk, deer, moose,
or even caribou carcass,” noted Yoest. “We don’t want hunters to
unintentionally introduce CWD to Tennessee through infected tissues.”
While CWD is considered 100 percent fatal once contracted, it is not
known to harm humans or livestock.
Nonetheless, wildlife agencies across the country are working to inform
the public about CWD and its deadly results on cervids and possible
impacts to economies.
Many states that have documented CWD are also attempting to contain it,
which is a time consuming and costly task.
Mississippi recently discovered CWD, while Arkansas documented its first
case two years ago. Mississippi is just beginning the expensive task of
containment, while Arkansas has spent approximately $2.5 million
implementing its CWD management plan.
“We don’t want to go down that road,” said Yoest. “We also have a CWD
plan ready for use, but it implementing it will mean changing the way we
manage our deer and elk herds and be very expensive.
“Many of the management practices that have made our deer and elk
programs successful will have to be reversed as we try to prevent CWD
from spreading. Much of the overall Agency’s focus will change to CWD,
taking away from other important wildlife programs.”
More information about CWD, including videos that explain how to
properly dress an animals before transporting it, can be found on TWRA’s
website at www.tnwildllife.org. The CWD page can be found under the
“Hunting” menu at the top of the website’s homepage.
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BIOLOGISTS MONITOR DEER DIE-OFF
“Fortunately for this area, no dead deer have been reported,” says Henry
County Wildlife Officer Greg Barker.
However, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has received reports of
dead deer in scattered areas of the state. The timing and details of the
reports are all indicative of hemorrhagic disease (HD).
HD occurs at varying levels of severity each year in Tennessee’s deer
herd. The catch-all term for this disease is hemorrhagic disease (HD),
and epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) and bluetongue are the closely
related viruses that fall under the umbrella of HD.
So far this year, reports are predominantly coming from East Tennessee,
and based on the volume of reports it appears to be above average in
severity. According to officials in Athens, Ga., at the Southeastern
Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study (SCWDS), the outbreak being
experienced appears to be a part of a larger multi-state outbreak
involving several nearby states.
Reports to TWRA offices indicate mortality of deer in at least 20
counties with more expected as the season progresses. The last major
outbreak of HD in Tennessee was in 2007 and involved virtually all of
the state.
“So far the intensity of the outbreak seems to be localized,” said Roger
Applegate, Wildlife Health Program Leader for TWRA. “We don’t anticipate
this outbreak to rival that of 2007, but it is still early and we’re
actively monitoring the situation.”
HD is caused by a virus that is transmitted to deer from biting midges
or “no-seeums.” It is not transmitted from deer to deer by contact. The
virus causes fever, respiratory distress, and swelling of the neck or
tongue. Not all deer exposed to the virus will die, but those that do
usually do so within 5 to 10 days of exposure in or near water as they
seek to cool their bodies from the fever. Incidence of HD usually peaks
around mid-September and is usually done by mid-October with the onset
of cold weather.
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