The Pennsylvania Game Commission on Thursday released a draft of a new Chronic Wasting Disease Response Plan to guide management of CWD, an always-fatal brain disease of deer, elk and other cervid species.
Public comments on the plan, which can be viewed at
www.pgc.pa.gov, will be accepted through February 29 and considered as the commission moves to adopt the plan in time for the 2020-21 hunting seasons.
The plan outlines goals and objectives in managing CWD, as well as actions that could be implemented to achieve them.
After initial detection of CWD in new areas, hunters will be given the first opportunity to harvest more deer there and collect more CWD samples for testing. The management objective in those new areas will be to eliminate the disease before it becomes established in the deer population or in the environment.
A CWD Control Unit will be created, with a 3-mile radius area surrounding the new detection, and the commission will work with local hunters and landowners to collect a minimum number of samples to be confident of the true extent of the disease.
Some steps that could be taken in a CWD Control Unit include: 1) engage stakeholders and provide accurate and current information regarding CWD, 2) increase deer tags available, 3) expand hunting season lengths, 4) remove antler point restrictions, 5) implement mandatory sampling within CWD Control Units, and 6) targeted removals of deer if management objectives are not met through hunter harvest.
In areas where CWD is already established (within 10 miles of other positive cases and greater than 1 percent prevalence for consecutive years), the management objective will be to maintain CWD prevalence below 5 percent.
That would currently include Blair, Bedford and Fulton counties, and immediately surrounding areas. With current science it is unlikely to eliminate CWD once established.
Management actions in a CWD-established area could include: 1) engage stakeholders and provide accurate and current information regarding CWD, 2) increase antlerless tags available, 3) expand hunting season lengths, 4) remove antler point restrictions, and 5) targeted removals of deer if management objectives are not met through hunter harvest.
If disease-management objectives are not reached through hunting, the post-season, small-scale targeted removal of deer could be conducted in parts of CWD areas.
“Hunters are essential to CWD management,” said Game Commission Executive Director Bryan Burhans. “Without the effort they put in hunting and harvesting deer, and submitting samples from the deer they harvest in CWD areas, our collective fight to slow CWD’s spread and limit the disease where it exists in Pennsylvania would be more an uphill battle.
“The Game Commission’s draft CWD Response Plan puts hunters first in CWD management, and their support will be fundamental to the final plan’s success,” he noted. “That’s why we’re seeking input on the draft plan. The fight against CWD is not a lost cause in Pennsylvania, but only by working together can the Game Commission and the public achieve goals to better protect the state’s deer and elk and ensure the future of hunting.”
CWD first was detected in Pennsylvania in 2012. Through 2018, 250 free-ranging CWD-positive deer have been detected within the state – 246 of them within Disease Management Area 2 in southcentral Pennsylvania.
At present, Pennsylvania has 3 active Disease Management Areas, totaling more than 8,000 square miles. Within DMAs, it’s unlawful to intentionally feed deer. Hunters in DMAs may not use or possess urine-based deer attractants. And deer harvested within a DMA may not be transported out of the DMA unless the carcass parts with the highest risk of transmitting the disease are removed first.
While CWD is always fatal to deer and elk, it is not known to infect people. Still, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends never consuming meat from CWD-positive animals.
The Game Commission offers free CWD testing within DMAs.
