Commission steps up wasting disease monitoring

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BY JOE DUGGAN / Lincoln Journal Star

Wildlife managers will more aggressively test deer in eastern Nebraska next season for chronic wasting disease.

Staff with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission plan to test up to 400 deer killed by hunters from each of the deer management units in the eastern third of the state. For the past several years, they have tested 100 deer from each of those units.

The plan was announced during Friday's meeting of the Game and Parks Commission in Lincoln.

"It's very likely we have a couple positives in the east and we'll probably find them in 2005 and if not, in 2006," said Kit Hams, big game program manager for the commission.

Chronic wasting disease is a fatal illness that causes sponge-like holes in the brains of deer and elk. It has never been found to infect domestic livestock or humans. While scientists still have much to learn about how the disease is spread,  they believe molecular barriers prevent its transmission to people.

Wasting disease first hit Nebraska in 1998, when it was discovered in a captive elk herd in the Panhandle. The commission's testing efforts turned up the first wild deer with the disease in 2000, again in far western Nebraska.

Since then, a total of 79 hunter-killed deer have tested positive for wasting disease. But last year, the testing program found an infected deer near Grand Island, the farthest east the disease had been detected, Hams said.

Wasting disease is in the same classification of illnesses as mad cow disease, which has been linked to a fatal human brain disorder. As a result, when wasting disease first appeared in the state, some deer hunters questioned whether they wanted to risk eating venison.

The commission blamed those concerns on a dip in hunting permit sales. But, based on recent sales, those people have returned to deer hunting. Apparently, as hunters learned more about the disease and how to handle venison safely, their fears subsided, Hams said.

Next season's testing program, as in the past, will involve commission staff asking hunters at deer check stations to allow their animals to be tested.

In a related matter Friday, the commission approved the use of high-powered rifles and shotguns to hunt deer at DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge near Blair.

Despite allowing hunters to use blackpowder rifles and archery equipment over the past 25 years, the refuge's deer population has continued to climb. Biologists now estimate there are about 900 deer on the seven-square-mile refuge, which has led to over browsing of vegetation.

To bring the deer population under control, the commission hopes hunters can kill about 400 animals in 2005.

In other business Friday, commissioners:

* Approved spending $50,000 on 100 acres of land in Nemaha County that will be added to the Peru Bottoms Wildlife Management Area.

* Gave awards to Oliver Barrett of North Platte, Dale Moeller of Wisner and Larry Stahla of Kimball, all of whom have volunteered for 30 years to teach hunter education. Combined, the three have certified 982 students through the program.

Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com.