DNR hosting a webinar on CWD

On December 5th, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources will be holding a webinar  to discuss Chronic Wasting Disease- CWD.  CWD  is a neurological disease that attacks the brain of an infected deer, causing the animal to lose weight, display abnormal behavior, lose body functions, and die.  A total of 397 wild deer have tested positive for the disease since 2013.  The latest case being detected in 2021. 

Dr. Rachel Ruden–State Wildlife Veterinarian with the Iowa DNR, said, “ something that has kind of happened in the past three years is that we’re seeing many more counties come online in terms of first detections, but we’ve only had one detection in half of those counties.  So, we have 25 counties where we have found the disease in at least one deer, but most of the counties it’s just that one deer. So, we’re really seeing it move on the landscape but it doesn’t seem to be taking root in these new areas.  We’ve been hosting these virtual public meetings since 2020 and we think we really get a different sector of people affected by deer.  Whether they are hunters, landowners, or just deer watchers.”

Health officials recommend people not to consume infected deer that have tested positive for CWD.

Dr. Ruben said, “ for people who harvest trophy bucks, we can work with taxidermists… we take the tissue, screen it for disease, and then report the result in a searchable databases.”

The link to register for the December 5th’s webinar  at iowadnr.gov/cwd.