Contacts: Steve Schmitt 517-336-5040 or Mary Dettloff 517-335-3014
The Department of Natural Resources and Environment found no traces of chronic wasting disease in deer tested in 2009.
“That’s good news,” said DNRE Veterinarian Steve Schmitt. “We haven’t found anything since 2008 when we found that positive deer in a captive facility. But you can never really give up the testing. You always have to be on guard.”
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), an always fatal neurological disorder of the deer family, was found in a white-tailed deer in privately owned facility in 2008 in Kent County. The DNRE began wide-scale testing for the disease with mandatory testing of all deer taken from the nine-township area immediately surrounding the infected facility.
The department tested a total of 1,134 deer in 2009, including 937 from Kent County – 790 of them from the nine-township area. All tested negative.
“Since 1998, the DNRE has tested more than 32,000 deer, 1,000 elk and 50 moose and we haven’t found anything,” Schmitt said.
Despite the finding, Schmitt said it is important that the DNRE continue the mandatory testing in the nine-township area.
“CWD is a like a terrorist attack,” Schmitt said. “It’s one of those things you always have to guard against.
