CWD on Game Farm

JS Online: Game farm deer had CWD

Portage County facility quarantined
By LEE BERGQUIST
lbergquist@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Oct. 10, 2008

A white-tailed deer kept at a game farm in Portage County has tested positive for chronic wasting disease.
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State Veterinarian Robert Ehlenfeldt said Friday that a 7 1/2 -year-old doe, killed on Sept. 20, had been infected with the fatal disease.

The animal was owned by Alligator Creek Whitetails near Junction City. State officials have quarantined the facility.

State regulations require that all farm-raised deer and elk 16 months or older must be tested after death. In this case, the deer had been “harvested,” according to the attending veterinarian, state officials said. But an exact cause of death was not immediately known.

An owner of the game farm would not comment Friday.

State officials were notified of the results on Thursday by the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa.

The last case of chronic wasting disease in a captive animal population was January 2005 on a farm in Crawford County, said Donna Gilson, a spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

To date, 97 farm-raised animals on eight Wisconsin farms and hunting preserves have tested positive. That includes 82 on a single farm in Portage.