ELKINS, W.VA. — Testing on samples collected during the 2013 deer season in Hampshire and Hardy Counties is done and the results for a ninth straight year were disheartening.
‘We tested 591 hunter harvested deer and we had 29 that we detected the abnormal protein for chronic wasting disease,” said Jim Crum whitetail deer biologist for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources.
During 2012 the tests confirmed 16 positive cases out of a sample size of 672 deer.
“They’re spreading out and the prevalence when you actually look at a defined area, the number of samples and the number of positives which we call the ‘apparent prevalence’ is over 20 percent now.” Crum said.
Chronic Wasting Disease, or CWD, was first discovered in Hampshire County in a road killed deer in the community of Slanesville in 2006. The detection was made as part of a statewide monitoring program which continues today. The DNR established a containment zone and hoped to slow the spread. Crum said it was hard to say if they managed to slow it down, since it’s not known what would have happened if they hadn’t taken action, but either way the area of infection has continued to grow.
“It appears to be marching on,” Crum said. “We established the central part of Hampshire County as the one mile buffer around all known positives. It went from the original 15 square miles back in 2005-’06 and now it’s up to 108 square miles.”
The square mileage on the zone has grown each year since it was found. Deer have also been discovered to be infected in Frederick County, Virginia and Allegheny County, Maryland. Pennsylvania has also been dealing with a host of CWD infections. Crum isn’t optimistic of a reversal anytime soon, particularly because of what he considered lax restrictions on a national level.
“One of my pet peeves is the moving of live animals for commercial purposes,” he said. “Safeguards for doing that are not very stringent.”
Crum said the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources as a state agency has commented on the regulations managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He said the program is voluntary and doesn’t do much to stop the spread of the disease.
‘I hate to be pessimistic about what the future holds, but I think before this is all over, chronic wasting disease in deer is going to be found in a lot more places than it is right now,” Crum said.