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First Deer In Florida Confirmed With Chronic Wasting Disease. Here’s What To Know.
June 16, 2023
The first case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been confirmed in Florida.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said road-killed 4.5-year-old female white-tailed deer in Holmes County sampled during routine surveillance activities has tested positive. It is the first known case of CWD in Florida, a contagious disease of the brain and central nervous system that is fatal to deer.
The FWC and its agency partners take CWD very seriously and have implemented a comprehensive response plan. As part of the plan, the FWC will collect samples from specific established zones to further assess the spread of the disease. The results from this initial sampling effort will inform resource managers so they can react with appropriate management strategies.
The FWC has been monitoring free-ranging deer since 2002 to detect CWD. During that time, the FWC has tested approximately 17,500 hunter-killed, road-killed and sick or diseased deer for CWD.
The FWC and its agency partners said they are taking CWD very seriously and have implemented a comprehensive response plan. As part of the plan, the FWC will collect samples from specific established zones to further assess the spread of the disease. The results from this initial sampling effort will inform resource managers so they can react with appropriate management strategies.
The FWC has been monitoring free-ranging deer since 2002 to detect CWD. During that time, the FWC has tested approximately 17,500 hunter-killed, road-killed and sick or diseased deer for CWD
“Working with FDACS (Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services) and our other partners, I’m hopeful that our combined efforts will limit the effects this will have on Florida’s deer population and preserve our exceptional hunting opportunities for future generations statewide,” said FWC Executive Director Roger Young.
The FWC is asking anyone who sees a sick, abnormally thin deer or finds a deer dead from unknown causes to call the CWD hotline, 866-CWD-WATCH (866-293-9282) and report the animal’s location.
Currently, there is no scientific evidence that CWD can be transmitted to humans or livestock under natural conditions. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention do not recommend consuming meat from animals that test positive for CWD or from any sick animal.
“We take very seriously our responsibility to prevent, detect, and respond to animal health issues in Florida – all to safeguard our agriculture industry and our world-renowned wildlife and natural resources,” said FDACS Commissioner Wilton Simpson. “Ensuring the health of Florida’s deer population is a team effort, and we will continue to work diligently with our state and federal partners to respond.”
CWD is a contagious disease believed to be caused by an abnormal protein called a prion. It is a fatal disease for all members of the deer family and is currently documented in white-tailed deer, mule deer, sika deer, elk, moose and caribou. Signs of the disease usually appear 1.5 to 3 years after initial exposure and can include extreme weight loss and abnormal behaviors such as listlessness, lowering of the head, inattentiveness toward people, walking in circles, staggering and standing with a wide stance.
Controlling the spread of CWD is difficult once it becomes established in a natural population. Because prions shed by infected deer persist in the environment, the best chance for controlling CWD is acting quickly after it’s been detected to prevent more animals from becoming infected. CWD can be transmitted directly – from animal to animal – or indirectly from the environment. Multiple management strategies will be employed to control the spread of the disease.
The FWC along with its partners – the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Florida Department of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study – will continue to update the public as more information becomes available.
Comments
7 Responses to “First Deer In Florida Confirmed With Chronic Wasting Disease. Here’s What To Know.”
@ 12 years ago I was fishing for mullet at fish river bridge and witnessed pelicans starving to death. Later on the news they told about pelicans found dead off Mobile AL. Nobody ever followed up on the story…. They sent the birds for autopsy and found they had starved to death. They were protected right up to the limit of the food supply and nature took over.
I had a deer that came around and wanted to be my pet. He would walk 10 steps, then bend his head down and eat whatever was nearby, then take 10 more steps and eat whatever was nearby. This went on all day. He ate the spiky shrubs that grew under the trees. He ate the weeds I pulled. He was like a goat, eating anything and everything. There’s plenty of food for them. They won’t starve because they’ll simply sleep in a farmers field and wake up and eat. They aren’t starving outside of this disease, but yes, there’s too many of them standing around being useless and destroying everyone’s stuff like democrats. More hunting is needed, not because there isn’t enough food, but because there aren’t enough decently sized natural predators and you wouldn’t want those around anyway because they’d also eat your children.
if the developers would quit destroying the deer habitats then maybe they would not eat the crops–they are hungry and have no where to go.
A friend who’s a farmer has special license to shoot deer that are destroying his crops. Ofteh kills hundreds of them each year. Cannot harvest them even for charitable groups but has to report to wildlife folks.
Says the herds of deer are increasing and ‘hunting season’ barely makes a dent in the population.
As to Chronic Wasting, has just been a matter of time and nature for it to appear in Florida.
Cars are not thinning the heard fast enough.
There are too many deer folks. They are causing traffic accidents, eating peoples fields and gardens, and now spreading disease because of population density. People need to stop interfering with the natural process by feeding them year round. Changing hunting regulations would also help.
Two decades ago wildlife officials across the country reduced the number of deer which could be harvested by hunters thus increasing the number of deer. At the same time the deer’s habitat grows smaller every year as the human population grows. Is it Chronic Wasting Disease or siply starvation? The end result is the same.