The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has announced that Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) has been found for the third time in NY. This case was discovered in a wild deer in Livingston County in the Town of Sparta, as part of the random testing done under the DEC’s annual surveillance program.

The deer was an adult female. Samples were tested twice at the Veterinary Diagnostic Lab at Cornell to make sure the result wasn’t a false positive. A sample was also sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture laboratory in Ames, Iowa for additional testing.

The DEC will now implement the CWD Response Plan in cooperation with the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets (AGM). The DEC will take steps to conduct additional sampling from the deer herd and try to contain the disease.

While it doesn’t affect folks hunting locally in our area, those traveling to other parts of the state to hunt need to be aware that the containment area includes the Towns of Sparta, West Sparta, Conesus, North Dansville, Groveland and Springwater in Livingston County. Any deer harvested in those towns must be processed locally or have the brain, spinal cord, eyes and spleen removed before transport.

The DEC is requiring a tissue sample to be submitted from every deer taken in the containment area. Collection stations will be set up for that purpose. Any hunter that harvests a deer in that area before the collection stations are in place must save the head from the animal and contact the DEC by email at cwd.response@dec.ny.gov so they can get a sample at a later date.

The DEC may provide special tags for transportation of the deer to processors or taxidermists outside of the containment area. They are asking all hunters in the area to use paper tags instead of e-tags.

Each hunter will be notified when a deer tests positive and the DEC will collect the venison for proper disposal. Even though there is no established link between CWD and humans or pets at this time, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends not eating venison from a deer that is known to have CWD.

The DEC and AGM will be testing all captive herds in the area. They were found to be the source of the prior two cases of CWD in New York.

The good news is that the DEC and AGM were successful with their containment efforts the last two times and, since their CWD Response Plan continues to be improved, there is a good chance the disease will be contained again this time.

The DEC will be holding an online webinar about CWD, and the containment area rules on Tuesday, November 17th at 7:00 PM. They also intend to hold some in-person information sessions in the containment area in the future (dates and times to be announced).

It takes the cooperation of hunters to contain and eliminate CWD. We need to do our part. We owe it to the animals, ourselves and the environment. Good luck hunting, everyone.

Let’s all enjoy the outdoors!