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November 14, 2002Hunters reminded of bovine TB threat- Sportsmen, women urged to have all game tested as requiredBy MIKE TERRELLSpecial to the Record-Eagle TRAVERSE CITY - Department of Natural Resources officials are worried hunters may not be as vigilant against bovine tuberculosis this season as during the last five years. "TB in the deer herd is old news even though it's still around," said Steve Griffith, wildlife technician with the Traverse City DNR field office. "We're concerned that hunters may not take as many precautions as in the past, and that they won't bring their deer into the check stations so we can test the head. "The disease seems to be contained in the northeast corner of the Lower Peninsula, and my impression is that it isn't a great concern to hunters in our area." DNR officials say they also are concerned about chronic wasting disease, a fatal brain disease found in elk, mule and white-tailed deer. Though the highly infectious disease has not turned up in Michigan, DNR officials are closely monitoring deer taken along the Wisconsin-Michigan border in the Upper Peninsula, Griffith said. It has been diagnosed in free-ranging deer and elk primarily in northeastern Colorado/southeastern Wyoming and adjacent Nebraska, but has been found in captive elk in Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Saskatchewan and South Dakota. Diseased deer were found this year in free-ranging whitetail herds in southern Wisconsin, Minnesota and recently Illinois. Those three states have banned the feeding of wild deer and other wildlife in areas where wild deer are present. Michigan still allows hunters to drop up to two gallons of feed per day during the hunting season in all but the seven northeastern Lower Peninsula counties: Alcona, Alpena, Crawford, Montmorency, Oscoda, Otsego and Presque Isle. Although there currently is no evidence chronic wasting disease can be transmitted through contact with deer and elk carcasses, some are concerned it could be introduced into Michigan by unwitting hunters transporting carcass parts from other states or Canada, where the disease has been found in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The DNR urges hunters to follow the guidelines recommended in those areas they hunt, and to have all game tested as required. "We recommend that hunters bring back only boned or cut-and-wrapped meat and heads finished by a taxidermist be removed from special chronic wasting disease management areas ," state veterinarian Daniel O'Brien said. |
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