BLOOMFIELD – A meeting to update residents on the latest news regarding chronic wasting disease (CWD) and to coordinate assistance from area hunters in collecting samples has been scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 13th at the Davis County Courthouse in Bloomfield.
A detection of CWD in 2012 at a former hunting preserve known as Pine Ridge Hunting Lodge has heightened the importance of collecting the information needed to develop strategies to try and stop the spread of the disease.
The need for increased surveillance of the disease in the immediate area has taken on an even greater urgency in recent weeks as sections of the fence at the former hunting preserve have been removed after the state lost an injunction to enforce a quarantine that DNR had previously issued and that is the subject of the ongoing court case. The case is presently before the Iowa Supreme Court.
Science has conclusively shown that CWD can be passed to other deer through prion proteins in the soil deposited by infected deer which is why the DNR has vigorously pursued all legal means to keep fences around the infected property. New studies reveal that CWD prions can also be taken up in plant materials and further carried and transmitted once shed by the infected deer.
“We have been working with hunters state-wide for more than a decade now to collect the important information we need to make the best decisions,” said DNR Wildlife Bureau Chief Dr. Dale Garner.
“Our partnership with hunters is by far the most effective, most efficient means we have of collecting the data we need to best manage Iowa’s world class deer herd for now and for future generations,” said Garner.
Garner said the DNR will be concentrating its most intense collection efforts for harvested deer in a five-mile radius around the former Pine Ridge Hunting Lodge facility.
Anyone is welcome to attend the meeting. Questions prior to the Oct. 13th meeting can be submitted by calling 515-725-8200 or emailing them to webmster@dnr.iowa.gov.
“We certainly encourage people to ask questions ahead of time because it allows us to be better prepared to have answers at the meeting,” said Garner.