Last week, the House of Representatives passed the Chronic Spinal Disease Research and Management Act. The bill, HR 5608, was introduced just two months ago, on Oct. 18. It went lightning fast.
Chronic Wasting Disease has haunted wildlife managers since the 1960s, when it emerged in captive Colorado mule deer. It made its way into our wild deer population in the 1980s and has since been found in numerous states and Canadian provinces.
We talk about CWD a lot here in New York, despite the fact that we don’t know of any cases of the disease in our captivity — on hunting grounds or deer farms — or in our wild white-tail herd, because we’ve managed to keep it at bay. CWD was discovered in New York State in 2005, but no new cases have been discovered since then due to the success of the New York State Interagency CWD Risk Minimization Plan, a joint effort of the Department of Environmental Conservation and Agriculture and Markets.
By way of background, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the United States Department of Agriculture reports that CWD is an infectious, degenerative disease of animals in the Cervidae family, which includes moose, deer, and moose, etc. The disease causes brain cells to die, ultimately leading to the death of the affected animal.
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Unfortunately, the disease can go unnoticed in an infected animal for months and sometimes years. That is a problem. CWD is a member of a group of diseases known as Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies or TSEs. TSEs include a number of different diseases that affect animals or humans, including bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or “mad cow disease”) in cattle, scrapie in sheep and goats, and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD), variant CJD, Kuru, fatal familial insomnia and Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker syndrome in humans. Unlike other infectious diseases, TSEs are not caused by bacteria or viruses, but rather by a naturally occurring protein that becomes infectious. Because there is no known treatment, it is fatal.
There is a critical need for funds to fight the disease on a state and national level. The Chronic Wasting Disease Research and Management Act will fund $70 million annually from FY 2022 through FY 2028 to fight the disease. Resources should be shared equally between CWD research and management efforts.
Thirty-five million dollars will be allocated annually to CWD research to develop testing methods and improve detection efforts. Resources will also be allocated to develop a better understanding of the genetic resistance of the diseases and other research efforts.
An additional $35 million per year will be earmarked for management, including monitoring and testing, prioritizing areas with the highest incidence of CWD, areas responding to new outbreaks of CWD, and areas without CWD at greatest risk of CWD.
CWD is especially frustrating for wildlife managers, largely because of the general lack of information about the disease. Five decades after its discovery, it is still not entirely clear what all the transmission routes are. That is compounded by the fact – as I mentioned earlier – the progression of the disease is extremely slow and may not cause animals to develop symptoms months or years after infection.
I couldn’t be happier that HR 5608 passed by a vote of 393-33. At the same time, I fear that the bill has not yet passed the Senate.
Chuck Parker, president of the New York State Conservation Council, which represents more than 60 sports and conservation organizations in the state, said, “I am very pleased that funding for CWD research is becoming available, but I am also concerned that it may is that we may not see much support from the bill here He explained that because our DECn and Agriculture and Markets took aggressive action when CWD was discovered here in 2005 there have been no detections since then He acknowledges it has been costly to keep CWD out of our deer herd and hopes we will see money to help pay for the constant monitoring and investigations that have protected our white-tailed deer herd since that initial detection.
New York’s deer hunters contribute more than $1.5 billion to the state’s economy each year. If left unmanaged, CWD and other wildlife diseases would impact that economy and potentially human health.
After passing the House, the bill was referred to the Senate, read twice, and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Forestry.
Bill Conners of the Federation of Fish and Game Clubs writes about outdoor issues. Email: [email protected]