Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) :: Exploratory Essays

Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) The controversial topic I decided to choose was Michigan’s plans on preventing the spread of CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease) in the white-tailed deer and elk herds. Many areas throughout the United States have broken out with this deadly disease, like Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Montana, and even the province of Saskatchewan. The problem with CWD originated from Saskatchewan, where captive deer became infected with this disease that affects the nervous system. This disease is very similar to that of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or more commonly referred to as â€Å"Mad Cow Disease†. The disease was spread through international transportation of deer from one farm to the next. CWD spreads very fast and rapidly. It attacks the nervous system making the deer lose an excessive amount of weight, hair, and all vision becomes blurry leaving the deer disoriented. As of right now, Michigan has tested negative in all counties for the Upper and Lowe r Peninsula. So this leads to many controversial issues about baiting deer for hunting season. Sense, saliva can spread the disease, the DNR is trying to stop hunters from baiting deer to prevent this from spreading. Some hunters rely on hunting over bait bile’s, to attract deer to their hunting areas. Michigan has limitations on the amount of bait you can spread at one time. We are only allowed to spread a five-gallon bucket over a 6-foot area. But the DNR has already made plans to make baiting illegal when any state such as Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, or the Canadian province of Ontario, have been infected with CWD [1]. All baiting of deer will be illegal and there will be no more baiting allowed ever. So I feel that the state is doing the right thing to prevent CWD from spreading into the state. Another concern the DNR has is people traveling to other states to hunt and bringing back the animal. The DNR wants to limit the amount of carcasses brought into the state. Michigan Department of Natural Resources officials reminded Michigan hunters headed out-of-state to hunt deer and elk this fall to take common-sense precautions to avoid accidentally bringing Chronic Wasting Disease back to Michigan [2]. The deer can have the disease and also carry it in the feces, urine, saliva, brain, spinal cord, and the meat. So once you have killed the animal, you should take it to a sanitary landfill, or buried deep where no animal can get to it and become infected.