Massive NY hunt aims to stem deer illness
DEC move comes after chronic wasting disease found in captive herds
By MATT PACENZA, Staff writer
First published: Wednesday, April 6, 2005
ALBANY -- State environmental officials will begin killing 420 wild deer in Oneida County next week in an effort to limit the spread of chronic wasting disease. The disease has been found in two farm-raised deer there, one of which was unwittingly eaten at a recent firehouse benefit dinner.
State Department of Environmental Conservation personnel will shoot the wild deer to collect brain tissue, so the agency can determine whether chronic wasting disease has spread from captive deer to the wild herd. The hunt will last several weeks, said Gerald Barnhart, director of DEC's Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resources Division.
"If we can effectively collect that many deer, we will be able to determine whether the disease is present with a high level of confidence," said Barnhart.
The state also revealed that the deer were raised in the town of Westmoreland, south of Rome. The first deer found with the disease was part of a captive herd owned by John Palmer; the second was owned by Martin Proper.
All the deer from those farms were killed Tuesday. Tests on them will be complete within two weeks.
Neither farm owner was available for comment.
Meat from Palmer's deer was served to up to 300 people at an annual benefit dinner for an Oneida County fire department, local officials said Tuesday. The venison from the six-year-old, white-tailed doe was prepared as steaks, burgers and stews at the Verona Fire Department's Sportsmen's Feast on March 13, about two weeks before testing on the animal was complete.
Health officials continue to say there is no known link between chronic wasting disease, an ailment that kills deer and elk, and human health problems.
Although the federal Centers for Disease Control suggests that there is a remote possibility that chronic wasting disease could migrate between species, officials in New York downplay that concern.
"This disease has been in the food chain for decades, but there have been known no cases among humans," state Department of Health spokesman William Van Slyke said Tuesday.
Officials are urging anyone who ate the venison at the Verona feast to call the state Health Department in order to give them accurate information, not because of any lingering health concerns.
About 20 who attended the banquet had called the Oneida County Health Department as of Tuesday morning, said spokesman Ken Fanelli. "We assure them there shouldn't be any undue alarm or apprehension about eating the diseased meat," Fanelli said.
Chronic wasting disease has been detected in wild and farm-raised deer and elk populations in 12 states.
Scientists don't know how the disease, a neurological ailment that is usually fatal, is transmitted among animals. Symptoms in deer and elk include weight loss, stumbling, tremors, lack of coordination and listlessness.
Officials are primarily concerned with protecting the health of deer in the wild. They're still trying to determine how the disease got to New York, but they already know it spread between the herds owned by Palmer and Proper. Proper had received deer from Palmer, according to state Department of Agriculture and Markets spokeswoman Jessica Chittenden.
Proper's deer died of an undetermined respiratory ailment on his farm last month, Chittenden said, before the news broke about chronic wasting disease. Proper contacted the state, which sent samples away for testing. This weekend, those test results came back positive for the wasting disease.
Deer on at least four other farms also had direct contact with deer from Palmer. Those animals are now quarantined. "They are all in captive herds that have adequate fencing and are contained separate from wild deer," said Chittenden.
To figure out if local wild deer have chronic wasting disease, next week's hunt will focus on an area of roughly 10 miles around the farms.
The hunt should not be viewed as a massive depopulation, said Barnhart; 420 deer would be roughly half the number killed in that area during last year's hunting season.
Nonetheless, the hunt is likely to invite criticism from animal rights groups, who have protested similar state hunts in Wisconsin and Colorado.
The DEC is reaching out to local landowners for permission to hunt on their land. Officials do not anticipate they will need anyone other than their own personnel during the hunt.
Matt Pacenza can be reached at 454-5533 or by e-mail at
[email protected].