WAUSAU, WI (WSAU-WAOW) – The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has confirmed a wild deer tested positive for chronic wasting disease in Marathon County.
According to a press release, the deer was tested in Reid Township during the 2019 antlerless deer hunting season. It is the first time CWD has been reported in Marathon County.
“We are committed to working closely with local communities, including the citizen-based County Deer Advisory Councils as we explore future management options for this disease in Marathon and the surrounding counties,” said Ryan Haffele, DNR wildlife area supervisor. “We have had a concerted effort to sample in this area since 2014 following the detection of CWD in a captive deer herd.”
By law, the CWD-positive detection will renew a three-year baiting and feeding ban in Marathon County and a two-year ban in Waupaca County. Shawano, Portage, Lincoln, and Oneida counties are also under CWD protocalls became of positives tests there.
The DNR began monitoring the state’s wild white-tailed deer population for CWD in 1999. The first positives were found in Wisconsin in 2002.
