DICKINSON - North Dakota Game and Fish Department officials are once again breathing a sigh of relief.
Samples taken from North Dakota deer, elk and moose during the 2007 hunting season have all tested negative for chronic wasting disease.
"It's good news," Game and Fish wildlife biologist Bill Jensen said. "As far as we know, we don't have it in the state. It saves people a lot of money and time."
Chronic wasting disease, or CWD, affects the nervous system of animals. It causes sponge-like holes to form on the nervous tissue, which slowly kills the animal.
The impact of the disease on populations is still up in the air, but the Game and Fish hopes it can continue to keep it out of the population in North Dakota.
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"At one point in time, they thought it would cause isolated pockets of deer populations to decline rapidly, but that hasn't necessarily been proven," Jensen said. "One of the insidious things about CWD is that it can take three to four years to manifest itself."
To account for that three- to four-year incubation period, the Game and Fish has instituted three testing regions it rotates to each year. The east region was tested in 2007; the central region is to be tested this year and the west region is to be tested in 2009.
The department then returns to the east region in 2010.
Game and Fish veterinarian Erika Butler said that's the best way the department can test the state's population and be confident with the results. But it doesn't lower the level of anxiety the department goes through each year waiting for the results.
"We're always worried; every year when we're waiting we're worried that it'll be the year that we pick it up," Butler said.
Tests are run post-mortem on deer, elk and moose heads that are gathered at various collection points throughout the state.
The Game and Fish also asks meat processors and taxidermists to bring in heads to voluntary tests sites. Those heads are then sent to the University of Minnesota Veterinary diagnostics lab where tests are run on the remains.
"We couldn't do it without the hunters, taxidermists and meat processors," Butler said. "The cooperation has been fantastic, so a big thanks to them."
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It usually takes upward of 2½ months for the test results to be received.
This past fall, more than 1,200 deer, around 60 elk and a moose were tested for CWD and all tests were negative.
"It does have a very long incubation period," Butler said, "We can be pretty confident that there aren't a lot of cases of CWD out there.
That confidence that the results are correct is tempered by the fact there may be too many factors working against the department to prevent a CWD outbreak in the state.
CWD has been found in deer in Minnesota and South Dakota and it may only be a matter of time before it comes here, said Butler.
"Being realistic would be to say that sooner or later it will," Butler said. "Animals move, people are moving animals, there's a lot of factors."
If it does make it into the state, Jensen sees a course of action like that taken in Minnesota as becoming necessary.
"They've had extended seasons, they've had multiple seasons, they've even brought in sharpshooters," Jensen said about managing the problem in Minnesota. The goal there was to eliminate the problem by destroying the herds which have tested positive so they cannot infect others.
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For now, North Dakota is in the clear and the Game and Fish hopes it continues to be that way.
"We're going to have to remain vigil and keep testing," Jensen said.
