Last week, PNM’s Lincoln Tice continued his discussion on hunting by talking with UW-Madison’s wildlife and forest ecologist Mike Samuels about Chronic Wasting Disease. That’s the prion induced encephalopathy that have infected Wisconsin’s deer population. Tonight, the Perpetual Notion Machine continues the discussion on CWD. Lincoln’s guest is Tami Ryan from Wildlife Management in the state Department of Natural Resources, who focuses on the health of wildlife, including CWD. She indicates that the DNR is more focused on monitoring rather than management of the disease. The DNR has been tracking the distribution and prevalence of the disease, but determining the numbers of infected deer in the state is unclear at this point. However, localized deer populations at specific monitoring sites have more complete information. For instance, Tami says that in the Southwest sector of Wisconsin, the number of infected deer in males has increased from 8% to 30%.

For more information about CWD, where to go to get your deer carcasses tested, and the DNR’s CWD Response Plan, click the link to the DNR’s CWD webpage.