Add Ozaukee to the list of Wisconsin counties with deer baiting and feeding bans. Now there are 59.

The finding of chronic wasting disease in a buck at a Sheboygan County shooting preserve has caused a deer baiting and feeding ban in Ozaukee County. The ban is required by state rule.

A deer baiting and feeding ban kicked in Thursday in Ozaukee County due to the recent detection of chronic wasting disease at a Sheboygan County captive deer facility, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

The ban is linked to a CWD-positive 5-year-old white-tailed buck at Heavy Horn Whitetails LLC, a shooting preserve in Cascade, according to the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

Because the CWD finding was within 10 miles of the Fond du Lac, Ozaukee and Washington county borders, it affected deer baiting and feeding rules in each county.

State law requires the DNR enact a three-year baiting and feeding ban in counties where CWD has been detected and a two-year ban in adjoining counties within 10 miles of a CWD detection. If additional CWD cases are found during the lifetime of a baiting and feeding ban, the ban renews for an additional two or three years.

In this case, the CWD finding initiated a new two-year baiting and feeding ban in Ozaukee County. And it renewed existing bans in Fond du Lac, Sheboygan and Washington counties. Baiting and feeding is now banned in 59 of the state’s 72 counties, according to the DNR.

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Prior to the change, Ozaukee County was the only county in southern Wisconsin in which deer baiting and feeding was allowed.

Baiting or feeding deer encourages the animals to congregate unnaturally around a shared food source where infected deer can spread CWD through direct contact with healthy deer or by leaving behind infectious prions in their saliva, blood, feces and urine, according to the DNR.

The state agriculture department announced the Sheboygan County CWD finding on Jan. 25.

As a result of the disease detection, Heavy Horn Whitetails LLC has been placed under quarantine and will remain so while DATCP and U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarians and staff conduct an epidemiological investigation, DATCP said in a press release. The business has 92 deer on 90 acres, according to the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

Chronic wasting disease is a fatal neurological disease of deer, elk and moose. It is caused by a infectious, malformed prion, or protein, that affects the animal’s brain.

The disease is not known to affect livestock nor has it been shown to sicken humans. However the Centers for Disease Control and Wisconsin Department of Health Services recommend humans not consume meat from an animal that tests positive for CWD.

The disease was first identified in the 1960s at a research facility in Colorado. As of this month, CWD has been detected in 32 states and five Canadian provinces in free-ranging cervids or commercial captive cervid facilities, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The first detections of CWD in Wisconsin in both wild and captive deer were announced in 2002.

In Wisconsin DATCP regulates deer farms for registration, disease testing, movement and permit requirements while the DNR manages wild deer and deer hunting in the state.

The intended goals of the baiting and feeding ban include protecting the local wild deer herd and reducing the spread of disease, according to the DNR.

Bait and feed placed on the landscape, even in limited quantities, often attracts unnatural numbers of deer, according to DNR information. Deer are often concentrated at one bait or feed site, or between several sites in close proximity, allowing for increased contact that would otherwise not occur in natural feeding environments, the agency states.

Unnatural concentrations of deer and contact rates caused by baiting and feeding increase the risk of disease infection and transmission, according to the DNR.

For additional information on CWD in Wisconsin, visit dnr.wi.gov.

Sturgeon season update

Spearers registered 264 lake sturgeon through the first seven days of the 2024 sturgeon spearing season on the Winnebago System, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

Poor ice conditions have reduced participation and harvest this year. Last year at the same point in the season 1,073 sturgeon had been registered.

On opening day (Feb. 10) the DNR reported reported about 450 shanties on Lake Winnebago, down from 3,000 in 2023 and 6,000 in 2022.

None of the protective harvest caps is close to being hit and fisheries staff with the DNR expect the season to run the full 16 days.