Wisconsin
Chronic wasting disease continued to spread and increase in prevalence in 2024
Chronic wasting disease continued to spread and increase in prevalence in 2024, according to DNR data.
Twenty-three years after the first detections were reported, chronic wasting disease continues to spread geographically and increase in prevalence in Wisconsin’s white-tailed deer herd, according to data from the Department of Natural Resources.
In the last three weeks the DNR announced CWD findings in wild deer in two new counties, Chippewa and Menominee. The agency now classifies 64 of the state’s 72 counties as “CWD-affected.”
And 10.4% of the 16,321 deer tested in 2024 were CWD-positive, the highest statewide rate since surveillance for the fatal deer disease began in 1999.
Although the CWD testing is conducted on deer submitted voluntarily by hunters and not part of a controlled study, wildlife health experts say such an increasing prevalence rate is to be expected with the disease.
When assessed by county, the highest rate in 2024 was in Richland County, where 33% of 1,301 samples were CWD-positive, followed by Sauk (32% in 815 samples), Iowa (26% in 664) and Dane (18% in 851).
Chronic wasting disease is a prion disease that affects white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk, moose and reindeer, according to the Centers for Disease Control. It has been found in the United States, Canada, Norway, Finland and Sweden. Imported cases have also been reported in South Korea.
First recognized in a Colorado animal research facility in the late 1960s, CWD has now been identified in 32 states, according to the CDC.
The disease has not been documented to cause illness in humans or livestock. However health experts including at the CDC recommend meat from CWD-positive deer not be consumed by humans.
Wisconsin was the first state east of the Mississippi River to have CWD-positive deer. The first CWD detections in Wisconsin were reported in 2002 both in wild deer near Mt. Horeb and in farmed deer at a facility in Portage County.
After a period of aggressive tactics such as the use of sharp-shooters in an effort to eradicate the disease in wild deer, the DNR adopted a strategy of testing and monitoring.
Hunters in Wisconsin can submit deer for CWD testing by the state; the process is voluntary and no fee is charged.
Over the last 25 years the DNR has documented a continued geographical spread of the disease, underscored by the announcements in the last month of CWD-positive wild deer in two additional counties.
The disease can spread through infected saliva, feces, blood or in contaminated soil and other substrates, according to the CDC. There is no known treatment or vaccine.
It may take more than a year before an infected animal develops symptoms, which can include drastic weight loss (wasting), stumbling, listlessness and other neurologic symptoms, according to the CDC.
It’s expected the disease will eventually be found in all 72 Wisconsin counties.
The disease has been linked to population level declines in mule deer in a Wyoming herd. It’s not yet known whether it will lead to a reduction in the deer population in Wisconsin whitetails. A DNR study on deer, CWD and predators in southern Wisconsin is expected to release results this year.
The 10.4% CWD-positive deer tested statewide in 2024 compares to: In 2023, 17,343 deer tested and 1,587 (9.2%) CWD-positive; 2022, 17,207 and 1,492 (8.7%); 2021, 17,149 and 1,327 (7.7%); 2020, 18,917 and 1,578 (8.3%); 2019, 19,368 and 1,338 (6.9%); and 2018, 17,216 and 1,064 (6.2%).
For additional perspective, the percent positive CWD detections were 5.3% in 2013. 1.5% in 2008, 0.8% in 2003 and 0.1% in samples pooled from 1999 through 2002, the first years of CWD testing.
The CWD-positive deer in Menominee County was a 2-year-old buck taken by a hunter. The finding won’t change regulations in Menominee County, which were under a baiting and feeding ban put in place by Menominee Indian Reservation.
It also won’t affect the three-year baiting and feeding bans already in place due to CWD-positive deer reported in adjacent Oconto and Shawano counties.
The CWD-positive deer in Chippewa County was a hunter-harvested, 1-year-old buck. The finding will renew a three-year baiting and feeding ban in Chippewa County and a two-year ban in Barron County.
The DNR and the Chippewa County Deer Advisory Council are hosting a public meeting at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 6 to provide information about CWD in Wisconsin and local testing efforts in the county.
State law requires the DNR enact a three-year baiting and feeding ban in counties where CWD has been detected, as well as 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 will renew for an additional two or three years.
Baiting or feeding deer encourages them to congregate unnaturally around a shared food source where infected deer can spread CWD through direct contact with healthy deer or indirectly by leaving behind infectious prions in their saliva, blood, feces and urine. More information regarding baiting and feeding regulations is available on the DNR’s Baiting and Feeding webpage.
More general information about CWD can be found on the DNR’s CWD webpage.
Officials with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection did not supply information last week after repeated requests for 2024 CWD data on deer farms and shooting preserves in the state.
In data last updated Sept. 25, 2023, DATCP’s webpage shows 46 deer farms with a CWD-positive animal since 2001. The agency says 24 of those facilities have been depopulated.
WEST ALLIS (WLUK) — The Wisconsin State Fair unveiled dozens of new menu items coming to the fairgrounds for the 175th fair.
80 new food and drink options were unveiled Friday afternoon. Many of the items will feature Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery cheese curds, as they were declared the official cheese curds of the state fair. However, Door County cheese curds will be featured on the cheddar garlic longanisa lumpia, according to the list. It isn’t clear which Door County cheesemaker is supplying the cheese curds.
Here are all the new items coming to the fair:
- Al Pastor Pizza
- Bayou Crunch Cup
- Big Pat’s Pit Stop Punch
- Birria Flamin’ Bombs
- Biscoff Hot Fudge Cup
- Bloody Mary Mac Daddy
- Blue Ribbon Watermelon Mint Julep
- Bourbon Deep-Fried Pecan Pie
- Bugged Out Frozen Cheesecake On-a-Stick
- Bunzel’s Hungarian Sausage Sandwich
- Candied Bacon Cheese Curds
- Caramel Apple Cheese Curd Tacos
- Cevapcici – Croatian Sausage Sandwich
- Cheddar Garlic Longanisa Lumpia with Banana Ketchup
- Chicken Cordon Bleu Sausage
- Chimi-Brat-Changa
- Chocolate Covered Strawberry Sipper
- Churro Dog
- Circus Peanut Spritz
- Cold Foam Berry Blast
- Color-Changing Swamp Juice
- Cookie Butter Coffee Float
- Cosmic Funnel Cake
- Cranberry Dream Bar
- Cream City Cone
- Cuban Fries
- Deep Fried Horchata Balls
- Deep-Fried Ranch
- Deep-Fried Top The Tater
- Bloody Mary Pickles & Dill-icious Pickles
- Dill-uxe Pickle Fries
- Egg Roll A-la-Mode
- Ellsworth Fresh Cheese Curds
- Freedom Brat
- Freeze Dried Cheese Curds
- French Onion Cheese Pull
- Fruit Roll-Up Remix
- Gluten-Free Chimichurri Cheese Curds
- Guac This Way Tots
- Hawaiian Pizza Slush
- Hot Honey Bacon Corn Dog
- Hot Honey Chicken Lemonade
- Hot Honey Heatwave Fries
- Ice Cream Nachos
- Lemon-Lime Spritz
- Little Smokies Campfire Meal
- Monkey Bread
- Monster Blue Hawaiian Dirty Soda
- Nitro Cheesy Puffs
- Orange Creamsicle Lemonade
- Patriotic Punch
- Peach Beary Boba
- Peaches n’ Cream Whipped Frozen Lemonade
- Peachy Keen Cooler
- Pineapple Pop Paradise
- Pop’s Kettle Me Squeeze
- Porky Puff
- Potato Chip Sundae
- Ranch BLT Dog
- Red, White, & Berry
- Redneck Brat
- Smoked Pork Pierogi Sliders
- Soft Serve Beer
- Spam Jerky Sampler
- Star-Spangled Bomb Pop
- Sweet Lemon Berry Cheese Curds
- Tanghulu
- The Blue Moo Lagoon
- The Dirty Dog
- The Wisconsinite Slush
- Tilt-a-Spritz
- Tinga Tango Chicharrones
- Toffee Tumble
- Triple Chocolate Mini Donuts
- Tropical Tide
- Vegan Cheesesteak Eggrolls
- Waffle Cone S’mores
- Why Not Tots
- Wild Grape Dirty Soda
- Wisco Short Rid Corn Dog
- Wisconsin Chocolate Barnyard Float
- Southwestern Chorizo Pasty
In addition, a few new vendors are joining the Wisconsin State Fair. All Family Concessions will be found on the Back Forty. Dale Z’s On Tour will be on Grandstand Avenue and Second Street. Lulu Tanghulu will be in the expo center. And the Yuengling Beer House will be on Central Avenue and Benno’s Micro Alley.
The original cream puff and the chocolate cream puff will be offered at the 2026 Wisconsin State Fair. The new ‘Fair-aschino Cherry Cream Puff’ will be available while supplies last each day. Unlike the original and chocolate puffs, they won’t be available for pre-order.
Some of the new food offerings at the fair are also up for the Sporkies and Drinkies awards. The options up for the awarded are bolded in the list above.
The Wisconsin State Fair runs August 6 through August 16.
Residents can attend the July 16 meeting in Sheboygan or submit written comments by email to NOAA.
Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary has 36 shipwrecks
Discover the history, shipwrecks and impact of the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, established to protect maritime heritage in Lake Michigan. This video was created by the Wochit AI tool.
Wochit
SHEBOYGAN – Residents can attend or comment on an upcoming meeting of the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council scheduled for July 16 in Sheboygan.
The gathering will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Sheboygan County Museum, 3110 Erie Ave., according to a community announcement. Members of the public are invited to attend and observe discussions.
The agenda includes routine council business, updates from working groups, community reports and briefings from NOAA staff on sanctuary programs, research and upcoming events.
Public can provide comments during meeting
A public comment period is planned for about 7:50 p.m., giving attendees a chance to share feedback directly with council members.
Those unable to attend may submit written comments by email to jean.prevo@noaa.gov, according to the announcement.
Council shares updates on sanctuary programs
NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries will provide updates tied to the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, including research initiatives and community engagement efforts.
More information about the council and its activities is available online at sanctuaries.noaa.gov.
This story was created by reporter Nida Tazeen, NTazeen@usatodayco.com , with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.
Wisconsin
A Wisconsin family is suing Target after their 10-month-old died from swallowing a water bead
A Wisconsin family lost their ten-month-old daughter after she swallowed a water bead. They blame Target and the water bead manufacturer for her death.
This week, Taylor and Tyler Bethard filed a lawsuit against Target in Hennepin County, claiming that the company failed to warn them and other customers about the dangers of a water beads product that used to be sold exclusively at Target.
Water beads are marketed as toys that come with sensory kits or craft sets, but data shows the products are prone to injuring young children. The polymer material is extremely absorbent, allowing water beads – which are often colorful – to expand around 100 times their original size when they interact with water or liquid. This presents a hazard for kids; the United States Product Safety Commission states that between 2017 and 2022, there were 6,300 water bead-related ingestion injuries that required treatment from emergency departments across the country.
In 2023, a 10-month-old girl died. Her name is Esther “Jo” Bethard. According to court filings, Taylor Bethard found her daughter unresponsive in her crib on the morning of July 7, 2023, after she had suffered symptoms of a stomach illness overnight. Medical examiners told the family that her death was caused by swallowing a single water bead.
The Bethards had purchased a Chuckle and Roar water bead set in the spring of 2022 for Esther Jo’s older siblings, never intending for the infant to interact with the water beads.
Target and the Chuckle and Roar manufacturer, Buffalo Games LLC, mutually agreed to pull the product from the shelves in November of 2022. Court records show an email exchange between Buffalo Games and a product safety employee at Target where the manufacturer noted that while their water beads had met safety standards at the time, they wanted to “avoid any future unintended misuse of the product.”
That conversation was prompted after Buffalo Games was informed that an infant required surgery after ingesting a water bead from the Ultimate Water Beads kit. Target agreed to end sales, indicating that this would be classified as a “safety removal.”
The Bethard’s lawsuit alleges that Target clearly knew how dangerous these water beads could be, but failed to warn them or other customers. Target stopped selling the product about eight months before Esther Jo died. Daniel Mann, a personal injury attorney representing the Bethards in this case, said that Esther Jo would still be alive if Target had acted.
“With all this information Target didn’t do anything to reach out to the family or other consumers to let them know about this problem,” Mann said, “I think 10/10 people would say Target had a responsibility to do more than what they did, which was nothing.”
A spokesperson for Target said that they would not comment on ongoing litigation, but the company had already responded to an identical complaint filed by the Bethards in the State of New York. In 2025, the Bethards sued both Target and Buffalo Games in Erie County, N.Y., because that was where the manufacturer was based. In response to the lawsuit there, court filings show that Target denied the allegations that they knew of an extraordinary danger posed by the water beads and failed to notify customers.
The complaint was dismissed against Target in New York, Mann explained, due to jurisdiction. This lead to them refiling in Hennepin County this week.
In a statement to WCCO on the new legal action, a Target spokesperson said “We extend our deepest sympathies to those affected by this tragedy, and we worked closely with the manufacturer of the product at the time the incident occurred.”
Taylor Bethard, Esther Jo’s mother, has lead the charge to ban water beads entirely. Her efforts lead to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commision recalling the more than 52,000 Chuckle and Roar Ultimate Water Beads Activity Kits that were in circulation. The recall took effect in September of 2023. Target, Walmart and Amazon announced that they would stop marketing water beads to children.
Bethard is also working with Wisconsin U.S. State Senator Tammy Baldwin to establish federal legislation to permanently outlaw all water beads. This past spring, the CPSC established new legal guidelines that restrict the size of water beads to try to ensure high safety standards.
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