WALKER -- About 150 people are attending an informational meeting tonight about the discovery of chronic wasting disease in a captive Kent County 3-year-old doe, the first illness finding in the state.
Officials from the state Department of Natural Resources and Agricultural Department summarized the effects of the disease and the precautions being taken to prevent its spread into wild deer, including a nine-township surveillance zone, and statewide baiting and feeding restrictions.
Steve Schmitt, a natural resources veterinarian, emphasized the need to take steps to decrease the potential that the fatal neurological condition appears in the wild. He said the state is testing deer killed in roadside collisions and through special hunting permits.
"The more animals we test in that area, the better we'll be able to determine if chronic wasting disease is in the wild range population," Schmitt said tonight at the meeting at the West Walker Sportsman's Club.
Wildlife officials and hunters have been on high alert since Aug. 25, when a deer in Jim Schuiteman's herd in Algoma Township tested positive for the disease, which spreads easily and is fatal.
Fifty-one other deer owned by Schuiteman were killed and tested. None of those animals showed signs of the wasting disease.
The state also has tested other deer that moved between Schuiteman's farm and breeders in Osceola and Montcalm counties. Those tests have come back negative.
Infected animals display abnormal behaviors, loss of bodily functions and progressive weight loss. The disease is transmitted by exposure to saliva of infected animals. Susceptible animals also can acquire it by eating feces from an infected animal, or soil contaminated by them.
Once contaminated, soil can remain a source of infection for many years, making CWD a particularly difficult disease to manage, authorities said.
There is no evidence that the disease poses a risk to humans.
The state is developing a plan to release the current quarantine on Michigan's 559 deer breeding operations, an order that effectively shut down all business at the season's height.
Authorities also are in the process of culling 300 deer from northern Kent County townships for testing.
Tonight's meeting is expected to continue until 8:30 p.m.
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