ALMA, Wis. – A two-year-old deer has been found infected with easily transmitted and fatal chronic-wasting disease in the Alma area. The state Natural Resources Department immediately slapped a three-year ban on deer-feeding and deer-baiting in all of Buffalo County, which runs 27 miles along the Mississippi River and is bounded by the Trempealeau and Buffalo rivers. The infected deer was in Lincoln Township north Alma in the Buffalo drainage. There had been a year-to-year ban in Buffalo County because of infections in neighboring counties.
CWD profile
Chronic-wasting disease is an infectious nervous system disorder affecting deer, moose and elk. The disease is inevitably fatal and can decimate deer populations. It first appeared in Wisconsin in 2002. Infected deer stop interactions with fellow animals in their herds, stop eating and drinking, develop tremors and odd walking patterns, and lose their instinctive fear of humans amid their growing confusion. It can go undetected in an animal long as 24 months.