There are plenty of things we’d love to see grow exponentially including our bank accounts, business endeavors or the hair on the top of our head that seemingly disappeared the day we turned 40.
While Iowa wildlife officials experienced none of the above (at least at the time of this publication), they did find another case of disturbing growth.
Since bursting on the scene a little over ten years ago in the Hawkeye State, wildlife managers have been keeping a close eye on chronic wasting disease and the effects on the state’s whitetail deer. The degenerative disease has the ability to spread quickly and that fact alone has DNR officials on their toes.
“We know based on data and how the disease has progressed in other states that we would expect to see this kind of slow progression for the first six to 10 years, and then once the disease is established, this exponential growth,” said Tyler Harms, a wildlife research biometrician for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. “In areas where we’ve had it the longest, like in northeast Iowa, we should expect to see some pretty rapid growth.”
In past years, the disease has remained in established pockets of the state, but this year’s program found not only nearly double the amount of infections but that additional pockets of infection were taking shape throughout the state.
Of the 96 infected deer recorded last year, the majority were found in established CWD zones in either the northeast corner of Iowa or the southern region of the state – both of which have been hotbeds of CWD activity since the disease was first detected.
Outside of the expected areas of growth, officials are reporting additional cases where the presence of the disease has yet to have been detected. A pair of infected deer were found in central Iowa along with two additional infections in other regions not previously affected by the disease.
“What it tells us is we need to start being concerned about this disease, kind of at a statewide scale,” Harms said. “We’ve always done statewide surveillance, but picking up these detections in central Iowa — far outside of where we have these established zones — just lends more evidence to the fact that this disease can pop up almost anywhere.”
With the disease now established in 16 of Iowa’s 99 counties, the state’s DNR is putting themselves in an offensive position. With upwards of 50 percent of neighboring Wisconsin’s male deer population being infected, Harms is hopeful that the spread of the disease can be contained.
“I hope that we don’t get to that point,” Harms said. “I hope that we can maintain some pressure on the population to keep that number low, but time will tell.”
