After last month’s announcement from Florida Fish and Wildlife that the state had discovered its first case of chronic wasting disease, Georgia officials are clapping back with a robust plan of their own.
Since testing began back in 2002, Florida didn’t get its first confirmed case until a road-killed deer turned up last month with a positive test. The infected deer lay a mere 38 miles from the Georgia border and, just like your in-law’s birthday that falls in the middle of hunting season, some things are just a bit too close for comfort.
In the wake of the news, Georgia officials are doing their best to get ahead of the problem before it actually becomes one. In addition to letting this year’s hunters know the risks and how to identify infected deer, Georgia’s Wildlife Resources Division is planning their emergency response for once that initial confirmation comes in.
“There will be a response plan that goes in place that is geographic,” Wildfire Resources Division Director Ted Will said at a recent Board of Natural Resources meeting. “It’s a 5-mile radius, intensive sampling within one mile and hunters are probably bringing (deer) heads to (service drop off) sites. We’ve got it all laid out.”
Officials are ready to install 5-mile boundaries around any detected presence of the disease with hopes of keeping it contained. Hunters inside those affected areas will then be required to get their animals tested and keep them within the geographic limits of the pre-determined boundaries.
Outside of the prospective changes above, state officials have yet to ban feeding at this time. The hope is that with the help from the state’s hunters, detection can come easy and aid in keeping the diseased contained as best as possible.
