CWD is focus of virtual meeting July 16

Updates to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission’s Chronic Wasting Disease Management Plan are the focus of a virtual public meeting at 7 p.m. Central time July 16.

Staff will present the plan’s content, including recent disease data and testing results, hunter survey results regarding CWD, strategies and protocols for documenting and reducing spread, and protocols for informing stakeholders about the disease’s status.

Chronic wasting disease is a contagious neurological disease affecting deer and elk in Nebraska and other states. It is characterized by degeneration of the brain in infected animals resulting in loss of bodily functions, abnormal behavior, emaciation and eventually death.

Game and Parks first identified CWD in Nebraska in wild deer in 2000. It developed a CWD Management Plan in 2002, with the goal of developing detection methods identifying CWD occurrence, tracking changes in prevalence, and creating strategies that reduce further spread. Since 2002, several updates to the surveillance portion of the plan have occurred; the most recent implemented in 2015.

Now, Game and Parks staff are seeking public input on the most recent revisions to the plan, which includes updated occurrence and prevalence data, results of a hunter survey, and updated strategies and protocols for documenting the disease and informing stakeholders.

To register for this public meeting, view the CWD Management Plan, and share feedback on it, visit OutdoorNebraska.gov and search for “CWD plan.”

Comments on the revisions will be accepted online until Aug. 2 but are preferred by July 24.

For those unable to attend, the meeting will be recorded and available on Game and Parks’ YouTube channel.

For more information on CWD in Nebraska, visit OutdoorNebraska.gov.