Chronic wasting disease (CWD), a contagious fatal neurological disease affecting deer and elk, is now present in over half of the United States and the costs of dealing with the disease show why New Zealand must continue being vigilant.
“CWD is nothing new, it is well reported in the United States and has also been found in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and South Korea,” Deer Industry New Zealand (DINZ) chief executive Innes Moffat says.
“DINZ has been monitoring the spread in North America for over 20 years.”
Innes explains that there are measures in the United States, for both farmed and wild deer, in place to impede the disease such as restrictions on animal movement and certain feeding regimes.
“New Zealand has never had a case of CWD and there is no evidence that it can be transmitted to humans.
“There have also been no incidents of humans becoming infected from consuming deer meat infected with CWD.”
At the end of 2023, DINZ and Biosecurity NZ (Ministry of Primary Industries) signed an agreement on enhanced measures to ensure that CWD doesn’t get into the country.
“Biosecurity NZ have been aware of CWD for some time, they have monitoring programmes and sample test enough animals to be sure that we don’t have it in the country,” Innes says.
Biosecurity NZ has other measures, such as not permitting the importation of deer/elk or their genetic material from America.
Since New Zealand’s livestock is primarily pastoral-based it has never been allowed to import meat, or bone meal, for feeding livestock. We don’t import live animals from the US and people who have been in contact with deer/elk in the States must declare this.
“I have read up about it, we can only hope Biosecurity NZ and MPI are doing the right things,” says Kim Rowe, who has been farming deer with his wife Judith in Stanley Brook (near Tapawera) for the past 24 years.
Kim says that by belonging to the Deer Farmers Association he receives up-to-date information, or changes, on CWD. A study in 2023 by USGS ecologist Scott Chiavacci was the first effort to put a cost on US CWD containment efforts.
He estimates that federal government agencies spent over $430 million (US$284.1 million) between 2000 and 2021. In 2020 alone, agencies spent over $39 million (US$25.5 million).
The study showed that an outbreak of CWD in New Zealand would impact deer farmers, commercial and recreational hunters, and the wider community, emphasising how important it is that we maintain biosecurity at the border and continue to work together, as prevention is our best defence.
