A Senate bill, SB 32, aims to make Indiana’s deer more genetically resilient to chronic wasting disease. It’s an incurable illness in deer that causes neurological problems, much like mad cow disease.
While deer farmers support the bill, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and conservation groups have concerns.
The DNR found Indiana’s first case of chronic wasting disease last year. Since then, the agency banned people in four counties from moving deer for any reason. That could drive deer farmers — who sell the animals and their products outside their county — out of business.
Chris Ezell is with the North America Deer Farmers Association and farms deer in Oklahoma — which passed similar legislation last year.
“The devastation is there — it's in the response of the disease being found. But we don’t do anything to stop the disease," he said.
Under the bill, deer farmers could get a permit to breed deer for genetic markers that make them more resilient to chronic wasting disease and sell them to landowners.
Ezell said deer farmers test all of their deer for the disease — the same cannot be said of state governments and wild deer. Though, as of this point, deer can only be tested after they've died. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, researchers are working to develop a live test.
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Gene Hopkins is the president of the Indiana Sportsman’s Roundtable, which opposes the bill. He said there isn’t enough science to show breeding CWD resilience works — more resilient deer could still get the disease and spread it to others.
“Right now [deer farmers] have a very big financial interest in seeing that this gets through. I have a very big vested interest in seeing the deer herd and our deer hunting culture preserved for my grandchildren," Hopkins said.
The Indiana Wildlife Federation also said that Indiana has a more dense deer population than Oklahoma — so the disease is more likely to spread.
A similar bill in the House, HB 1417, would only require the DNR to test deer for genetic markers that make them resilient to chronic wasting disease. Conservation groups say though less risky, it would still be expensive and take resources away from important DNR programs.
Rebecca is our energy and environment reporter. Contact her at rthiele@iu.edu or follow her on Twitter at @beckythiele.
