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       #Post#: 112--------------------------------------------------
       CWD
   DIR By: allmanav
       Date: March 9, 2020, 11:57 am
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       KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) - Every autumn for 24 years, Kalispell
       resident and Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Board Chairman Ryan
       Busse has traveled to the wide-open spaces of Northern Montana’s
       Hi-Line to hunt, where few people reside and healthy wild game
       populations roam.
       He’s scaled the entire remote Hi-Line in search of deer, elk and
       antelope, but he’s recently started pursuing game elsewhere
       after Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) detected Chronic
       Wasting Disease (CWD), a fatal disease that affects deer, elk
       and moose, in 2017.
       Busse doesn’t want to worry about encountering an infected
       animal, whose symptoms could include zombie-like characteristics
       such as drooling, stumbling, excessive thirst and a lack of
       coordination. So he’s sticking to areas without a known CWD
       presence. FWP also requires hunters to stop at check stations to
       test their game for CWD presence, a hassle that Busse avoids by
       hunting in areas where the disease is not present.
       Since Busse is spending less time in the north-central part of
       the state, he’s also taking his money elsewhere. Over the last
       two decades-plus, he’s stayed in hotels from Cut Bank just east
       of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation all the way to Glasgow in
       the plains of Eastern Montana. He and his hunting partners have
       eaten at numerous local restaurants, stocked up on supplies at
       local businesses and dropped by local bars.
       Busse’s reluctance to hunt in a CWD-prevalent area reflects some
       other hunters’ attitudes toward the disease, which is slowly
       spreading across Montana.
       “Different states have been experiencing this,” Montana Office
       of Outdoor Recreation Director Rachel VandeVoort told the
       Flathead Beacon. “The spread and the existence of this disease
       is not only in Montana, but across the country, and has the
       potential for massive ramifications. You have direct dollars
       from hunters’ spending money in local hotels, eating meals and
       spending on sporting gear.”
       In 2018, FWP detected 23 positive mule deer (2% prevalence) and
       three positive white-tailed deer (1% prevalence) along the
       Hi-Line, ranging from Shelby to Culbertson. This caused FWP to
       add this area to their priority sampling area in 2019, along
       with southeastern Montana, the Philipsburg area and the Libby
       area.
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