Resources Unlimited

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has been conducting Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) sampling for three years. Although samples taken this winter have been submitted for testing, the results will probably not be completed until late spring. Up to now, all samples from Iowa have come back negative.

This past fall and winter, 500 samples were needed from most counties bordering the Mississippi River which, of course, includes Allamakee and Clayton counties. Ten to 15 samples are collected from all other counties in Iowa.

This is no small task to complete without the cooperation of many. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources would like to thank the sportsmen and women for their exceptional cooperation. As a biologist who requested many deer samples in Allamakee County, I can attest to the sincerity of hunters to assist the monitoring of Iowa’s deer herd health.

I can report that over 500 samples were obtained in both Allamakee and Clayton counties. Besides the obvious cooperating hunters, special thanks goes out to Jet’s Meat Processing (Andy Thesing), NE Iowa Taxidermy (Carl Stevenson), and the Iowa Department of Transportation in Waukon, the Allamakee County Conservation Board in Harpers Ferry, Edgewood Locker, Murray’s Outdoors in Guttenberg, and the volunteers who helped record sample information. Apologies are given to anyone accidentally omitted.

I recall one particular “deer camp” where all the hunters were taking a lunch break while DNR biologists were allowed to sample hanging deer. Two “sure-to-be-hunters-someday” 8-year-olds were very interested in our brain tissue sampling. When asked what we were doing, a biologist responded, “We are checking the health of the deer.” After a pause and quizzical look, one youngster replied, “Why are you doing that? They’re dead.” He had a point there. Someday they will understand why their dads’ and uncles’ and friends’ deer samples were important.