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1 March 2012 Survival of White-tailed Deer in Wisconsin's Chronic Wasting Disease Zone
Seth B. Magle, Jeromy C. Chamberlin, Nancy E. Mathews
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Abstract

We analyzed the survival rates of 160 Odocoileus virginianus (White-tailed Deer) over 6 years in the area of Wisconsin's highest prevalence of chronic wasting disease. Survival was very high for all age/sex classes and varied by season but not by year. When we omitted hunting mortality, yearlings and adults had similar annual survival, with survival of males (0.83–0.89) slightly lower than survival of females (0.91). However, including hunting mortality reduced survival of yearling and adult males to 0.72 and 0.41, and survival of yearling and adult females to 0.88 and 0.83, respectively. We also observed seasonal patterns, characterized by reduced survival across all sex and age classes during the rut season (10 October to 31 December), which includes the period of maximum hunting. Six mortalities (8.3%) were associated with chronic wasting disease, including one deer that died from the disease. We find no evidence that CWD was substantially increasing mortality rates during the duration of our study from 2003 to 2007, though the disease is relatively new to this area. Our results can serve as a baseline by which to compare future mortality rates in this area to assess the virulence of CWD over time.

Seth B. Magle, Jeromy C. Chamberlin, and Nancy E. Mathews "Survival of White-tailed Deer in Wisconsin's Chronic Wasting Disease Zone," Northeastern Naturalist 19(1), 67-76, (1 March 2012). https://doi.org/10.1656/045.019.0105
Published: 1 March 2012
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