A long road is ahead for the Rock County deer farm where chronic wasting disease was detected.
Wisconsin State Veterinarian Dr. Darlene Konkle says Afton Bottoms Ranch will be under quarantine for at least five years after CWD was detected.
The state will work with the farm to prevent the spread of chronic wasting disease and monitor it while it is under quarantine.
CWD is caused by a protein called a prion, which can be brought onto a farm by importing hay or through deer to deer contact.
Konkle says the disease can get into a private, deer and elk ranch like Afton Bottoms in a variety of ways, and the disease can spread from one animal to the next through saliva. It’s often spread when infected animals eat or bed in hay or straw that other, non-infected animals are then exposed to.
Konkle says chronic wasting disease can’t be treated, and it isn’t known to transmit to humans.
