New Baiting And Feeding Ban Enacted In Large Wisconsin County

Tracking chronic wasting disease (CWD), the fatal, infectious nervous system disease of deer, moose, elk, and reindeer/caribou, is a priority for DNR officials as it helps identify where the disease is present. That information can help to prevent the spread of the disease and protect people and animals.

Once CWD is detected in an area, the DNR has an action plan to protect the immediate area and surrounding communities.

In Wisconsin, state law requires a three-year baiting and feeding ban to be enacted in counties where CWD has been detected and a two-year ban in adjoining counties within 10 miles of a CWD detection. If additional CWD cases are found during the lifetime of a baiting and feeding ban, the ban will renew for an additional two or three years.

Baiting or feeding deer encourages them to congregate unnaturally around a shared food source where infected deer can spread CWD through direct contact with healthy deer or by leaving behind infectious prions in their saliva, blood, feces, and urine.

New Baiting And Feeding Ban Will Be In Place Effective March 1

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says it was recently notified by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection that a farm-raised deer on a deer farm in Eau Claire County tested positive for chronic wasting disease.

This positive result was discovered within 10 miles of the border of both Clark and Jackson counties. While Eau Claire and Jackson already had baiting and feeding bans in place from recent detections within each county, Clark County did not, but that will soon change.

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The DNR is enacting a new baiting and feeding ban going into effect in Clark County on Saturday, March 1, 2025. Per state law, the ban will be in effect for two years and could be renewed if additional CWD cases are discovered.

Clark County, Wisconsin has 1,209.7 square miles of land area and is the 7th largest county in Wisconsin by total area.

Eau Claire and Jackson counties will not be impacted by this new ban as each of their existing bans are longer than the two-year ban that would otherwise result from this detection.