By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Reporter

Citing an immediate danger to the state’s white-tailed and mule deer, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) recently adopted a pair of emergency Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) rules for the movement of deer from breeding facilities.

“This was an enhancement and slight change to existing rules,” John Silovsky, director of TPWD’s wildlife division, said. “Very simply, the emergency rules require all breeder deer to be tested for CWD with a test result of ‘not detected’ prior to transfer to another breeding facility. We have an identical rule in place for them to transfer deer to a release site, but as we continue to see an increase in the number of positive breeding facilities, we thought some additional enhancement—basically additional surveillance of deer—was important for us to try to contain the disease.”

The emergency rules, signed into place by TPWD Executive Director Dr. David Yoskowitz on July 24, also clarify a rule regarding identification tags.

“When the deer is born in a facility, at some point in time, they have to tag it with a unique ID number,” Silovsky told the Texas Farm Bureau Radio Network. “When those deer then go to a release site, this emergency rule specifies that those tags must stay in place upon release. They can’t be removed.”

Deer born in breeding facilities in Texas must have an ID tag, a tattoo in their ear and must be microchipped for identification.

“What this rule is emphasizing is that you were never allowed to remove those deer tags upon release,” Silovsky said. “It’s in the statute that tags must be in place. If they fall out, they’ve got to be immediately replaced. There’s no provision that allows for the removal of a tag. This emergency rule is just emphasizing that statute.”

According to TPWD, the emergency rules were implemented because in 2023 alone, CWD has been detected in nine deer breeding facilities in seven counties: Zavala, Washington, Gonzales, Hamilton, Frio, Sutton and Brooks.

CWD was also found in a free-ranging deer in Bexar County in May.

Fourteen counties have had positive detections of the fatal, neurological deer disease since March 2021.

More than 500 cases of CWD have been confirmed in Texas since the disease was first discovered in the state in 2012.

“Since 2021, we have seen an increase in CWD detections from breeder deer at an unprecedented rate,” Silovsky said. “It’s our hope that these emergency rules will strengthen our surveillance and reduce the number of CWD positive detections across the state.”

The order from TPWD’s executive director says he finds that “additional discoveries of CWD in free-ranging white-tailed deer within deer breeding facilities regulated under Parks and Wildlife Code constitute an immediate danger to the white-tailed and mule deer resources of Texas and that the adoption of rules on an emergency basis with fewer than 30-days notice is necessary to address an immediate danger.”

The emergency rules will remain in effect for 120 days with the potential for a 60-day extension.

TPWD reports the rules are designed to help increase CWD surveillance to curb the spread of the disease.

“Some breeders for whatever reason were accepting, purchasing deer into their breeding facilities, without having them tested,” Silovsky said. “Of these nine recent positive facilities, some of those are an example of that. They purchased deer and didn’t have them tested (and) subsequently had CWD detected in their facility.”

He says requiring the ear tag at release sites helps TPWD track deer that may have been exposed to CWD, so they may also be tested for the disease.

“With the increase in positive breeding facilities as a whole, and then not being able to go to a release site and find the deer that’s epidemiologically linked to a positive facility or had been exposed to a deer in a positive facility, without ID, we can’t say, ‘Oh, it’s that deer.’ With that visible ID in the ear, we can see that deer with blue tag XYZ24 is the deer we’re looking for.”

This is not the first time additional restrictions have been enacted to curb the spread of CWD within or from deer breeding facilities.

Previously, TPWD enacted rules requiring breeders to submit CWD tests to the lab within seven days.

Deer breeders are also required to test 100% of deer mortalities and all deer they plan to release or move to another site.

Following the announcement of the emergency rules in late July, Texas Deer Association (TDA) representatives told the Texas Farm Bureau Radio Network they are not against the testing requirements, but they are against the way the emergency rules were adopted.

“It was alarming,” TDA Executive Director Kevin Davis said. “We sit on committees that provide oversight to TPWD, and we had a committee meeting for the CWD Taskforce on July 20, which was the Thursday before that Monday (the rules were enacted). We talked about a host of issues in that meeting, but an issue we did not talk about was an emergency rule or the need for one.”

The taskforce discussed some petitions TPWD received calling for emergency rules that were denied, according to Davis, but not the emergency rules that were enacted July 24.

“It was certainly a surprise to us, and unfortunately, it marks the second consecutive legislative session where a session had recently ended and TPWD declared emergency rules surrounding deer breeder regulations,” Davis said. “Unfortunately, what it looks like is TPWD is willing or wanting to circumvent the legislative process in order to enact rules. It’s kind of an affront to the regular regulatory process.”

CWD, and the regulations implemented since its discovery in Texas, have had a major impact on deer breeding in Texas.

In 2021, there were 980 breeders in Texas. Now, there are 683.

Davis said the industry is doing everything it can to prevent the spread of CWD and protect its herds.

“The rules changed drastically in 2021. We call it the 100% of a hundred model where you have to test a 100% of your mortality and a 100% of the deer you intend to release onto a release site,” Davis said. “We originally said that’s a little too cumbersome. We didn’t support that testing model, but when it was placed on us, we embraced it 100%, and we are 100% compliant with those rules. You can’t move a deer without being complaint.”

Davis said all of the deer breeders work tirelessly to meet their testing regimens to prevent the unintentional movement of any disease, including CWD.

The industry is also involved in looking for ways to genetically breed resistance to CWD.

“Our industry is following the science, and we’ve looked at the scrapie eradication program, and we’re using it as a guide to do the same thing in white-tailed deer,” TDA President John True said.

True noted all deer breeders take the threat of CWD seriously because it is their livelihood.

“It’s tough. I’m scared to death every day that there’s some new rule that someone dreams up just to poke us in the eye,” True said.

We’ll have more from True and Davis on how the deer industry is fighting CWD in an upcoming story.

Following the announcement of the emergency CWD rules, Justin Dreibelbis, chief executive officer of the Texas Wildlife Association, told TFB Radio the association is 100% supportive of the rules.

“In fact, we have been asking for those and others for quite some time now, and so we’re very appreciative of the Parks and Wildlife Commission for taking the action. They’re long overdue,” Dreibelbis said.

In addition to enacting the emergency CWD rules, TPWD is expected to recommend new CWD containment and surveillance zones around the areas where deer have tested positive for CWD.

“Depending on where we detect the disease, if it’s detected in just the breeding facility, our current protocol is to basically throw a two-mile loop around that area, encompassing all landowners that would fall within that two-mile area,” Silovsky said. “That would become that new surveillance zone. If it’s a free ranging deer, say out on a low fence pasture out there in the Panhandle where we have a disease existing, and we’ve found that it’s not associated with a breeding facility or release site, we would have a bigger circle because those deer are able to move over much larger areas. So, we would have a five-mile circle at a minimum to surveil in that area for CWD.”

Those who hunt deer, or another CWD-susceptible species in a CWD zone, are required to have their deer tested for CWD before leaving the zone.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission is expected to consider those new CWD zones at their August meeting.