Owners of commercial deer farms in Pennsylvania are concerned that continued restrictions to curb the spread of chronic wasting disease could put the industry out of business.
In March, Kip Adams, the Pennsylvania-based chief conservation officer for the nonprofit National Deer Alliance, told the Governor's Advisory Council on Hunting, Fishing and Conservation that transporting captive white-tailed deer among the farms is one of the root causes for the spread of CWD among wild herds. National Deer Alliance is a deer management lobbying group.
"No doubt that is the single biggest threat — the movement of live deer," Adams said, according to Lancaster Farming, an agricultural newsletter. "Almost every day we move deer. The [U.S. Department of Agriculture] herd certification program does not work. We continue to have herds that are [certified] disease-free and they end up having CWD-positive deer."
