Ryan said the 2015 hunting season began with half the CWD testing budget the agency had the year before, and enough resources to analyze tissue from 4,000 carcasses, down from 7,500 in 2014. Ultimately, the DNR collected 2,023 samples in 2015, the fewest collected since 5,300 were tested in 2011. In 2002, the state tested 40,000 deer.

CWD growing

Despite fewer tests, the DNR’s research shows the disease is slowly spreading.

Since 2002, CWD prevalence within the state’s western monitoring area, which includes Iowa County, has shown an overall increasing trend in both sexes and all age groups.

During the past 13 years, the trend in disease prevalence in adult males has risen from eight percent to more than 25 percent, and in adult females from about four percent to more than 10 percent.

During the same time, the prevalence trend in yearling males has increased from about two percent to eight percent, and in yearling females from about two percent to seven percent.

DNR funding to monitor, study and combat the disease has declined significantly.