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Sponsors and Fish & Game debate rules for importing cervid carcasses amid chronic wasting disease concerns
Summary
Representative Jack Flanagan and experts urged stricter controls on movement of cervid tissues to limit chronic wasting disease (CWD) risk; Fish and Game told the committee current rules focus on high-risk tissues and cautioned mandatory meat testing would be impractical.
Representative Jack Flanagan (Hillsborough 45) introduced a bill to restrict importation and possession of cervid tissues to reduce chronic wasting disease (CWD) risk. Flanagan and a longtime cervid-issues advocate (identified in testimony as Mr. Zilfelder) described prion biology, cited rising detections in other states, and urged preemptive rules to prevent disease introduction.
Witnesses told the committee that prions can be detected in a wide range of tissues and bodily fluids, that prions persist in the environment, and that hunter-harvested animals have accounted for a high share of detections in some states. The sponsor and his expert said prions can be present in muscle and other tissues and that methods to amplify and detect prions are improving.
Dan Bergeron, chief of Fish and Game’s wildlife division, testified in opposition to a requirement that all imported meat be tested before entry. Bergeron said Fish and Game already posts a list of CWD-positive jurisdictions on its website and restricts higher-risk tissues (brains, lymph nodes, etc.). He told the committee that meat is generally treated as a lower-risk tissue by most agencies and that, currently, “there are no states that restrict the importation of meat or require testing of meat” for CWD. Bergeron said available testing for meat lacks federal certification, turnaround times and costs are uncertain, and mandatory testing could be impractical and expensive for hunters.
Committee members asked about test cost and turnaround time; Bergeron said previously used tests cost on the order of tens of dollars to perhaps ~$50 per sample and that state programs typically focus surveillance on lymph nodes and brains from hunter-harvested animals. The department also noted that federal programs and voluntary certification for captive herds exist but that certification has not prevented all captive-facility outbreaks elsewhere.
No committee vote was taken at the hearing. Why it matters: CWD poses long-term management challenges for cervid populations, captive facilities and hunters. The hearing illustrated sharp tension between a precautionary approach (testing or restricting meat imports) and pragmatic limits to testing capacity, certification standards and enforcement resources.
