Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Committee advances CWD bill after lengthy debate over containment, testing and economic impact
Summary
A committee substitute for House Bill 700 moved out of committee after hours of testimony about chronic wasting disease; supporters urged preventive measures while deer farmers warned the measure could shutter businesses without additional testing or federal support.
Representative Josh Bray and Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Rich Storm told the committee that House Bill 700 is intended to limit the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in Kentucky, a prion disease that affects cervids and has no cure.
Bray said Kentucky has recorded two CWD cases — one in a wild deer in Western Kentucky and one in a captive facility in Breckenridge County — and warned that "if we do nothing and CWD spreads across the state once it hits Interior Kentucky, we will forever wish we had done something today." Commissioner Rich Storm described the disease as "a hundred percent incurable, a hundred percent always fatal" and defended a "common sense approach" in the committee substitute.
Under the committee substitute described to the panel, the bill would create temporal and…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
