Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commissioners are not asking the right questions when it comes to stopping Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), according to former at-large commissioner Joe McPherson.
McPherson, in his May 1 address, charged LWF commissioners to ask Department of Agriculture officials about CWD-contaminated deer pens. The former commissioner and chairman went on to say the group needed to continue following the original action plan to combat CWD.
“Here you are going backward on your action plan on the spread of CWD in the state,” McPherson said. “What ought to be on the other topic is talking with the Department of Ag, asking what they are going to do with these contaminated pens after they depopulate them.”
McPherson hinted to a Catahoula Parish deer pen that CWD-exposed deer were taken to, asking, “Anybody in the room know? I didn’t think so. Nobody is asking the right question.”
CWD Task Force
Fifteen deer went to 11 different parishes. The first three deer that were tested plus the index deer were all CWD positive and “for some reason the other 10 deer are not positive or have not been found,” McPherson said. “Well, a bullet and a backhoe will take care of a positive CWD deer.”
“Those deer pens are what you ought to be talking about,” McPherson continued. “You ought to be asking the hard questions. Where did those deer go? Have they been tested?”
McPherson stressed to commissioners a CWD Task Force should be filled with experts from different areas such as the Department of Agriculture, veterinary services and USGS, which is the lead federal agency for free-ranging wildlife disease research and surveillance.
“The (Ag) commissioner does not have an interest in the wild deer population,” McPherson said. “This is not in his wheelhouse. This is in y’alls wheelhouse.”
Earlier in his address to commissioners, McPherson reminded the group about the original action plan to battle CWD that was adopted in 2016, seven years before Louisiana’s initial CWD case.
The original action plan was designed to contain CWD, to prevent spread to native population wild deer and to assure “unpopular recommendations were given careful consideration in the absence of stress. That is the phone calls you get. You get what is right and live by the plan that has been developed by the biologists,” McPhearson said.
Expanding the CWD control area
In their April meeting, commissioners passed a Notice of Intent (NOI) expanding the CWD control area once again. But not before listening to farmers and businessmen saying the ban was hurting their feed businesses.
Derick Guillot, a fourth generation Franklin Parish corn farmer who sells his product to hunters, spoke about the economic downfalls associated with the CWD control area in the April meeting.
“The past few years have been really hard to make it in farming with the high inflation costs and the terrible grain prices,” Guillot said. “My deer corn business has been the only thing that has allowed me what I need to be profitable and to provide a life for my wife and four children.”
Also in the April meeting, Rep. Michael “Gabe” Firment, whose District 22 is Grant, LaSalle and Natchitoches parishes, cautioned about economic impacts and asked about a CWD Task Force.
“Is this plan an appropriate response based on the available data?” Firment asked, saying, “As legislators we have to consider a lot more than that. I just want to make sure we are not burning the house down because we see one cockroach.”
Firment asked about the need of a CWD Task Force.
“I noticed that over the past year we have had public meetings on the Oyster Task Force in New Orleans, the Alligator Advisory Task Force in Lafayette, the Louisiana Shrimp Task Force in Houma, the Louisiana Fur Advisory in Lafayette, the Crab Task Force in Houma,” Firment said. “I guess the thought that popped up in my mind: Where is the CWD Task Force? Sounds like we might need one.”
An action plan
On May 1, McPherson cautioned commissioners to adopt an action plan based on science.
“If you adopt this you are basically saying that action plan was not right,” McPherson said. “It was not based on science, and we should listen to our constituents and let them as nonscientist and layman (develop an action plan).”
Commissioners asked McPherson no questions, but Chairman Kevin Sagrera said, “To let you know, we have reached out to the (Ag) commissioner and we are in the process of forming a task force to work on these issues with stakeholders and department staff and get the commission of agriculture to work on these things. We are not sitting on our hands.”
Commissioners will form a task force to explore all options to combating CWD within the upcoming weeks.
Rep. Neil Riser is getting a resolution in this legislative session to establishing a CWD Task Force, according to Sagrera. Risers’ District 20 covers Caldwell, Catahoula, Franklin, LaSalle and Ouachita.
New member
Meanwhile, Jimmie Martin Sr. of Cut Off, is the LWFC’s newest member.
Martin, who will serve as an at-large commissioner, has 64+ years of experience as a business owner and operator in both the commercial fishing and oil and gas industries.
“I regard the American Shrimping Industry as a valued resource that needs active preservation.”
According to the statute, the commission is comprised of seven members appointed by the governor, subject to Senate confirmation. Members include three residents of the coastal parishes of the state who are representatives of the commercial fishing and fur industries and four members from the state at large.
