Many hunters at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources' first public hearing on Chronic Wasting Disease made it clear that they had not decided whether to hunt deer this fall.
Bill Rose of Sussex testified Wednesday at the meeting in Waukesha that he has gone hunting for 48 years, but he won't decide on whether to do so this year until he finds out if it's safe.
Rose says that, if he does kill a deer, he definitely will not eat it or let his family eat it.
Meanwhile DNR Secretary Darrell Bazzell said at a Natural Resources Board meeting in Grantsburg that the number of deer-hunting licenses sold this year is down 22 percent from last year because of hunters' worries about the disease in the herd.
Meanwhile, state veterinarian Clarence Sirocky says more game farms will probably be quarantined as officials try to track where infected deer came from.
Chronic Wasting Disease is an incurable brain disease similar to mad cow disease. Experts say there is no scientific evidence the disease can infect humans. But the World Health Organization advises people not to eat any part of a deer with evidence of the disease.
