Legal regulation of supplementary cervid feeding facing chronic wasting disease

Atle Mysterud,Erling J Solberg,Christer M Rolandsen,Hildegunn Viljugrein

doi:10.1002/jwmg.21746

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe supplementary feeding of cervids is a widespread practice across the northern hemisphere. There are few studies, however, regarding the extent of feeding in space and time. There are adverse effects of supplementary feeding, of which the most severe are increased parasite and disease transmission. With the recent emergence of chronic wasting disease (CWD) among cervids in Norway, a legal regulation was issued that banned all supplementary cervid feeding. We quantified the spatial extent and intentions of feeding cervids across all of Norway using a questionnaire at the municipality scale. We also compared spatial extent of feeding before and after the feeding ban to shed light on the ability of regulations to control supplementary feeding. Supplementary feeding to increase winter survival and targeting roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) was more common (48.4% of the municipalities) than the feeding of red deer (Cervus elaphus; 20.5%) and moose (Alces alces; 7.4%). The main feeding period was January–March, but extensive feeding also occurred from November to December and in April. Reducing traffic accidents was also a motivation, particularly for the feeding of moose (14.5%), and this was the main motivation (86%) for public feeding. Among the 65.7% that responded, 53.3% reported they knew about supplemental feeding of cervids in their municipality. In the region with the first feeding ban, 80.2% of municipalities were feeding in 2015–2016 before the ban, which was reduced to 68.4% in 2016–2017 and remained at 68.4% in 2017–2018. In the remainder of Norway, 81.4% were feeding in 2015–2016, and 72.6% were feeding in 2016–2017, but after the ban, this increased to 78.6% in the harsh winter of 2017–2018. Our study highlights that regulations across broad scales may not be followed and that more spatially targeted regulations and increased enforcement are required for disease transmission to be more effectively combated. © 2019 The Authors. Journal of Wildlife Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of The Wildlife Society.

Highlights

The supplemental feeding of wildlife is a widespread practice across Europe and North America (Putman and Staines 2004)
In the United States, there were increased concentrations of the prions that cause chronic wasting disease (CWD) around the artificial mineral licks used for white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus; Plummer et al 2018), and such sites are regarded as hotspots for disease transmission (Mejia‐Salazar et al 2018)
Our objective was to answer and quantify 5 questions: 1) What is the spatial extent of the supplemental feeding of cervids? 2) What types of feed are used, and what are the motivations behind feeding? 3) Does feeding vary with the population density of roe deer, red deer, and moose and with broad environmental variables? 4) To what level has the legal ban of feeding reduced the spatial extent of feeding? 5) Has feeding ceased altogether with the stricter legal ban within the CWD management zones (Selbu and Nordfjella)?

Summary

Introduction

The supplemental feeding of wildlife is a widespread practice across Europe and North America (Putman and Staines 2004). In the United States, there were increased concentrations of the prions that cause chronic wasting disease (CWD) around the artificial mineral licks used for white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus; Plummer et al 2018), and such sites are regarded as hotspots for disease transmission (Mejia‐Salazar et al 2018) It is common in the United States and Canada to ban wildlife feeding and baiting to achieve a lower transmission rate of CWD (Gillin and Mawdsley 2018). The feeding ban regulation was instituted before the winter 2016–2017 and included the counties of Nord‐Trøndelag, Sør‐Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Hedmark, Oppland, and Buskerud (Landbruks‐ og matdepartementet 2016b) These counties were selected because of discovery of a novel type of CWD in 2 moose in the municipality of Selbu (Pirisinu et al 2018). The regulation allows people or municipalities to apply for short‐ term exceptions to the ban, but the exceptions are difficult to grant within the CWD zones

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