A DNR program to monitor the health of a deer population threatened by disease has earned the agency honors.
The Midwest Assn. of Fish and Wildlife Agencies selected Indiana's bovine tuberculosis surveillance team as recipient of its annual Excellence in Conservation award.
Bovine tuberculosis is a chronic bacterial disease that affects primarily cattle but can be transmitted to any warm-blooded animal. In April 2016, the disease showed up in a wild deer culled for testing on a Franklin County cattle farm. As a result, the agency expanded a pre-existing tuberculosis monitoring area and ramped up sampling efforts during the 2016-17 hunting season.
Sampling involves collecting and testing lymph nodes from the necks of harvested deer.
The DNR Division of Fish and Wildlife set a goal of collecting roughly 2,000 samples from deer in all of Franklin County and parts of Dearborn and Fayette counties. Samples had to be collected from deer volunteered by hunters.
"It seemed like an impossible feat to all of us," said Mitch Marcus, wildlife section chief with DFW. "Thanks to outstanding cooperation from hunters, 2,042 samples were collected. It was an overwhelming success."
No deer tested positive for bovine tuberculosis.