Jonathan Trudeau, a Ph.D. student at Michigan State, came to the university after attending university in New Hampshire to help combat chronic wasting disease in the deer population of Michigan.

Its high-tech tools include GPS tracking collars, laptops and satellite images.

But sometimes, he resorts to going out on the ground. While touring a suburban neighborhood near Lansing in search of collared deer, Trudeau stopped to chat with residents.

"We have a very good interaction with the people in the area," he said. "Everyone is really receptive to the research we do."

Trudeau and other MSU researchers and the state's Department of Natural Resources use technology and observation to look for old deer from Michigan in hopes of fight against this deadly disease.

"Our goal is to produce new techniques and data that will help Michigan MNR reduce the spread of CWD," said Trudeau, who is involved in a joint research project with MSU's Boone and Crockett Quantitative Wildlife Center.

According to MNR records, more than 31,000 deer have been tested for the disease since 2015 and 60 tested positive. These deer were found in Clinton, Ingham, Ionia, Jackson, Kent and Montcalm Counties.

Michigan is home to about 1.75 million white-tailed deer.

Chronic wasting disease was first discovered in Colorado in 1967 and now infects up to 16% of the state's deer population.

According to the Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance, it is a contagious neurological disease that causes degeneration of the brain of infected animals, resulting in emaciation, abnormal behavior, loss of bodily function, and death.

The disease can spread when deer come into contact with other deer. Prions, or deformed proteins that cause chronic debilitating disease, spread through saliva, urine, and stool droppings. In areas where deer concentrate, the disease can spread easily, especially since adult deer mark their territory with saliva and urine.

The Trudeau Joint Research Project is collecting data that will help MNR better understand how deer move and, based on this information, formulate policies to control the spread of the disease.

The practical part of the project started last winter when 57 deer were caught and equipped with ear tags and a GPS collar. Equipped with a two-year battery, the collar collects detailed data on deer movements.

In addition to recording the exact location of the deer every 30 minutes, it downloads the satellite location every 150 minutes to the researchers' computers.

"We are collecting high resolution location data, which allows us to determine the habitat type used by deer," he said.

"The big thing we want to identify is how these deer cross the landscape, since CWD is spread through direct contact and indirect contact," said Trudeau. "We then examine how various features of the landscape (such as rivers or highways) impede these movements, which helps us identify areas we should look for in the future.

The project has already gathered surprising data. White-tailed deer spend "dispersal events" where they move to a new area permanently, sometimes up to eight miles away. This can happen when their current area becomes crowded, or for better food, or for other reasons.

But some movements do not fit this mold.

"We have a deer that lives near Eagle, Michigan. One day, she took off and started walking northeast, "said Trudeau. "When she reached Sleepy Hollow State Park, she stayed there for a day, then returned home. Each leg of the trip exceeded 18 miles.

This trip is called an "excursion event," Trudeau adds. "It's hard to say what triggers these movements … but our research will help determine if there is a trend."

If the deer had borne the disease and spread the prions, she could have infected many other deer along her hike. "We test each deer when we tag it, whether for CWD and other diseases, and they are all very healthy, or they would not be part of the project," said Trudeau.

Trudeau and other SSM and MNR researchers plan to tag and paste about 50 other deer this winter. Data from all these animals will provide biologists and those who shape Michigan's wildlife protection policies with valuable information about the population's interactions in rural and suburban areas.

Some of the stalking subjects live within a quarter of a mile of where the first infected deer was found.

Although it is not thought that chronic debilitating disease can be passed on to humans, the Center for Disease Control recommends paying attention to an infected animal. Most experts recommend that hunters do not eat infected deer.

Because external symptoms may not appear for 18 months after the animal has been infected, the DNR instructs hunters and others handling deer to wear rubber gloves and have all animals examined.

Other recommendations for hunters include deboning meat instead of sawing through the bone and minimizing the manipulation of the brain and spinal tissues. If you have a commercial deer or elk treated, have your pet treated individually and not contaminated with meat from other animals.

2018 Michigan deer hunting seasons

Early Woodless Firearm Season: September 22-23 in some areas.

Liberty Hunt: 22-23 September (disabled and young hunters).

Hunting for Independence: October 18 to 21 (disabled hunters).

Archery Season: October 1st to November 1st, 14th and December 1st. 1.

Regular season of firearms: November 15-30.

Season of mosquito loaders: December 7 to 16 (zones 1 and 2); December 7-23 (zone 3).

Gun season without break: December 17-January. 1 in selected areas.

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