Illinois Deer Farmers Association News

Dream Genomics Deep into Phase Two of CWD Cutting Edge Technology

Fri, 11 Sep 2026 22:45:40 GMT

With Phase One for developing a blood test for early CWD detection essentially in their rearview mirror, scientists at Dream Genomics, a visionary biotech firm started in 2023 and based out of Northbrook, Illinois, are now deeply entrenched in Phase Two, Biological Confirmation. This second phase is moving ever closer to finishing up, explained Dr. Gary M. Pusateri, CEO and Founder of Dream Genomics. Biological confirmation, Phase Two, entails gathering sample after sample from virtually anywhere CWD is detected in the U.S. and Canada in whitetails, mule deer and elk, and pinning down the specific genes that distinguish themselves as being the answer to the diagnosis of CWD.

Phase Two has involved extensive travel, time, effort and research on behalf of Dr. Pusateri as well as Dr. Michael Falduto, Chief Technology Officer and Founder and Dr. Scott Magnuson, Chief Scientific Officer and Founder. The more testing that takes place during Phase Two, the closer they come to being 90 percent accurate (or better) as to which specific genes reveal the presence of CWD, regardless of the location a deer farmer raises deer. As this dedicated trio of scientists works diligently to finish Phase Two and continue onto Phase Three, Assay Development, they are very grateful for those investors who have allowed their work to move forward. However, they are also hopeful that new investors will contribute in order to more fully guarantee their work can be seen to full fruition. “We aren’t connected to a university,” Dr. Pusateri explained. “We currently rely on support from our investors, grants and self-funding for everything that we do.”

To come full circle in their game-changing quest, Phase Three, the final phase, involves moving accurate and targeted samples onto PCR plates. Assuming CWD positive genes become paired down to the fewest specific and acutely accurate number needed for testing, more tests could be run per plate, therefore not costing a deer farmer as much money to test their herd. “This is why Phase Two is so important,” Dr. Pusateri explained. “We want to ultimately be so accurate that both time and money are saved. We are doing whatever it takes to be at that point. We are looking at a 24-hour turnaround once Phase Three becomes fully operational.”

If any deer association, private individual or corporation is interested in donating or investing in Dream Genomics research, please contact Dr. Pusateri at his office at 847-291-9602 or his cell phone at 715-891-7878 or email him at gpusateri@dreamgx.com. Potential investors can also check out the website at www:dreamgx.com. “The best part about supporting our research is that you have two very large opportunities to gain,” Dr. Pusateri said. “One, in making live diagnostics available to all and helping the entire industry permanently move forward. Secondly, with potential personal gains from investing in the company. If the USDA accredits this test, a deer that tests negative could potentially be moved anywhere, opening doors for deer farmers to completely flourish rather than be held back by regulations.”

A Word of Appreciation from Mark Voss, Treasurer

Thu, 28 May 2026 20:14:38 GMT

Illinois deer farmers proved resilient and steadfast as we all came together for our Annual Meeting on February 21st, 2026 in Altamont, Illinois. Close to 100 people gathered to celebrate our unity as an association and to enjoy great catered food, games, raffles, prizes and a well-supported fundraiser. Our annual online auction, which happened the week before, brought in the most revenue ever, and we are very grateful for that.

As an association we feel our best days are yet to come, and we really appreciated guest speakers Shawn Schafer, Dr. Ray Favero and a representative from our association’s lobbyists group for their insightful presentations. While we keep a watchful eye on the latest news about CWD, here in Illinois we are more concerned about EHD as that seems to affect us in a much larger way.

However, the vibe and energy in Illinois remains positive, and we were excited to meet and welcome new deer farmers into our fold and wish them every success on their new adventure. We hope to make our event even bigger and better next year and add to those loyal companies and deer farms who set up booths to enhance business relationships and network with all of us. We also hope to have a lot more association meetings so stay tuned!! Thank you!

Vice President's Message - Travis Phelps

Thu, 28 May 2026 20:13:35 GMT

The future of deer farming in Illinois has never looked better. We had a very successful annual meeting and a big thank you to McClung Sales for the best online auction to date. We are very thankful to the donors and supporters of the Illinois Deer Farmers. It is because of those efforts Illinois Deer Farmers are available to promote and protect the cervid industry. Illinois continues to be a very farmer-friendly state. At our annual meeting, several new board members were elected. The group has already displayed great teamwork and are very open to making decisions that are needed to make deer farming in Illinois available to anyone.

Several new deer farmers and potential farmers attended the meeting this year, making the future growth look promising. The next event will be a fall picnic/farm tour at the Voss Whitetails Farm in Carlyle on August 15th. We welcome members and anyone interested in deer farming to attend. The future looks very exciting and promising in Illinois.

Travis Phelps

Vice President, IL Deer Farmers Association

Illinois Deer Farmer’s Association Enjoyed Prosperous Event

Kathy Giesen — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 22:05:35 GMT

A Shared Moment with President Grant Carrolan and Vice President Chase Baker

As we reflect on our 2025 event February 21^st and 22^nd at The Comfort Suites in Effingham, Illinois, we ask that our association come further together for the sake of unity, understanding and for our continuation as a strong association. Looking ahead, we encourage and greatly need full member participation and willingness to assist when help and support are needed, not only at events but in other areas as well. We express sincere thanks to everyone who has helped in the past and for those who plan to help with future endeavors.

At our recent event we had our best online McClung auction ever, raising approximately $30,000. We are very grateful for that, and for the 80 or so participants who came and enjoyed a Friday night pizza dinner sponsored by Baker Whitetails, and a catered lunch on Saturday sponsored by Springfield Whitetails. Raffle ticket sales through our “Making Noise in Illinois” chair game, also raised $7,000. Each chair had approximately $1,000 worth of valuable items under it. Winners received guns, deer, cash and other useful and valuable things. Raffle ticket winners won items such as a semen tank, a Nelson waterer and even St. Louis Cardinals baseball tickets. These activities were definitely two of the highlights of the event.

We also enjoyed having our antler and photo contest, dart gun and corn hole competitions as well as our informative guest speaker from the USDA Illinois office. As we venture further into 2025, we both perceive the market as staying strong. More and more deer farmers are breeding for resistance and doing well raising both breeding and stocker bucks. Let’s take a stand together Illinois, get more association members and hope that this year and in the future, we can still hold fast to what we love so much – our deer businesses. Thank you!

CDC Update

Kathy Giesen — Thu, 02 May 2024 21:45:29 GMT

CDC UPDATE:

Deer Meat Didn't Cause Hunters' Deaths

Story by Mike Snider, USA TODAY

Concerns about chronic wasting disease have heightened after a case report surfaced of two hunters who developed neurological disorders and died after eating venison from a population of deer that may have been infected with "zombie deer disease."

The report of the two hunters who died in 2022, presented in early April at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, did not prove the transmission of chronic wasting disease (CWD) from deer to humans, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio researchers wrote.

However, the researchers wrote, the case "emphasizes the need for further investigation into the potential risks of consuming CWD-infected deer and its implications for public health."

There have been no cases of CWD in people reported to date, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But past studies raised concerns that CWD could "pose a risk to people," the CDC has said, suggesting "it is important to prevent human exposures to CWD."

Here's what to know about the hunters' deaths and the CDC's response to the report.

CDC: Deer meat did not lead to hunters' illnesses, death

About the 2022 report, the agency agreed with the researchers "that there is a need for careful investigation of chronic wasting disease (CWD) as a potential risk to people's’ health," CDC epidemiologist Ryan Maddox said in a statement to USA TODAY.

But the CDC reviewed the 2022 cases and considered the two men's deaths as "part of the normal number of cases of CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) we see in the U.S.," he said.

The men died after developing Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), which like CWD is a prion disease, a class of fatal neurological disorders, which can affect humans and animals, and usually progress rapidly and are always fatal. In prion diseases, certain proteins in the brain begin to fold abnormally, causing brain damage and other symptoms, the CDC says.

"A history of hunting and/or eating venison does not mean that someone got CJD that way," Maddox said. "Many Americans hunt and even more eat venison. Some will develop sporadic CJD by chance and others will not."

Click Here for Full Article

ILDFA Message - Summer 2024

Kathy Giesen — Thu, 02 May 2024 21:40:10 GMT

Greetings Deer Farmers, experienced and new!

I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who was able to attend our ILDFA annual meeting and fundraiser online, in person, or both. It was a big year for us! With growth brings new opportunities and possibilities. We outgrew our previous location and hit a home run when we were able to book the Effingham Event Center, officially taking our one-day event and making it two.

Starting Friday evening with a pizza social provided by Chase Baker of Baker Whitetails and a free CWD Sampling Training Opportunity thanks to the Department of Agriculture Bureau of Animal Health and Welfare's, Dr. Willney and her excellent colleagues. Day two started with a second opportunity to attend Dr. Willney's class for anyone who was unable to make it Friday night. A tasty breakfast assortment of Dunkin Donuts was graciously provided by Billie Jo Rix and Mark Mann of Red Wire Ranch Whitetails for our morning social. Then straight into our main event including an antler competition, photo competition, silent auction, lunch, and our in-house live auction. If that wasn't exciting enough, we also gave away a gun as a door prize and had four other guns to raffle off.

A BIG THANK YOU TO OUR 2024 SPONSORS WHO HELPED MAKE ALL THIS POSSIBLE!

SPRINGFIELD WHITETAILS - SATURDAY DINNER SPONSOR

KALMBACH FEEDS, INC. - ANTLER COMPETITION SPONSOR

RED FOX DESIGN CO. - AD PRESENTED BY

RED WIRE RANCH WHITETAILS - PHOTO COMPETITION SPONSOR

BAKER WHITETAILS - FRIDAY DINNER SPONSOR

I want to wish everyone a happy, healthy, and abundantly successful fawning season. May we all be blessed beyond belief.

Our next event will be our ILDFA Annual Fall Picnic. Details to come soon.

Grant Carrolan & Lisa Shepard

GMS Updated and Ready to Release Beginning April 2nd, 2024

Kathy Giesen — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 21:57:03 GMT

NADR is excited to roll out the all-new GMS Web App. This new GMS product offers the deer breeder/farmer the latest in technology and data capturing from the NADR database. GMS clients will be able to access their data via any platform, using any device. The following features are just a few of the many tools included in GMS!

Herd Inventory - Track all aspects of the herd, including tags, names, state id, birth weight, sires, dams, etc. Display unlimited pictures of each animal. Record medications for each animal.

DNA Submittal & Retrieval - A few clicks, and the paperwork is ready to go via online submittal. When the specimen has been processed, retrieve the lineage and DNA information back into GMS.

GEBV/Codons - Receive and store GEBV score and Codon values from NADR for each animal.

Lineage/Pedigree -The fully interactive lineage screen displays lineage and pictures for each animal. Optionally, you can display the GEBV score.

Doe Line - Customizable field for each animal to record anchor doe detail to display on reports or grouping.

Pen and Group Management - Create and assign as many pens or groups as desired. Pen and group detail included in inventory reports allows for sorting and reviewing animals by pen or group.

Designed for All Species - NADR has spent countless hours with people in the industry to develop a program that will work for all Cervid species as well as Exotics.

More to Come! – We will be rolling out more features in the coming year such as Dream Deer, Animal Transfers, Customizable Reporting, Email Notification of updates.

It will be easy to sign up and transfer your data.

An email and link will be sent to view a demo of the GMS Web App and discuss your data.

For existing customers, we will provide instructions for locating and uploading the GMS database backup file.

NADR staff will then do all the work to get you up and running.

Message from your Vice President - Chase Baker

Kathy Giesen — Sun, 17 Dec 2023 01:00:00 GMT

I hope this message finds you well. Its now breeding season, crazy how time flys! AI has come and gone here, now the long wait for may.

Illinois Department of Agriculture was awarded 2 of the 5 portions USDA CWD Grant. The virtual meeting at the end of September was about CWD Sampling Certification. In this portion of the grant, you can get certified to take your own cwd samples, free tools/shipping supplies, and all submissions paid. I am working with Dr.Willney to have a class during our spring event. With that, wenare currently working on the details for our Spring Event. Please if you have any suggestions reach out to a board member.

Thank you,

Chase Baker

Vice President ILDFA

NADR Acquires Game Management Solutions (GMS)

Kathy Giesen — Sat, 16 Dec 2023 07:40:30 GMT

As the deer industry evolves, the North American Deer Registry (NADR) is evolving right along with it. What began in 2007 as a cooperative effort between the Texas Deer Association (TDA) and the North American Deer Farmers Association (NADeFA) for the purpose of validating the industry by providing pedigree verification, NADR continues to utilize technology to move the industry forward.

Combining GMS along with NADR’s recent technology upgrades, including NADR Online and NADR Interactive, will allow breeders to utilize technology to create a more efficient process from sample submission to receipt of results. NADR will assemble a team of power users and technology veterans to work over the next 6 months to create a web based mobile friendly application that all breeders can benefit from.

GMS subscribers should continue to use the current GMS platform until the transition is made in the Spring of 2024. We are excited about this new feature and will have updates as we get closer to the rollout. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to call the NADR Office.

Sincerely,

Gary Cook

Executive Director,

North American Deer Registry