CWD

[gunther89]

Well I thought about not even making a thread about this, but I feel like everyone needs to see it. I always hear people saying that they never find any dead deer in the woods or that CWD isn't a issue. Well to all the haters, here is proof. We've known about this buck for 2 years and he has always appeared healthy. In mid December, he shed 1 side and started to look different. By Christmas, he had shed his other side and the final pictures we got of him were on December 30th. Clearly he looks sick and we figured he was dead and close. My cousin went out January 6th to look for him and found him dead roughly 75 yards away from the last photos. He contacted the WI DNR and they said if we wanted to get it tested, we could. So he cut the head off and we got the news today that he indeed tested positive for CWD.

I hated to see a buck like him go out because of CWD but it just shows that deer do in fact die in the wild because of this disease. I've attached some photos of what he looked like before he started showing signs and the last photos of him.

 

[Boll Weevil]

CWD was discovered in my county this hunting season and I now have a whole new perspective about how/why some bucks we've been watching for years just up and disappear.

Thanks for posting this.

 

[bowhunternw]

Wow he really went downhill fast. CWD really concerns me about the future of deer hunting. Seems like there just isn't any real progress or info coming out on what to do about it.

 

[Rubee]

Gunther what part of the country do you hunt? That's just plain scarey cwd could take a deer down so quickly. He looked healthy early December and dead on his feet three weeks later. Maybe every deer we take hunting should be checked before eating them.

 

[gunther89]

Gunther what part of the country do you hunt? That's just plain scarey cwd could take a deer down so quickly. He looked healthy early December and dead on his feet three weeks later. Maybe every deer we take hunting should be checked before eating them.

We are located in south central WI which has had CWD since 2002 I believe. We never thought much of it before but this past year we started testing all of ours.

 

[Big Snow Man]

We are located in south central WI which has had CWD since 2002 I believe. We never thought much of it before but this past year we started testing all of ours.

Where you at ?

 

[Mortenson]

What are the chances he had cwd but that something else caused his death? Agree it seemed so fast. We found a couple mature bucks that died mid fall '17 that I couldn't tell had been shot. We are a cwd section.

 

[MickT]

CWD isn’t always the “cause of death” but it definitely predisposes them to dying from starvation, dehydration, drowning, predation, vehicle strikes- there’s even evidence that it makes them easier for hunters to kill.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Mortenson]

True enough, but ouch, I've got 1 buck in the past 8 years. Would hate to think about my record in a cwd-free zone lol. We amazingly had a good bunch of 3.5 year old bucks survive the 3.5 month long season this year, so it's going to be interesting to see what is around for next year. Our DNR poaching season has usually started by now. I assume they're sitting on the corn pile as we speak. We'll definitely lose a few to them. We also typically experience the 4.5+ year olds just disappearing on us. Probably poaching and some just learning more quiet places to hang out. CWD is the wild-card.

 

[gunther89]

Where you at ?

In sauk county

 

[yoderjac]

It is an important thread and a threat, either near or long term, to all of us. Different state game departments have addressed the issues differently. Some better than others. I see way too many posts from dissatisfied hunters blaming the doctor for the pain involved in the treatment rather than the underlying disease. It is true that understanding this disease and how best to manage it is still evolving. I'm glad I'm in a state that has been as proactive as any in trying to monitor and manage this before it gets out of control. That doesn't mean the disease is not progressing here as well, but it seems to be progressing more slowly here than in many states. I'm just hoping it does not reach the tipping point as it has in other places.

When we see how some other states have been devastated that had much early outbreaks when even less was understood, how can I complain about the minor inconveniences like:
- No supplemental feed during the season (wish it was all year)
- No deer urine
- Limitations on carcass and parts transport
- Changes in regulations
- Collecting biological samples

Thanks,

Jack

 

[John B]

I dont have an issue with anything Jack listed, my issue is with the mass killing of thousands of deer in the surrounding areas (which is what they are doing in Missouri). It just seems to me that the deer herds best chance for a cure is natural selection. A dead deer shot over a corn pile in the summer will not survive and pass that trait on to their young.

 

[Boll Weevil]

Regarding the mass killing, how is this accomplished? Permits to landowners, state-sanctioned "sharpshooters", hunters? Is it on public and/or private lands? 90-something percent of land ownership is private so if whole bunch of folks don't participate is it a viable alternative? Just trying to better understand what's happening in other areas.

 

[BuckSutherland]

CWD should be allowed to run its course. Deer will naturally overcome it on their own. I remember 10-15 years ago when you could drive by a field with a jug of round up and all the weeds would die (I farm). Now you could take the entire jug of round up and pour it on some weeds and not kill them. The weeds morphed to defeat the pest that was killing them. The deer themselves would eventually defeat CWD on their own.

The answer is not mass killings and special hunts and zone like they are doing in MN.

 

[gunther89]

CWD should be allowed to run its course. Deer will naturally overcome it on their own. I remember 10-15 years ago when you could drive by a field with a jug of round up and all the weeds would die (I farm). Now you could take the entire jug of round up and pour it on some weeds and not kill them. The weeds morphed to defeat the pest that was killing them. The deer themselves would eventually defeat CWD on their own.

The answer is not mass killings and special hunts and zone like they are doing in MN.

How long due you let it run its course before something has to be done? Wisconsin is going on 17 years since it was found and we have had the percentage of infected deer go up.
At some point you have to do something instead of looking the other way.

 

[John B]

Regarding the mass killing, how is this accomplished? Permits to landowners, state-sanctioned "sharpshooters", hunters? Is it on public and/or private lands? 90-something percent of land ownership is private so if whole bunch of folks don't participate is it a viable alternative? Just trying to better understand what's happening in other areas.

They are doing both landowner permits and state-sanctioned sharpshooters here on both public and private lands (with permission). To my knowledge many people have said no but if your neighbor says yes then goodbye to the deer in your area for a while.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

Are you sure that's the same deer? It seems like a huge change in 2 weeks. Do you have any pictures in between the pictures on the 15th and 30th? That's quite a sequence of pictures though.

I don't know what the CWD answer is, but since the disease stays in the soil I'm pretty sure we can't shoot our way out of this problem. I think an accurate and quick CWD test would be a huge first step.

 

[BuckSutherland]

How long due you let it run its course before something has to be done? Wisconsin is going on 17 years since it was found and we have had the percentage of infected deer go up.
At some point you have to do something instead of looking the other way.

As long as it takes.


Spending millions on eradication is a complete waste of time and money and is only prolonging the problem. We are killing deer that potentially have genetic resistance to this shit. Mother nature will take care of the problem. More gov't intervention is never the answer.

Take this waterhemp plant in my soybean field from this year for example.

After spraying it twice and burning it to a crisp and it looked deader than hell, but blew right out of it and became a healthy viable plant with millions of survivors that are now genetically stronger than the parent to fight off the pest. Same needs to happen with CWD. The answer is genetic resistance. We will eventually get their. It will take longer with all of these dip shit DNRs killing off potentially resistant deer in their crusade to save us all.

 

[homerj]

17 years of deer leaving prions that can't be destroyed and that researchers say can remain viable for possibly hundreds or thousands of years. What good is it going to do to shoot hundreds of thousands of deer in an attempt to control CWD?

 

[Mortenson]

They've been whacking n stacking on the adjoining farm for several years. Here's the holes the state dumps them in. Nice way to contain the disease. I blew a tire on an implement and this was the 1st spot I could pull off the highway.