yoderjac
5 year old buck +
I think the deer farming industry has been one of the biggest factors in spreading diseases in deer herds. Unscrupulous breeders here have scoffed at the laws and regulations transporting and selling live deer around with no concern how their carelessness could devistate the wild herd and the economy of the state along with the public hunting.
A wild deer could nose another penned deer through a fence with no problem and pick up any crap that deer farm has. I would love to see the state ban deer farms here altogether, the risk is not worth the reward just to satisfy the greed of a few.
That is absolutely the fact. When you look at the epidemiology of this disease, it is not natural. One can correlate the hot-spot outbreaks in distant unaffected areas directly to the transport of penned deer.