Encouraging Article on CWD in Missouri

[356]

As a landowner and hunter in a CWD zone, I have worked closely with the Missouri Department of Conservation, and have invited them to speak at our coop meetings. While nobody likes having CWD in their area, our deer herds are looking good for 2024. The 2023 special CWD area firearms season and landowner approved culling are keeping positivity rates flat.

Missouri Shows Us How to Manage CWD for the Long Haul

 

[jsasker007]

It doesn't seem like they've really made any progress on CWD. It seems like the affected areas run their course and then we hear about it in some other location. Maybe I'm just not informed enough about it? We had areas here in Minnesota and maybe still have 1 or 2 spots in the state having issues? They said the meat is safe to eat but I don't think I could eat it if it tested positive. I love venison but I'm kind of fond of staying alive too.

 

[jsasker007]

The article talks about killing more deer in and around infected areas. Maybe they should just issue more tags for hunters to do that job? Didn't see anything about what causes cwd to begin with or I just missed it? Not sure if they are doing any more than just killing deer and reporting that they are solving the problem? Obviously, if you have less deer you won't have as many infected. I'm not sure what to think about it. Treating it the same way we solve any bird flu cases=we try to kill all birds, but it will come back. Sure would be good if they can come up with a cure for it.

 

[SD51555]

The article talks about killing more deer in and around infected areas. Maybe they should just issue more tags for hunters to do that job? Didn't see anything about what causes cwd to begin with or I just missed it? Not sure if they are doing any more than just killing deer and reporting that they are solving the problem? Obviously, if you have less deer you won't have as many infected. I'm not sure what to think about it. Treating it the same way we solve any bird flu cases=we try to kill all birds, but it will come back. Sure would be good if they can come up with a cure for it.

CWD cannot be cured. It IS the cure. Deer are the disease.


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[BuckSutherland]

CWD is fake news....

 

[swat1018]

As a landowner and hunter in a CWD zone, I have worked closely with the Missouri Department of Conservation, and have invited them to speak at our coop meetings. While nobody likes having CWD in their area, our deer herds are looking good for 2024. The 2023 special CWD area firearms season and landowner approved culling are keeping positivity rates flat.

Missouri Shows Us How to Manage CWD for the Long Haul

It's flat. I doubt their slaughter is the reason. Kill them before they die is not what I call "management."

This is common sense management (Indiana):

Dear Indiana hunter,
Indiana DNR has confirmed the state’s first positive case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in an adult male white-tailed deer harvested in LaGrange County. CWD is a fatal infectious disease, caused by a misfolded protein called a prion, that affects the nervous system in white-tailed deer. It can spread from deer-to-deer contact, bodily fluids, or through contaminated environments and remains in the soil for many years.
The sample for this case was collected by a licensed taxidermist through DNR’s CWD Taxidermist Incentive Program. CWD has previously been detected in the four states bordering Indiana (Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and Kentucky) and is now found in 33 states. Because CWD had been detected in Michigan near the Indiana border, a detection in LaGrange County was likely.
There have been no reported cases of CWD infection in people, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that hunters strongly consider having deer tested before eating the meat. The CDC also recommends that you do not eat meat from an animal that tests positive for CWD.

Find out more

Indiana DNR’s CWD response plan is based on the latest scientific information about the effectiveness of CWD management options. Currently, there are no management actions that have been shown to cure deer of CWD, prevent deer from getting CWD, stop or significantly slow the spread of CWD, or eradicate it from the deer herd. Therefore, our plan focuses on monitoring the spread of the disease to inform Indiana residents how they can safely navigate CWD’s presence.
DNR’s management efforts will NOT focus on eliminating CWD from the deer population in this area of LaGrange County since the disease is self-sustaining in nearby populations, making elimination unlikely.

 

[Bill]

And no disrespect intended towards @356 but if Lindsay penned the article you can bet it was to control the message.

 

[Bill]

“The QDMA acknowledges that total herd eradication may appear to be the most effective method to contain and control CWD. “

(I could have stopped there for click bait)

But I won’t, that’s click bait, they did go on to say.

At this time, however, the QDMA considers total herd eradication impossible under most circumstances, unacceptable to many segments of society, and impractical as a long-term CWD management strategy.

(But in 2002 Lindsay’s Gang did indeed think total eradication was the only way)


P.S. is it obvious that I don’t really care for that guy?

 

[Bill]

If you didn’t know QDMA pissed so many of it’s original members off they changed their name. To NDA.

I’m a life member so I get to bitch!

 

[Telemark]

Unfortunately, culling deer is currently the only way to slow the spread of CWD. Based on what we know about BSE, it's a miracle no humans have contracted CWD yet. It's a really nasty disease. I wish the government would put more resources into researching CWD so we could figure out how long it lasts in the soil and how exactly it's spread. And they need to implement and enforce stricter laws regarding deer farming. I am really worried that it could end deer hunting if it jumps from cervids to humans.

 

[goatman]

You do know that deer farmers were the first to find CWD in deer east of CO and WY? And I ask where are all the dead bodies of deer in the wild from CWD? Just positive tested deer that have been harvested. Also why isn't there an uproar from EHD? Kills way more deer than CWD. Disappointed I've never been paid to shoot deer at night over a corn pile for control of CWD as in IL. Lol.

 

[SwampCat]

Illinois and Wisconsin are pretty good case studies - in my opinion. CWD was detected in southern WI and northern IL about the same time. Each state ended up engaging in different management strategies over the long run. WI ended up basically doing very little and IL was very pro active reducing deer density. CWD continued to spread in both states - with the spread perhaps being more aggressive in WI. What is noticeably different is the infection rate of tested deer in each state, with a much lower infection rate in IL.

I draw my conclusion from a sizable quantity of published research. Folks who live in those states or area may have a totally different viewpoint. Kansas also claims to have an increasing deer population, and they have had CWD for a long time - and to my knowledge - done very little specific management to curtail the spread.

It is interesting that WI claims an increasing deer population, blaming decreasing hunter numbers - in spite of the wolves.

In my home state of AR, there have been some deer with cwd found sick or dead - but not a lot. I believe there arent cwd killed deer laying around the woods because of predators. I am sure most of the really sick deer are killed by predators before they ever fall down dead. And when they do fall down dead, they are quick to be eaten by scavengers. In most of the state, if you leave a deer overnight, you will have a skeleton to come back to and by the next day and after a day or two, there will not be a bone to be found.

 

[gunther89]

Wisconsin did plenty to try and stop the spread. They handed out antlerless tags like candy at a parade to thin the herd. You could get 4 free antlerless tags every day if you wanted to. They made it to where you could gun hunt till the end of March I believe.
They also implemented earn a buck and between that and the free doe tags, the population crashed. Hunters were so fed up with not seeing any deer, that giant co-ops of landowners formed and agreed not to harvest does. That pissed the DNR off and the hunters basically gave them the middle finger.
That's when the DNR did away with all the free tags and EAB. Now our population has boomed again.

 

[SD51555]

It’s hard to take CWD seriously when it appears the only thing that’s killed deer is the cull plan. It’s a lot like that thing that happened a few years ago that we don’t talk about any longer.

There’s no example anywhere of a deer herd doing anything other than growing when CWD is found. So what is it that we’re fighting?


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[Daydreamer]

It’s hard to take CWD seriously when it appears the only thing that’s killed deer is the cull plan. It’s a lot like that thing that happened a few years ago that we don’t talk about any longer.

There’s no example anywhere of a deer herd doing anything other than growing when CWD is found. So what is it that we’re fighting?


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Say it louder for the people in the back!

 

[SwampCat]

Wisconsin did plenty to try and stop the spread. They handed out antlerless tags like candy at a parade to thin the herd. You could get 4 free antlerless tags every day if you wanted to. They made it to where you could gun hunt till the end of March I believe.
They also implemented earn a buck and between that and the free doe tags, the population crashed. Hunters were so fed up with not seeing any deer, that giant co-ops of landowners formed and agreed not to harvest does. That pissed the DNR off and the hunters basically gave them the middle finger.
That's when the DNR did away with all the free tags and EAB. Now our population has boomed again.

Yes, I was aware of that. But did those actions not occur fairly early on, and after about six or eight years, they just gave up?

 

[Catscratch]

The article talks about killing more deer in and around infected areas. Maybe they should just issue more tags for hunters to do that job? Didn't see anything about what causes cwd to begin with or I just missed it? Not sure if they are doing any more than just killing deer and reporting that they are solving the problem? Obviously, if you have less deer you won't have as many infected. I'm not sure what to think about it. Treating it the same way we solve any bird flu cases=we try to kill all birds, but it will come back. Sure would be good if they can come up with a cure for it.

CWD was first documented in Colorado about 60 yrs ago. It's been around a loooong time. As with any disease there are likely individuals genetically predisposition to have some level of tolerances. In my opinion killing all deer in an infected area is likely killing any chance of natural genetic resistance from spreading through the population. Sometimes the "cure" is worse than the disease. With that said I have zero interest in eating an infected deer and risking being that 1 in a million first transspecies jump. But hell, I don't even like eating fish with those little yellow grubs in the meat so maybe I'm just squeamish.

 

[Lucky_P]

BSE... first identified in the mid-to-late 1980s. By 2019, a total of 232 people WORLDWIDE had succumbed to variant CJD, the human spongiform encephalopathy attributed to the BSE agent (whether it's a prion or a spiroplasma is still up in the air for me). 232 people. 232... Worldwide... over a 35 yr period. That's about how many folks were murdered in Washington DC last year; about one-third the murder rate in Chicago last year.
Almost every study I've seen showing CWD being able to infect non-cervid species was conducted by injecting CWD-positive brain material intracerebrally - into the brain - of whatever 'target' species the researchers were working with (cattle, raccoons, etc.). Not a natural route of exposure.

Would I eat a deer exhibiting clinical signs of CWD? No.
Will I continue to eat venison from outwardly healthy deer? You betcha.
I was deboning virtually all cuts of meat and removing all lymph nodes, nerves, and most fat, long before I ever heard of CWD. Never ate brain, spinal cord, or spleen.
KY finally confirmed a case in far western KY this past year. We'll see how KDFWR responds...

Herd eradication and repopulation? It is to laugh.
I saw a presentation about Michigan's bovine TB response, 20 years ago. There was a 160 acre high-fenced captive cervid operation with TB in the herd. It took a year and a half to finally find and kill every deer in the enclosure. They ended up having to capture, radio-collar, and release some 'Judas' deer to help them find those that were hiding out.
Total depopulation of a wild, free-ranging population... impossible.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

Illinois and Wisconsin are pretty good case studies - in my opinion. CWD was detected in southern WI and northern IL about the same time. Each state ended up engaging in different management strategies over the long run. WI ended up basically doing very little and IL was very pro active reducing deer density. CWD continued to spread in both states - with the spread perhaps being more aggressive in WI. What is noticeably different is the infection rate of tested deer in each state, with a much lower infection rate in IL.

I draw my conclusion from a sizable quantity of published research. Folks who live in those states or area may have a totally different viewpoint. Kansas also claims to have an increasing deer population, and they have had CWD for a long time - and to my knowledge - done very little specific management to curtail the spread.

It is interesting that WI claims an increasing deer population, blaming decreasing hunter numbers - in spite of the wolves.

In my home state of AR, there have been some deer with cwd found sick or dead - but not a lot. I believe there arent cwd killed deer laying around the woods because of predators. I am sure most of the really sick deer are killed by predators before they ever fall down dead. And when they do fall down dead, they are quick to be eaten by scavengers. In most of the state, if you leave a deer overnight, you will have a skeleton to come back to and by the next day and after a day or two, there will not be a bone to be found.

Wisconsin's wolves are in the north 1/3 of the state and the deer numbers there are actually quite low compared to 20 years ago when the wolf numbers were extremely low.

CWD is in the southern part of the state and the deer numbers are still high there. If you like deer hunting, you would probably be better off with CWD than wolves.

 

[Mortenson]

Around here they stage the sharpshooters and their ameristep tents near all the highways. Tells me all I need to know. The more rural parts of the more rural counties have nothing to worry about.