looking for good mock scrape scent

[yoderjac]

There is an incredible amount of misinformation spread regarding CWD. Anyway you look at it, much of it is fear mongering and absolutely political. Considering how long CWD has been acknowledged to exist, if the risk of using deer urine as an attractant was even a minute percentage CWD would have been detected virtually everywhere hunting takes place long ago. Imagine how many bottles of urine have been utilized in all areas across north america. If it was as transferable as some try to make others believe it would already have been detected/spread everywhere. I reside and grew up in WI and have lived thru the last 20 years of CWD hysteria. If this risk was warranted- Why would one want to even create a mock scrape at all? Why would you want bucks exchanging fluids more so than they already are? Knowing what we know about scrape usage and deer interaction, why in areas with CWD prevalence doesnt EVERY adult buck tested come back positive for CWD?
I make a lot of mock scrapes myself, and i have used both commercially sold urines and my own. I dont have any problem sleeping at night worrying that I'm putting my local deer at any additive risk for doing so. Loss of sleep usually occurs when i cant decide what stand to sit in on november 6th.

Very poor logic. Earthquakes of high magnitude are very rare in this area yet I would never spend tens of millions to build office buildings that did not use construction techniques that are resistant to the shock of an earthquake. The odds are very low, but the consequences are very high. When I look at the what many states have and continue to go through that have a high occurrence of CWD, it makes absolutely no sense for states where CWD has not yet become a problem not to take every precaution to protect their valuable resource.

I doubt mock scrapes increase and interaction by deer. Deer will make scrapes and use them if you don't make mock scrapes, you just need to find them. Mock scrapes are just an easy way for hunters to know where scrapes are and put them in strategic locations. As long as we just urinate in them we are not increasing risk.

I look at CWD as similar to a non-native invasive species. Deer (and most wildlife) in an area are in balance with the environment. There are pendulum swings back and forth as different species slowly adapt to each other. When a new organism in introduced into the ecosystem, it either dies out quickly or flourishes. If it flourishes it is because it has found the resources it needs without natural checks. When it flourishes, it often has major negative impacts on native species for a long time before the entire ecosystem adapts to it.

So, I see our first line of defense against a devastating disease like CWD as taking precautions to keep it from entering the area. If you look at the epidemiology of CWD, it is pretty obvious from the outbreak pattern that hotspots were created by transporting deer between locations mostly for penned operations. This was done without best practices that include quarantine periods and examination. Regulating penned operations, prohibiting transport of deer parts including urine, and similar restrictions are only prudent in areas without a significant outbreak.

Once an area has a significant outbreak, I'm not sure we know the best practices for managing it. There are a lot of different interests and by definition, balancing interests is politics. Nothing I've posted is "misinformation" regarding CWD. It is clearly a disease of which we don't have a complete understanding. I can certainly understand how those who have already been bitten by both the impacts of the disease itself on their deer herds as well as some of the more drastic management measures that have been used might be sensitive.

I can't argue whether some of those more drastic management measures used in highly affected areas are effective or not. I don't think there is sufficient evidence on either side yet. I can say that is it only prudent for those of us in areas without significant outbreaks to protect our resource.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[john volkman]

"So, I see our first line of defense against a devastating disease like CWD as taking precautions to keep it from entering the area. If you look at the epidemiology of CWD, it is pretty obvious from the outbreak pattern that hotspots were created by transporting deer between locations mostly for penned operations. This was done without best practices that include quarantine periods and examination."
Your statement above is a perfect example of misinformation being spread- there is no way you can prove this at any level yet you say its obvious. Many believe evidence supports that CWD has a higher prevalence of a or a lack of certain minerals in a particular region.

 

[yoderjac]

"So, I see our first line of defense against a devastating disease like CWD as taking precautions to keep it from entering the area. If you look at the epidemiology of CWD, it is pretty obvious from the outbreak pattern that hotspots were created by transporting deer between locations mostly for penned operations. This was done without best practices that include quarantine periods and examination."
Your statement above is a perfect example of misinformation being spread- there is no way you can prove this at any level yet you say its obvious. Many believe evidence supports that CWD has a higher prevalence of a or a lack of certain minerals in a particular region.

A typical epidemiological spread of a disease has a hotspot that grows outwardly over time. Physical barriers that limit natural movement of animals (highways, rivers, etc.) mean that the outward growth is irregular. When a disease begins in a location but then develops new hotspots many hundreds or thousands of miles away it indicates non-natural travel or transport. For example with a human disease, someone may be infected in Africa and then fly to some city in the US may infect others before illness is evident and a new hotspot is formed. When you then can then geospatially correlate new hotspots with penned deer operations, the pattern does become pretty obvious.

CWD is not well understood although we are slowly gaining insight. There are many factors that may have an influence on how fast the disease spreads in a natural setting and some of those may be environmental. There is a big difference between misinformation and an incomplete understanding of the disease. My posts are not intended to provided a definitive assessment of CWD. They are cautionary based on the best scientific understanding we have today of the disease. More is being learned about this disease as new studies are conducted and replicated, but the learning process is slow. Without a full scientific understanding, management techniques come down to judgment based on our best understanding.

Prudence and caution are clearly warranted to minimize the risk of outbreaks in areas not already significantly impacted.

Thanks,

Jack