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Who knows

How about this one. CWD affects only a fraction as many deer as EHD and a miniscule portion of the deer killed on highways.

Here is another. There is no even anectdotal evidence CWD can jump a specie barrier. And believe me, there has been a whole lotta testing going on. Cattle, sheep, goats turkeys and probably some primates...nope-they don't get it. CWD be only in them cervidae things.

Now...my theory. I firmly believe CWD has been present in cervids since there have been cervids. What we didn't have was a test for it until the brilliant folks, (like Woods Walker and me,), at UW found it in the elk that we stole from CSU. And those elk came off a mountain and were live-trapped from the wild. More of my somewhat confrugulated thinking: (1)-I don't eat meat from any animal that appears sick-pretty much common sense. (2)-I don't believe you can prevent a deer with CWD from crossing a state line unless you have a high-fence around the state. (3)-Not hard to comply with the laws, so why not just do it, keep the biologists and doomsayers happy. (4)-Major causes of spread will eventually be determined as follows: Captive herds or penned deer. Interstate transport and trading of live animals. Baiting. Supplemental feeding. Acid rain. I also promote-anyone, who sees any deer that is OBVIOUSLY sick, should be allowed to kill it AT ANY TIME, no tag or license required. However, they must immediately report it and do not get to keep any part of the deer. Any deer crazy enough to get close enough to me to be killed, must have something wrong with it. Most of the deer I kill, have tested positive for viewrectitis. The nerves of the eyes have been short circuited through the rectal nerves, giving them a crappy view of life. And finally: Since CWD is spread through bodily fluids, we must put an immediate and complete end to the rut and stop all human consumption of all deer urine and most feces. I'm not sure about snot. I thought it was just mucus but it'snot. (As you can see, I am greatly concerned.) Mad Cow, Scapies, Whirling Disease, Rodentia Doldrumus and finally, Hysterical Bedlam, all must be banned.

Stuck in a rut? This denial shows your lack of education on the matter.

This makes me seriously question Anything you write.

From a CIFA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) May 2017 news release. " A limited number of experimental studies have demonstrated that non-human primates, specifically squirrel monkeys, are susceptible to CWD prions. An ongoing research study has now shown that CWD can also be transmitted to macaques, which are genetically closer to humans.

And these monkeys were only exposed to CWD through being fed infected meat. Proof that CWD infected meat can infect other animals.

There are now numerous examples of landscapes where CWD has been tested for and been negative for decades until original positive findings usually associated with known connections to game farm importations and subsequent spread to wild herds.. Yet it as always in these cervids?

Being an ostrich does not make you a good writer, it makes people realize you're opinions are not worth reading.

Macaques contracted CWD just by eating infected deer meat. This is not speculation.

I don't doubt that you have not seen a shred of conclusive evidence to the contrary. Being ignorant of the facts does not make for a successful argument.

Here is another link about yearling buck dispersal and CWD. If none of these links work you can go to his website and see his data and info.

http://nebula.wsimg.com/8576fd96ebc339dfbb90a779bf1914f9?AccessKeyId=7CE5D6F24BC6A12CD131&disposition=0&alloworigin=1

My wife doesn’t want to eat venison anymore and she doesn’t want my kids eating it either..

How do you manage driving each day? The chances of a car wreck are FAR greater than getting CWD

Yes there are tons of risks in life, especially driving, but the point is, we don’t know what the cwd risks are yet and the evidence and research is relatively new.. maybe Bowriter is right, but the latest research doesn’t necessarily support those claims...

Time will tell, but I would rather be a little safer, especially when it comes to my kids futures.. besides wife is ruling that situation more than myself, I’ll continue to hunt because I love it, and I will just have my animals tested I guess..

I just don’t see how this can be ignored, though it seems to always take a back burner to other posts

What I don’t get is deer congregating is know to spread the disease. Items such as feeders, food plots, scents, and etcetera but they are such huge sellers year after year.. we didn’t always need this stuff to kill deer.. I don’t get it...

Sure, there is hope and a possibility that CWD will never be infectious to humans or that we will develop a cure to the disease, be it for animals and /or wildlife.

The concern we need to keep in mind is; What happens IF CWD is proven to be infectious to humans?

IF CWD becomes proven to infect humans, it is TOO LATE to do much other than scorched Earth policies. The CDC has discussed the complete extermination of ALL cervids in known CWD areas, with massive population reductions in non CWD areas. Will this actually happen, quite possibly. Following is one reason why.

CWD can be up-taken by plants, including crops such as wheat and corn. ALL cropland will be considered Red Zones for agricultural use, World markets will have complete embargoes on any produce from these areas. Speculators are already contemplating how to short this potential in the markets. The economic impacts would be unprecedented.

NO GOVERNMENT has been willing to do what is necessary to control the spread of CWD. Social licence is the issue. Self interests are lobbying hard to keep their livelihood viable despite the risks to others and to Wildlife. Game Farming associations have even studied the Scorched Earth policy. It would be in their financial interest if this DID happen. They would control the main access to CWD free deer....

This is much too important to ignore or to pass off as unproven. Once proven, it is TOO LATE to save our deer.

Absolutely a true statement! But you can't say the same thing in reverse. You can't say "there is not one shred of evidence that CWD came from scrapie in sheep" That is because there is a LOT of smoking gun evidence that it did. In fact, with the evidence I have seen, I absolutely believe that it did.

If your theory is correct, why does the biggest concentration seem to be spreading out from CSU historically. And current: https://www.cdc.gov/prions/cwd/occurrence.html

Without much imagination, you can see that it would naturally spread out over time from CSU and in a trailer from Deer taken from that area to other states. That is how it got to central Texas. Why are the only two places it has been found in Texas West Texas (came over from NM) and in captive deer pens (infected deer came in a trailer)? If this were natural, why is it not found in wild deer except in those places. And don't tell me it is already there, because there has been a boatload of testing done throughout Texas and those are the only positives.

To me the shoe is on the other foot. There is plenty of smoking gun evidence that this disease originated from a test pen at CSU. It is up to you to prove otherwise and I have seen no other "theories" that holds scientific water.

As to whether or not it will ever start infecting people, neither you or I know the answer to that. But if it did I can not imagine a more horrible disease out there. One that can never be eradicated.

Our only hope is that evolution will take care of this and develop a deer herd that is resistant through natural selection. The problem with that is that it takes so long to kill a deer, the prions just keep on spreading and piling up over the years. We might be better off if it killed quick like EHD. If nature is able to get rid of infected deer, it won't be in out lifetime.

BTW I suspect there are some people on this site with CWD positive meat in their freezer that need a way to dispose of the meat because they are not going to eat it. I am sure they would be glad for you to come pick it up and let you eat it.

And we have places in Texas with a deer per 3 acres. No one knows how it will go when it gets into herds of that density.

As I say over and over : what we know scares me, but what we still don't know scares me even more. But what do I know anyway? I am just a lowly veterinarian from Texas in the county next to where it was found on the first deer farm here. So far my clinic has not sent in a positive, but it is only a matter of time.

Uh, don't count on it. Where it was in pens at CSU, they removed the topsoil, put down lye, and placed the topsoil and kept deer out for several years. When they put deer back in the same pens, they still came down with CWD. Unless your soil has something truly unique that kills the prions, but that is highly doubtful. Once it is in a place, so far there is no way you can ever get rid of it. That is what is so devastating about this disease. With Scrapie in sheep, and Mad Cow in cattle, you kill all infected animals and the disease disappears. Not so with CWD

I wonder if it grows in the plants that deer consume or something like that..

Scary stuff, I wish it wasn’t so easily brushed off as nothing

I will. The biggest push to "not worry" and "don't use scare tactics" is being pushed by big money form deer farms. According to them, we are all worried about nothing, and should allow unrestricted movement of deer regardless of CWD. Sorry, but to me that is not prudent!

WTH? Stop eating people from Borneo?

How about you educate us on the history of BSE. Be sure to include the part where governments were promoting Mad Cow meat as safe to eat.

True, but we don't know how deep the rabbit hole goes. It is not a disease that spreads fast, it takes years, and the increases in endemic areas is not encouraging. Some penned deer have up to 70% infection rate. We may be headed there in wild deer someday as well

From Wisconsin:

CWD prevalence has also changed over time. Since 2002, CWD prevalence within our western monitoring area has shown an overall increasing trend in all sex and age classes. During the past 15 years, the trend in prevalence in adult males has risen from 8-10 percent to over 30 percent and in adult females from about 3-4 percent to nearly 15 percent. During that same time, the prevalence trend in yearling males has increased from about 2 percent to over 10 percent and in yearling females from roughly 2 percent to about 9 percent.

Is there a way hunters can help/contribute? Kinda' amazing if not.

I probably will kill less than I have in the past but will get them tested from here out.

There could still be prions present in the tested tissue at too low of a concentration or in other parts of the animal, such as the muscle tissue.

And let's not forget the extremely disturbing Canadian study, which didn't clarify what level of prions must be present in the meat to be a risk, but it did reveal that 3 of 5 MONKEYS FED ONLY ONE 7 OZ. STEAK PER MONTH FOR LESS THAN TWO YEARS DID MANAGE TO CONTRACT THIS ALWAYS-FATAL DISEASE! That is a much lower rate of venison consumption than that of most hunters I know.

For your info, here's the message that accompanies Wisconsin DNR test results:

CWD Not Detected

Tissue from the deer you provided the Wisconsin DNR for chronic wasting disease (CWD) testing has been examined for CWD prions. There were no CWD prions found and therefore no evidence that the deer was infected with CWD. However, the inability to find CWD prions in the tissue examined is NOT equivalent to pronouncing this deer absolutely free of CWD prions or stating that it is safe to consume. All laboratory tests for CWD only assess the presence or absence of a detectable amount of prions in the specific tissue examined at the time the tissue was collected. A recently infected animal may not test positive because prions have not yet reached a detectable level in the tissue that was tested. CWD testing is clearly of value for disease surveillance to learn where the disease exists, but it has limited value in the context of food safety testing.

I am not a fear-monger, and I have determined for myself that what I gain from chasing deer and elk with a bow outweighs the (probably) slight risk of contracting a CWD related illness, as long as common sense is used. Due to the unknowns, however, I definitely do not feel safe making that same decision for my kids.

And there is enough circumstantial evidence that it can pass from deer species to humans, and the incubation periods can be so incredibly long for brain wasting diseases-decades, in fact-that it is incredibly reckless for uninformed individuals to be making proclamations about CWD being around "forever" and posing no risk to humans.

If that were the case, the Department of Defense probably wouldn't have a $42.5 MILLION dollar program trying to protect the US food supply from the threat of prions entering the food supply from deer....either through contamination of meat processing plants, spreading it to cattle directly, or shedding prions into the environment and being taken up into crops such as corn and soybeans.