Do you test for CWD?
General Topic
Bowriter's thread got me wondering how many actually test every animal they shoot for CWD?
I believe it's been around for ever. No humans ever contracted it. I don't worry about it.
According to Bowriter it depends on animal position and shot distance.
No, there hasn't been any CWD found in FL, yet.
Only when it its mandatory
Like you Lou, Im sure Ive eaten plenty of CWD over the years. I think its made me a better elk hunter. Got me in tune with the 'true sounds' elk make
Brad, considering where we live and hunt, there's little doubt statistically. If you see me drooling and wobbling around more than usual when I'm at your place, please call my wife to come pick me up.
;-)
Not in my area .....yet. It's probably coming, but I might be dead before it gets here. You know, breathing ozone, using Thermacell, etc., etc.
Lou, ask your wife if she wants you gutted and quartered before arriving
The ground I own over by Rabbit Mountain has shown 1 in 4 deer test positive. It is a known hot spot. If I ever shot one there, I will test. I've got young kids, not going to risk their health.
I've been told by CPW senior biologists older bucks are more susceptible, perhaps because they have been exposed longer.
Had a hunting buddy out at my place who was sighting in his rifle 2 weeks ago. He watched a whopper buck for along time. The buck was falling over, acting odd. I called it in to the game warden, not sure if they found him yet. Might be coyote dung by now.
Steve, I read a study where they theorized older bucks were more susceptible because of their exposure to multiple doe groups during the rut.
They also theorized that mature infected bucks were more susceptible to being shot by hunters because they lose all self-preservation instincts as the disease progresses.
We do.
I live with a vet who has done research on CWD and we have a kid-I have no choice in the matter and for good reason!
Plus, I hunt in the hot spot outside of Fort Collins. Not sure I would test if I was still a bachelor.
This year I will be testing my deer from Iowa and Missouri too.
But if others don't test I get that too.
PS.....Uncle Lou your meat is CWD free.
Nope. I'm open to evidence that testing prevents me getting ill. But there isn't any.
Nope. I'm open to evidence that testing prevents me getting ill. But there isn't any.
I will start testing my deer/elk from Colorado when they start diagnosing case in the area I hunt.
Also, currently, if you kill a deer or elk in Colorado, Texas forbids you from bringing back the head with the brain inside or the spinal cord.
I know of a couple of Texans who killed two nice bucks from northern Colorado last year. Both very nice mature bucks. Both were positive. When Colorado sent them the positive results, they refunded their tag price and told them not to eat it. I realize this was just CYA BS, but they are being cautious.
Illinois does it for free, just chop the head and drop it off. They call within a week or so and will even pick up the meat if it turns out to be positive.
This is the first year, that has been feasible here. I probably will participate "some". It involves quite a bit of time and travel, here. If they brought back the old check stations with TWRA folks working, I would let them test every one. That said, TN is supposed to be CWD free. I doubt it ever has been. For that reason, personally, I don't much care. If the deer appears sick, I aint eating it. If it appears healthy, I have no qualms.
It's pretty safe to say it will be in my areas within 5 years. Closest confirmed case to where I hunt now is about 30 miles. When it creeps up near me I will absolutely start having the meat tested.
I feed it to my family, no way I am taking that chance. It's not "if" it jumps to humans, it's "when". And it is a brutal way to go.
In a tree right now let me think about it.
Yinzer, if there was a confirmed case 30 miles from you, then it exists where you are. Bucks traveling during the rut spread it to the doe groups and it becomes like playing checkers.
They (PGC) have a pretty robust testing program. Spread has been faster South (higher deer density and gentler topography) but has slowly crept North. Bucks aren't changing ranges by 30 miles for the rut in the East like they do out West. Maybe 5 miles in extreme cases. Yearling dispersal is another story but that is a bit different. Either way I know it'll be a few short years before I am getting them tested on some tracts.
I would get them tested now if you're concerned. Whitetail bucks will travel five miles during the rut and infect a doe family. But then other bucks that visit that doe group travel in different directions, and so on. It's like the links on a chain.
It's a mysterious ailment. How it reached South Korea and Norway is the big mystery. There were a few whitetails released in Norway in the 1930's, but none since. So if it came from them, that blows the whole theory that it originated in the C.S.U. deer pens with mule deer in the '60s, and spread from there.
Yinzer-they can't test the meat, takes a brain slice and I have no idea how the wait is until you hear back.
As I said in another post, Jaquomo, if you have cervdiae, it is quire likely you have CWD and probably, always have had it.
One of the issues with the 'tests' is that they are grant funded. Which means they are 'on again/off again' and the sample sizing isnt consistent or ongoing.
Im quite sure if we knew how much grocery store food we have eaten that contains bacteria/protozoa we wouldnt think twice about eating the wild game we harvest
I will for sure in the future after reading the Canada study and the information available on Prion transmission. Problem for us is they are just scratching the surface on this research.
What scares me is the long incubation period from the study (6-7 years) Heck a bunch of us could already have it and not know
I wonder though if they could have CWD and have neg testing due to the length of time for infection...
I live in an area that now requires testing. Took the first one in last week. Tested negative for CWD, and Bovine tuberculosis.
I have never had a deer tested. There is mandatory testing this year in the unit I hunt deer in though. And, after some things I've read this past year I will test all the deer I shoot going forward, I have three young daughters and I won't risk their health.
The deer tag I had this year it was mandatory to have it tested. I shot a decent 4x4, test came back negative.
i did just read and since everything on the internet is true! That just because it comes back negative it does not mean there are no CWD prions in the animal, just not in the samples tested...
There is not 100% test out there, human or animal.
While I am dreading the day I get some infected deer on my ranch, I think the numbers in the article can easily be explained because "we were looking for it" after about 2002 and it is now a reportable disease. I will test eventually for the deer on my ranch when it gets closer
Alot of great CWD info at the attached link. Check out the Downloads and the discussion of yearling buck dispersal.
First CWD found in southeast Montana last week.
It hasn't come out yet in print but I got an email saying a 3rd suspected case was found in the same township in Montcalm County, MI. It's moving north. The email said the first was a 2.5 - 3.5 year old doe, the other two suspected positives were yearling bucks. That gets into the CWD - yearling dispersal download mentioned above.
No but I have given up eating lungs and lymph nodes.
Still eating brain and spinal tissue though?
My wife has been saying she doesn’t want to eat venison or the kids to eat it either...
Uggg
