Solution of Curing CWD
Whitetail Deer
Is killing more deer the solution to curing the CWD issue or does less deer equate to lower percentages of occurrence, yet the disease continues to live. What are your thoughts?
"https://www.clarionledger.com/story/sports/outdoors/2022/08/05/mississippi-deer-bag-limit-higher-than-you-think/10210978002/
How many deer can you shoot in Mississippi? A lot more than you probably think.
'Of antlerless deer, at least five must come from the North Central DMU. Of the four antlered bucks, at least one must come from the North Central DMU.'
For many years, the statewide bag limit on private land has been accepted as being three bucks and five does, with the exception of the Southeast Deer Management Unit where it's three bucks and two does.
But with the formation of the North Central Deer Management Unit in 2021, the annual bag limit is higher —much higher — depending on how you play your cards and if you have access to private land in that DMU.
"In a nutshell, the statewide bag limit is four antlered bucks and 10 antlerless deer," said William McKinley, Deer Program coordinator for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.
In Mississippi, the bag limit for deer is much higher than many may think, if you have access to land in the North Central Deer Management Unit. The limit was effectively increased when the North Central DMU was formed and the bag limit was set at four antlered bucks and 10 antlerless deer on private land within the unit. The unit includes Alcorn, Benton, Desoto, Marshall, Tate and Tippah counties.
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CWD management and deer bag limits
The reasons cited for the increased limit were high deer density and the prevalence of chronic wasting disease in the area, which is the highest known prevalence in the state and something MDWFP said needed addressing.
"Our goal there in a effort to combat CWD is to encourage hunters to reduce deer densities through hunter harvest," McKinley said. "We'd like to see the numbers reduced in that area to slow the spread of CWD."
Here's how it works.
"It is in aggregate," McKinley said. "Of antlerless deer, at least five must come from the North Central DMU. Of the four antlered bucks, at least one must come from the North Central DMU."
Mississippi deer antler requirements
Statewide, hunters may harvest one buck with hardened antlers that do not meet the minimum requirement of the unit where it was harvested on private land and Holly Springs National Forest. In the North Central DMU, antler restrictions do not apply and hunters may harvest any antlered buck.
For youth hunters 15 years of age and younger, antler restrictions do not apply on private land and authorized state and federal land. Those hunters can harvest bucks with any hardened antler.
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Read this:Mississippi deer hunting: Counties added to Chronic Waste Disease management zones
Chronic wasting disease is said to be always fatal in deer and was first detected in Mississippi in 2018. Since there have been 127 confirmed cases in the state, according to the MDWFP website.
In an effort to better manage the disease, MDWFP is asking hunters to continue to submit tissue samples for testing throughout the state. McKinley said the department is adding more sample drop-off locations and updating its list of taxidermists that will have samples tested. The locations and participating taxidermists will be available soon.
"We've got it just about finished," McKinley said. "It will certainly be before the Sept. season." "
Colorado mass killed Elk and mulies in the 90's in the north part of the state, and all it did was, well, kill off all the deer and Elk. Ive read that most does can have two years of fawns before the disease kills them. A lot of folks believe CWD has always been here, and we're over reacting to it.
I live in the original hot spot. Culling didn't help and we are still recovering from it. Whitetails came back faster but it was awful for muleys. Doing essentially nothing has proven to be the best path.
I think it s a waste of effort based on results of efforts tried in many States . Same as invasive species such as Zebra mussels in lakes. Efforts are not stopping the spread, maybe slowing it a bit. The spotty checks and controls at boat landings are a no brainer hit and miss and more lakes are identified each year with the invaded species. Millions are spent and it only makes lake associations that think they own "their lakes" believe they are doing something. Nothing is eliminating CWD. I know people involved in both efforts that say it is a waste of time and money but something the agencies feel they need to show an attempt. Not the only thing in this world that is handled this way; eh?
No, killing more deer is not the answer.
Will it slow its spread? Maybe but the cure is worse than the disease. Colorado seems to think killing more mature bucks will slow its spread but I think all that really does is bring in more money for them.
Once in the soil, it will always be there.
I'm from the government and I'm here to help has killed more critters needlessly than all other methods combined.
Yup think about it. They are killing animals for the purpose of the disease not killing animals hmm.
There is no known cure. CWD, like all transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, is not treatable and ultimately fatal. This makes it a real, and undeniable threat to animal and herd health. To date, scientists have documented that CWD can have negative population effects in elk, mule deer, and white-tailed deer.
Since its discovery here over two decades ago the Wisconsin DNR, in conjunction with various (and varied) stakeholder groups, has talked about, studied, and tried this or that program to learn more about CWD in the hope of eliminating it from the Badger landscape. To date, their efforts have proven to be 100% unsuccessful. As a representative of a sportsman's group I have spent countless hours in meetings, contributed input representing my group, and wasted a considerable amount of energy in the hope that something positive might come of it. We have learned there is no "magic-bullet" we can use to eliminate CWD and that we know little more now than we did when we started the study.
Masks, social distancing, destroying local businesses and a vaccine! It worked for Covid!
Bottom line, if you work for a state as a biologi$$t, you best fall in line with other state Biologi$$t.
Don't you dare go against science and form your own opinion.
CWD I feel, is here to stay, for the reason that it is transmissible not just through animal to animal contact via bodily secretions, but through the ground and vegetation. Once an infected cervid urinates, prions in the urine permeate the ground and remain viable. Vegetation that grows in the urine saturated area, also contains prions, and any animal that walks through that area, will carry those prions on it hooves, paws, feet etc... Deer being social and inquisitive creatures do not help the cause one bit. We as hunters can only do so much, but we must be vigilant in reporting sickly deer and offering a sample if your state game agency asks. Here in NYS we have been in a vicious cycle for over 2 decades. CWD, coyote explosion, and EHD. Our herd has not had a break, and factor in an inept NYS-DEC and we are lucky to have any wildlife at all.
"To date, scientists have documented that CWD can have negative population effects in elk, mule deer, and white-tailed deer."
Yes, when thousands of perfectly healthy animals, which may have natural immunity, are shot at night by CPW/DNR shooters, and their bodies dumped into burn pits, it definitely has negative population effects. Especially so when the habitat is saturated with mountain lions, and nothing is done to "cull" them.
More than 30 years after the slaughter around where I live near the CWD epicenter, and the mule deer are still recovering from that stupid idea. Now they are trying to kill off all the mature bucks in another ill-conceived "solution". Colorado's once great mule deer legacy is being flushed down the toilet.
Wyoming is unfortunately going to help CO with their plan to decimate mature bucks. We shall see if it comes to fruition in the Laramie Range, we got it stopped for now in the Snowies.
The top scientist we know studying CWD says we have to try something or it will be very detrimental to our herds but I don't see how this can help at all. He also told me one herd in Sas. is near 85+% prevalence and is in real danger right now.
With the diverse approaches among the states to "control" cwd, it seems obvious no one knows really what should be done, if anything. State wildlife departments have a hard time admitting they really don't have any idea what to do about it except encourage hunters to provide samples for them to test. Those tests provide some observational data but they don't manage anything and I'm not even sure about the data. I hunt SE Wyoming and I have yet to meet a resident who tests their elk or deer. I'm sure they are out there.
Developing a simple field test would greatly improve the data.
It seems to me that all deer or elk are not equally susceptible to the disease. Granted, it is 100% fatal when one develops the disease but exposure to the prions does not necessarily result in disease and eventually death or those "superherds" of elk in SE Wyoming that look like an Amarillo feedlot would not exist.
Our Oklahoma game and fish has taken a unique approach....denial.
From the Oklahoma Wildlife Dept website: "Oklahoma deer hunters may have heard about Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) afflicting deer and elk in other states. The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC) has been following the progress of CWD for decades and is making preparations in case the disease is detected in the state's wild herd."
Every bordering state to Oklahoma has confirmed cwd cases. You want to know why it isn't in Oklahoma? The state tests about 100 deer from the 128,000 deer harvested and they have had zero positives. Hunters have no opportunity for testing unless you want to make arrangements with the vet school at Oklahoma State Univ.
I think money needs to go to proving/disproving whether it can be transferred to humans. If it truly can't, let it ride.
Its been around a long,long time. A lot longer than any of us been alive. As they say, let nature takes its course. Nothing we have done in the past has helped so why would it help now?? Shawn
There has never been a case of a jump to humans, and people have been eating infected meat for 60 years at least, assuming it just magically appeared one day in the N. CO foothills. Our county, the epicenter, had a lower per capita percentage of CJDv than the country as a whole, and presumably has been consumed longer here than anywhere else. Only one person I know has meat tested anymore.
We will see how the Norway solution works. One of their reindeer herds developed it from what they believe is spontaneous folding of the prions. So they killed every single one from helicopters, but the prions are still in the soil.
Lou, you're right, it hasn't "jumped" to humans yet as far as we know. Are you at all concerned with how rapidly it's spreading in areas, like here in KS, or how it seems to be decimating the older age classes of cervids?
“Seems” to be or is actually killing more mature animals? If so, why? Does age reduce the host’s ability to fight or resist progression of the disease?
Count me in the camp of not just willing to kill everything to prevent them from death by another cause. Let’s study and learn, we might learn that deer with certain genetic characteristics can resist just like that possibility appears likely with humans and Covid. If so, let them keep breeding and passing on whatever keeps the healthy ones healthy.
Stix the issue with that is most of the people working on this are state bioogist and employess of the state. So one person that is higher up in the department a lot of times can push their own agenda and a lot of times that person is an idiot, like we have here in NY. No one in our conservation department knows how to manage our deer herd. Again, I am no rocket scientist but the killing of more animals and ecsp older animals has not helped any where they tried it. I know in EHD the animals eventually gain some natural immunity so there may be a way to innoculate deer herds. CWD I am not dure if that is possible as has been said it is in the soil and plants and minerals and stays there a very long time. I again say don't mess with mother nature!! Shawn
Stix: the science seems to change when you cross state lines or international boundaries. Norway science solved their problem by eliminating all the reindeer in the herd. Do you think that science will work in Colorado or Kansas or Wyoming? To have good science you have to have good data and good data on CWD is not available in most areas because as Lou mentioned, no one does tests unless they are forced to.
Seems like not all CWD is the same.
Report from NCWD is a slowly progressing disease of deer, elk, reindeer, and moose which always leads to death. The chronic wasting disease is a prion disease and related to the BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) and other TSE diseases (transmissible spongiform encephalopathy). The disease is common in North America.
The moose found in Kuhmo Norway did not suffer from the North American, transmissible form of the chronic wasting disease, but from the form diagnosed in Norway, which is found incidentally in individual animals of the deer family.
Kyle, I can't speak for other states, only for my own. What we know from the Front Range of Colorado since it was first discovered almost 60 years ago is that density increases the spread (ie..feeding and baiting) vs. deer that are not fed at specific sites, killing almost all the deer does nothing to stop the spread but does kill off the ones that appear to have a natural immunity, when the deer herds do recover, they seem to stabilize at roughly the same percentage of infection rate as before, and not all animals exposed to it contract it. We also know that for some unknown reason, mature bucks have a higher infection rate than the general population, and they appear to spread it as they travel between doe groups during the rut. Beyond that, there are many mysteries still to be resolved.
Thanks Lou, that's the gist of what I've read and heard as well. However, a resounding "always fatal" phrase is repeated amongst the experts. Hoping they outlaw all baiting in KS, for a multitude of reasons, and it's on the radar now with the number of positive cases ramping up here.
If they just left it alone it would take care of itself. no herd of big game animals has been wiped out by cwd in history.
It makes sense that it effect more mature bucks. They are spreading more bodily fluids than all other animals in the herd. They make scrapes and lick them and sniff them, they work licking branches and piss on everything including themselves than they lick the tarsals of other deer as well. Older bucks normally lay down more sign than the younger bucks and investigate more scents and smells than other deer. Makes 100% sense they "catch" it more than all other deer. Shawn
Solution for curing CWD?
Easy - quit testing for it
kill 100% of the deer and there will be no CWD in deer
science 101
I'm just a regular guy but so far I beat many of the experts on the impeachment, Covid, CWD and bunch of other issues we have. Not ready to quit trusting common sense, my gut, and reading between the lines when looking at data just yet.
If we quit having our deer and elk tested, it will go away, but my thought is this: By giving them our animals to test voluntarily, we shoot ourselves in the foot. I no longer test. It was mandatory. We decimated our herd here in southern Wisconsin following their guidance, but I only know of one person who gets his deer tested on a voluntary basis. Everyone else simply avoids eating unhealthy (looking) deer.
When possible, I have my venison tested prior to consumption.
CWD! It's ALWAYS been here and always will be here! Get rid of those who are trying to control the UN-controllable! NO ONE has ever contracted CWD, so I would venture to say it's non-transfereable??? EAT your deer and just hunt! I've eaten 6 positive over the last 20 yrs. when I had them tested, now I JUST HUNT! If you wish to believe all the BS, it's your RIGHT to do so! Its Mother Natures way of handling overpoputation! Do what you wish!! At 73 yrs. old and and have eaten deer my whole life, I'll still be eating on my last day!
