Any of you ever think that this may be one of nature' s ways to control over population? For the time being I prefer to believe Dr. James Kroll, noted wildlife biologist from the Whitetail Institute in Texas.

In efforts to control CWD, an area' s deer herd will be eradicated in order to save the herd and keep CWD from spreading? Most likely it will spread anyway and in the meantime the DNR are eradicating the deer anyway, perhaps several deer that would not have contracted CWD.

CWD has been around for many many years in some western states, and in the meantime deer and elk hunting continue to be enjoyed by hunters. Is Wisconsin making a huge mistake? Time will tell.

While I understand what you saying Cougar, the herds that are infected in the Western States (Colorado, Wyoming) are really different. We (Colorado) have a much lower deer density so it take alot longer to spread. But spread it is.

I have put some thought into this may be natures way of thinning the herd, nature knows how to handle stuff better than humans. And I do agree with that assesment, but I don' t think it came from nature, it came from game farms which took " nature" out of the deer equation. That is totally just my opinion. But when you look at the places that have a CWD problem, they all have one thing in common, close proximity to a game farm. Coincidence, I don' t think so.

Jorgy,
Many years ago there was a disease that was spread much the same in livestock as this is in deer, it was also able to spread to humans. It is called anthrax. There was no question on what to do with this the animals were distroyed and burned. I think they were not allowed to place livestock in that area for x amount of time. I am not absolutely sure on the time thing but I seem to remember my Grandfather talking about this.
I know these are oranges vs apples but they have the same if not worse outcome so why mess with it. If it was my state I would say distroy them. It would be best for the many in the long run. You can talk about somthing untill everyone comes down with it or [:' (] fix the problem. It will take a tole on things and it WILL NOT be easy but in the long run (with no type of treatment) this is what you are looking at.
Rick

I agree with you Who, that is what I' ve been saying all along.

I' ll take a pass on the customary WI/IL insults and just stick to the issue at hand.

Is there any solid proof that it spread from WI to IL? No. Deer, unlike vehicles, don' t have lisence plates on their butts.

It is, however, interesting to note that the only place in IL where CWD has been found is just a few miles south of the state line from WI' s CWD zone. Proof? No. A relatively safe guess? Yes. WI' s fault? Absolutely not.

The IDNR did do a good number of testing in several target counties last year, and McHenry, Boone, and Winnebago were the only ones to show positive.

I don' t live in WI, so I feel compelled to keep my opinions of their DNR' s handling of the situation to myself. I' d like to see the IDNR do more about it, but what can they do really? I suspect that if there was actually a course of action out there that had been shown to work, they would implement it here.

Why pass when it' s such good clean fun! It' s expected!

JRW: I was searching the IDNR website for a map showing the locations of the Ill. positives, do you know if there is one? Like I was trying to explain to 2droptine, the IDNR could start with another 35,000 or so tests. The one course of action we' ve done here that really works, is the number of tests our DNR has done. We now believe with some 90% percent certainty, what parts of the whole state contain CWD. When we' re talking about a million and a half whitetails with an economic impact of close to a billion dollars a year, that to me accomplished something.

Nub,
Again not trying to start anything but I got to ask, What did it accomplish? They already knew it was there. Sure they know most of the state now has it and as you said at the cost of close to a billion dollars a year but that seems a waste of good money. What could they have done in research for a treatment with that amount of $$$$?
You know its there, you know its spreading, you know what it does then why spend megabucks to find out what their favorite color is. To me it seems that a group just filled their pockets[]
Rick

I' m not Nub, but this is what I think. Wisconsin spent that money, not a billion of course, to find out if CWD was statewide or just confined to a relativity small area. Well, finding out that it is just a " small" area like it is means you tackle the problem a different way. Since they, or anyone else doesn' t know how to " cure" CWD they are going with the " lets try to confine it" attitude. If it would have been a statewide problem, then they would have abandon the " kill em all" theory and moved there families to a state without CWD. Half kidden of course.

I really don' t think this is one of those big ass government studies that takes 5 million dollars to find out kids like sugar.

Jorgy, you are correct, at least it now " appears" as though it is confined to a localized area, thus a different approach to the situation. If it was found statewide, yep, a different appraoch would have probably taken place. Game farms, or what? Who knows what brought it in, although I would lay my money on that possibility b4 most any other. Whoooooo knows???


I have lived in this great state all of my life and truely hope it get' s contained as quickly as possible....God only knows how long! I have land and hunt in the extreme northern portion of the state and " beleive" were ok up there??? Afterall, there isn' t another state that has nearly as many bucks in B&C, what a shame it would be to have such a great gene pool wiped out!!!