Champlain Islander

I was looking at the map that was on the article Jake posted. Almost all of the hot areas have expanded and are all tightly connected with no gaps. There are a few isolated spots but suspect they came from a game farm in the area that imported infected animals. It is clear that as time goes on this disease will spread and eventually consume the whole country. This thing has been around and documented since the 1960's when it started at a game farm in Colorado. If this were a human disease it would have to be stopped through whatever methods science can come up with. What is hard for me to understand is why no universal things have happened to stop it. States still allow canned hunting facilities to remain open when it has shown that they often contribute to the spread of CWD. People, in some locations are still able to hunt in infected areas and bring the whole carcasses back to a home state thus transporting the prions from one place to another. They discard the carcass after butchering which transfers those prions into the earth and later gets into the native animals through plant growth. Once there is a documented crossover to humans it will be a whole new ballgame. Perhaps then a solution will happen on a national level.

Bocajnala

^^^^ if it's not 'too late'

-Jake

MudderChuck

I realize the resistance to change would be formidable, but in some aspects the German (northern European) system is superior. It has evolved over hundreds of years and the only problems that ever seem to happen with it are political in nature.
There are approximately 60,000 semi-professionals that are licensed to manage game in Germany. Each manager buys a lease and is responsible for the game. Quotas are set by a regional authority and overseers are appointed to do game counts and monitor multiple leases.
Outbreaks of any sort are identified and dealt with in a timely manner. Except when the politicians chime in.
Managers have to do a two-year course, the equivalent of an AA in game management and forestry. Politicians are talkers, the muddy boot types are usually doers.
The system is far from perfect, but dealing with things like CWD it is fairly responsive. I've seen it work in various types of outbreaks, the system can sustain a ten-year concerted, nationwide plan.
I have no idea if it would work in the U.S. northern Europe is some smaller than the U.S. Northern Europe has a long history of intensive game management.
Piecemeal is unlikely to be successful.

Champlain Islander

From what I have been reading there was federal money allocated to deal with the disease on a national level but that has since not been renewed. It is amazing to me that there is such a difference on how different states deal with it and like you said piecemeal is unlikely to be successful. What is clear is that the disease is spreading rapidly and will be a big issue for states like mine in the future. When I read the article Jake posted it struck me that there is a question in my mind about whether the authors based it on science or is an anti tool.

MudderChuck

I got the same vibe like the article was written by a greenie or an animal rights advocate. Save the Deer by questioning the wholesomeness of the meat.

At the upper management level, everybody is political and/or has an agenda. In Germany a program to deal with Wild Boar overpopulation has pretty much been paralyzed by conflicting politics and agendas. On the one side, the farmers are getting hammered by wild Hog damage, the hog farmers are really afraid of the spread of Swine Flu. The back to nature types and the Greenies are trying to protect the Hogs. The hunters wouldn't much mind promoting more Hog hunting and encouraging the prices to fall for hunts. For the politicians, it is just a bargaining chip in a bigger game. For the farmers, it is a growing threat to their bottom-line. Nothing much productive seems to be happening.

IMO it is unlikely anything constructive or productive is going to happen until it turns into a crisis. One thing is for sure, better testing methods and availability is needed post haste. The removal of lymph nodes by the inexperienced is unlikely to be productive and may just spread the disease.

This just a sample, https://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildli...arvested-deer/

Erno86

Just before the CWD outbreak occurred in Green Ridge Forest, Maryland...one of my huntin' buddies told me that a elk hunter had died of CWD, after he contracted the illness, when he field dressed and quartered the elk.

West Virginia Natural Resources Police tried to quell the CWD outbreak, by wiping out the deer herd in infected zones. That occurred just before the disease jumped over the Potomac River and into GRF.

I believe that CWD is spread by deer droppings --- When the deer eat the plants next to the infected droppings.

Oldtimr

CWD was initially spread east of the Mississippi by captive deer breeders moving deer from west of the river east of the river. It was then spread form the pen raised deer to the wild deer. Why every deer farm in this country is nit closed down and burned to the ground is a question every hunter in the country should be asking their respective legislators! Then there was the University on CO that was doing research on CWD in Mule deer and captive breeding them, then released all the deer plus the offspring into the wild that really got it going west of the Mississippi.

Champlain Islander

I agree with OT. Every deer or elk farm should be closed and animals disposed of in a safe way. The track of the spread can definitely be linked to captive cervid establishments. This disease is a one way street and all the infected animals are going to die. Apparently it is fairly contagious since there have been numerous captive hunting facilities that have shown CWD outbreaks and later on the wild animals in close proximity have also shown diseased. This disease poses the biggest threat to our deer and elk hunting heritage. Can you imagine the fallout when and if CWD crosses the cervid / human threshold.

younggun308

It seems the best-case-scenario is to dramatically reduce deer densities in CWD areas, if the spread is worst in areas of extremely high densities (deer/elk farms, high pop units). West Tennessee just got some confirmed cases, and they practically extended the season and got rid of bag limits in a handful of counties. It seems to be the most sensible approach.

Barring a more aggressive implementation of such a policy in Northern Virginia. I fully expect a catastrophic wipeout of deer populations in the Washington, D.C. area within the next 15 years. Northern Virginia counties, which generally have the highest deer densities, are where the "CWD containment zone" is. But assuming the infection hops the county lines into Loudon and Prince William Counties, it's only a matter of time before Rock Creek Park in DC, with its 100+ deer per square mile, gets littered with corpses and buzzards. I hope that DC residents then come to realize how stupid they were to not allow a liberal issuance of archery tags.

Divenut2

The nearest cases of CWD are still several counties away from where I hunt in Egg Harbor WI. While I haven't felt the need to test my deer yet, I am considering it if there are any positive results in the neighboring counties. Figure it can't hurt.