I talk to a few breeders & vets who work on deer pens. Irrelevant whether you like them or not. I love being able to ask them deer questions & talk the issues where it can overlap to wild deer, etc.
One guy that’s a vet to one of them..... over a thousand miles from here so especially irrelevant other than this is first hand account of what happened.... this is short version the way I understood it so forgive me if I goof any details up, I’ll try & relay the discussion as close I can. At a bare minimum.... INTERESTING...
Each time a deer dies, they must get it tested. Usually throw head in freezer the way I understand and could be month or two before testing. He has a deer die. Saves head. They do test it about 60-ish days later. He’s got around 10-ish acres with incredibly high deer density & a few feeders all the deer feed from. Like in the wild, he was saying it would be like having 2,000 deer per square mile or something absurd- ridiculous high congregation. He is in a state and “near area” with cwd in wild before he had his deer. I think he had maybe like 150 deer (ballpark guess)....
so a deer dies. Gets it tested 60-ish days later- “positive”. State comes in and shoots every deer (or it was every doe, I’m not 100% sure) on the spot immediately. Gone. No questions asked. All shot deer have heads removed & tested.... I’m not taking sides - I’m just stating facts as I understood them.
Time goes by, let’s say it was 150 deer tested, zero come back positive. Since then, he’s closed down and will be going out of business Which some might say “fine, good” - whatever. He did or is challenging state on the “positive test” as there was some back & fourth mentioning a “false positive”. He claims several with the state have also verbally said it’s possible & this case it may be the case. It’s not concrete either way the way it sounds. Who knows. I don’t know the facts there. I don’t think there’s any recourse even if they got it wrong.
COMMON SENSE QUESTIONS that pop in my mind based on what I understood & heard..... I don’t have the answers but curiosity & thinking bring me here....
1) if the disease is spread by when deer are in close contact with eachother.... wouldn’t it stand to reason that some of the deer in the same pen for years would also test positive?
2) if there’s false positives - how often would that occur. & for folks freaked out on eating deer meat from cwd deer- does it concern u about the false negatives ? (We know testing does not get every case).
3) does anyone see any analogies with Covid here? Government impact on businesses. No real solution without a cure. Government claiming to know answers it doesn’t have. Clearly different situations & diseases but some interesting parallels.
I don’t have the Answers here. I’m just a critical thinker & interesting to get perspectives & experiences on this. As I get older, I likely question the “experts” more & more. I am not posting this to discredit any either. Just some interesting thinking & interesting times we living in.
There’s my true story in a nutshell. Watcha think?!?!
One guy that’s a vet to one of them..... over a thousand miles from here so especially irrelevant other than this is first hand account of what happened.... this is short version the way I understood it so forgive me if I goof any details up, I’ll try & relay the discussion as close I can. At a bare minimum.... INTERESTING...
Each time a deer dies, they must get it tested. Usually throw head in freezer the way I understand and could be month or two before testing. He has a deer die. Saves head. They do test it about 60-ish days later. He’s got around 10-ish acres with incredibly high deer density & a few feeders all the deer feed from. Like in the wild, he was saying it would be like having 2,000 deer per square mile or something absurd- ridiculous high congregation. He is in a state and “near area” with cwd in wild before he had his deer. I think he had maybe like 150 deer (ballpark guess)....
so a deer dies. Gets it tested 60-ish days later- “positive”. State comes in and shoots every deer (or it was every doe, I’m not 100% sure) on the spot immediately. Gone. No questions asked. All shot deer have heads removed & tested.... I’m not taking sides - I’m just stating facts as I understood them.
Time goes by, let’s say it was 150 deer tested, zero come back positive. Since then, he’s closed down and will be going out of business Which some might say “fine, good” - whatever. He did or is challenging state on the “positive test” as there was some back & fourth mentioning a “false positive”. He claims several with the state have also verbally said it’s possible & this case it may be the case. It’s not concrete either way the way it sounds. Who knows. I don’t know the facts there. I don’t think there’s any recourse even if they got it wrong.
COMMON SENSE QUESTIONS that pop in my mind based on what I understood & heard..... I don’t have the answers but curiosity & thinking bring me here....
1) if the disease is spread by when deer are in close contact with eachother.... wouldn’t it stand to reason that some of the deer in the same pen for years would also test positive?
2) if there’s false positives - how often would that occur. & for folks freaked out on eating deer meat from cwd deer- does it concern u about the false negatives ? (We know testing does not get every case).
3) does anyone see any analogies with Covid here? Government impact on businesses. No real solution without a cure. Government claiming to know answers it doesn’t have. Clearly different situations & diseases but some interesting parallels.
I don’t have the Answers here. I’m just a critical thinker & interesting to get perspectives & experiences on this. As I get older, I likely question the “experts” more & more. I am not posting this to discredit any either. Just some interesting thinking & interesting times we living in.
There’s my true story in a nutshell. Watcha think?!?!
