CWD close to Iowa

[Old Buck]

I have bad news. CWD has been found only 6 miles from the Iowa border. This has many implications and I will advise action but I want to check with several sources first to make sure I am advising the appropriate action.

Old Buck


Wisconsin : CWD-Positive Whitetail Found On Crawford County Farm


Date: January 26, 2005
Source: Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection


Contacts:
Donna Gilson
608-224-5130


MADISON -- A white-tailed deer that died on a Crawford County farm has tested positive for chronic wasting disease, State Veterinarian Dr. Robert Ehlenfeldt announced today.

The National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, reported the test results Friday, Jan. 21. The 19-month-old buck died from respiratory causes, according to the laboratory report, and was sampled for CWD testing Jan. 12. Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection rules require that all farm-raised deer and elk 16 months or older must be tested when they die, go to slaughter or are killed.

The deer was owned by Curtis Christenson, Eastman, and was one of a herd of about 40 animals. The herd is enrolled in the state’s CWD monitoring program.

Christenson’s herd was quarantined Jan. 21, because the remaining animals have been exposed to CWD. The quarantine stops movement of live deer off the farm. Department staff are tracing movements of deer onto and from the farm, to find out if other herds may have been exposed.

In an unrelated case, Ehlenfeldt announced he has quarantined a deer herd owned by Don Schnell, Rosholt. The Portage County deer herd was quarantined because a deer sold from it to an Almond hunting preserve tested positive after being shot on the preserve. No other animals on Schnell's farm have tested positive.

In all, 20 herds in Wisconsin are under quarantines related to CWD. Ten of those herds are related to on-farm CWD cases. The rest are herds that may have been exposed to CWD, because they are within the Department of Natural Resources disease eradication zone.

To date, 28 farm-raised animals in Wisconsin have tested positive for CWD on seven farms, out of more than 10,000 tested. One of the infected animals was an elk; the rest have been white-tailed deer.

 

[deadeye]

I saw that in the paper a few days ago. I was just glad it was a game farm deer and not a wild one.

 

[Shredder]

I'd be willing to bet that it is already here (Iowa).....it just has not been diagnosed yet. Only time will tell what to make of the disease overall but from what I have seen, it looks pretty devistating as to how state officials manage the herd in endemic areas. I just hope it steers clear of my area and all the good people on this site.

 

[River1]

I believe it's probably here also. If not, it won't be long!

 

[NebraskaWhitetail]

That stuff will spread from game farm animals to wild ones. That's what happened here in Nebraska. Like what was said above, CWD is probably already in Iowa but just not yet confirmed.

Before everyone goes ballistic over this, don't let things get blown out of proportion. Many of the non-residents here on the site live in states where CWD has already been found. It hasn't drastically changed things or how we hunt. You can have your kills tested if it is a big deal to you (usually free of charge). And unless I have my facts wrong, there has never been a documented case of CWD being transmitted to from a deer or elk to a human.

Take it for what it's worth. CWD definitely does need to be controlled, but it isn't the Black Death or the doom of deer hunting in America.

 

[SaskGuy]

CWD won't be the death of deer hunting where it is found.......if your DNR do a respectable job of dealing with it.

We had some cases pop up a few years back in the game farm Elk population. All game farm elk were slaughtered and buried. CWD then started showing up in wild deer in various areas of the province. The Mule Deer seem to be the ones most often found carrying the disease but it did appear in some whitetails too. Let me just say that our DNR have done a terrible job of dealing with it and if they continue to act this way, deer hunting in Saskatchewan could get ugly. Some zones deemed CWDzones, were opened up for an absolute free for all SLAUGHTER. These were traditionally Mule Deer zones and Mule Deer tags in Saskatchewan are on a draw basis. They opened a couple zones right up to anybody, to come in and shoot as many deer as they could shoot. The DNR will hand you as many CWD tags as you wish. In turning in 2 doe heads they would give you a buck tag. Trophy hunters from all over the province showed up and the mass slaughter began. Deer were chased by vehicle, shot and left to rot, people began to trespass all over the place. I know this well because this zone was the one in which I grew up and have many friends and family residing in today.
The DNR decided that wiping out the herd in the area was the best way to control it. I wonder why they don't realize that imagnary boundaries do not keep deer from crossing from one zone to the next. All the pressure this CWD zone received surely caused deer to move into adjacent zones.
This year, those adjacent zones were also opened up for the mass slaughter. I wonder how many of their adjacent zones will be opened up next year? Our DNR are simply aiding in the spreading of the disease with the action they have taken. Do not let yours make the same mistake.
In closing I'd like to say that I think that CWD has likely existed in our wild deer herds for many years. Only now are we as a race smart enough to diagnose these things and deem them tragic. I have to wonder if maybe it wouldn't be better if we knew a little less than we do, like in the good old days!lol What you don't know doesn't hurt you they say. I don't want to know if CWD shows up where I live.

 

[deernstuff]

Saskguy, I don't know that anyone has done a respectable job of dealing with it yet.
C=crap!!!
W=we better
D=do SOMETHING

Which is currently where most of the "management" is at. Nobody really knows how to deal with the SE's so they are making things up as they go. The problem is they are basing it on a traditional disease model (viral, bacterial) when this disease is anything but traditional. The modes of action, underlying causitive agent, modes of transmission, all these things are poorly understood. The decisions being made are not (IMO) being made from a game management perspective, but from a human and production animal health perspective. Will it make us sick, will it make my herd sick...nobody knows. Most people would rather be safe than sorry, and to most people that means killing whatever they see as potentially being sick.
Unfortunately, I fear that the slaughter of deer will continue until the disease is better understood, as this seems the most palatable solution to the general public. As long as their government is doing SOMETHING to protect them from something that MIGHT make them sick...they're happy.

My question is this...why is doing something alway better than doing nothing. It would seem that to treat a disease, you would first need to pour all your resources into understanding the disease. Pour the resources into research instead of these irradication programs and figure out how this works.

 

[horst]

ive read quite a bit about CWD.That doesnt make me an expert and Im certainly not claiming to know more than the biologists who do this for a living.But theres a few things about the deer eradication that dont make sense to me.

First, the desiese isnt anything new.It showed up in Colorado in the 70s.And its still there, almost 30 years later.But the area CWD first showed up in out there still has game animals running around.Not as many but it hasnt wiped the entire area out.

Second is the CWD itself.If I remember correctly you cant kill it through heat or cold temps.Its a prion, so if you kill a deer and burn the carcass, or one dies naturally in the winter and rots, the burning or freezing wont kill it, the diesease is still there waiting for whichever animal wanders into the area next.Mass killing of deer isnt gonna stop the spread of it, its still gonna be present in the enviroment.

Last time I checked they were still trying to figure out if it was airborne or spread by actual contact.And it so far hasnt shown up as jumping to other species of animals.The threat to humans is about none at this point unlike some other deseases found in domestic animals{mad cow desease}.

And going back to Colorado, its been present there a long time.Why is it only getting attention now that its spreading east?Theyve had a long time to get together and try to figure this stuff out.Now its spreading and the states still seem to be trying to handle it themselves.from the time it showed up to the time they started eradicating deer it seemed like a knee jerk solution to the probelm, and one they cant back out of now without looking bad.But after all the shooting the crap is still spreading, and showing up in new places.just seems to me like its probably gonna have to run its course and shooting thousands of healthy deers not getting us anywhere fast.

 

[Kat]

For what it’s worth, I read about a study a couple years ago in Wisconsin that showed that that the ratio of male to female deer with cwd was equal when they were younger, but that a mature buck was twice as likely to have it as a doe of the same age. Probably because they travel more and come into contact with more deer.