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Will you hunt deer if CWD is found in your area?

K

Kat

Guest
I know this is a downer subject, but reading the EHD post made me think of this again. If Cronic Wasting Disease was found in the area that you hunt, would you stop hunting altogether? Would you hunt but not eat the meat? Or would you not change a thing?

Let’s hope that we never have to ask ourselves this question, but what would you do?
 
I probably wouldnt eat the meat, i hear you cant get it unless you expose the brain, dont know if its true or not, either way its probably safer than a mcdonalds hamburger. I dont think it would have much effect on the hunting, if it was to the point i wasnt satisfied with what i was seeing, i would just leave the area and find an area where the deer are unaffected, lets hope it never happens
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i would hunt and have each deer i took i would process myself and keep separate from every other deer i shot and have them all tested. if they all turn out ok, i'll eat them, if not, trash can. i like venison too much.
 
Re: Will you hunt deer if CWD is found in your are

I've read that prion protiens are not found only in the brain and spinal cord. In an animal that actually is symptomatic or infected, it will be in all nervous tissue, in the lymph nodes, in the blood, small amounts in the muscle, in the spleen, in the gut - just about everywhere. I've also heard people say to just cook the meat until it's well done. Not only is that a crime against venison, these prions can withstand temps of over 1000 degrees. This is pretty serious stuff here.
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Re: Will you hunt deer if CWD is found in your are

I heard the turnaround time for the tests was a long time, like many months or almost a year. If there was a quick fool-proof test, I wouldn't have a problem with keeping on hunting and eating.
 
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This is just my opinion. I think that this is one of those things that has always been around. Now that there are more deer and everyone is looking for it there going to find it. Im not going to get to worried about it until they can prove it can affect humans, Unless deer and people start falling over dead everywhere. Hope it doesn't ever come to that.
 
Re: Will you hunt deer if CWD is found in your are

Kat - first off, hats off to someone else who thinks that cooking venison over the medium rare/medium range is a crime. i'm with ya!!
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secondly, i wonder if deer were to start dropping from CWD if the turnaround time for the tests would significantly decrease if that many people were concerned about it? i would hope that effeceincy would be first and foremost.

how long is the turn around time on the CWD tests?
 
Re: Will you hunt deer if CWD is found in your are

i agree with dbl. I mean what if you came across a dead deer in the woods five years ago. you would never think about cwd. but now you cant help but wonder. I think i would hunt but just watch the deer im going to havest carefully. Only the fittest survive.
 
Re: Will you hunt deer if CWD is found in your are

I would still hunt > If it was found like other states the dnr would try to kill ever deer in so many miles of that area. Kinda sad but is being done in other states trying to slow it.
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Re: Will you hunt deer if CWD is found in your are

I would think that the increase in the deer harvest lately will help: lower population density = less contact between animals and less spread of disease. Muddy, I read there is a quicker test (two weeks) but it is not 100% accurate. I also understand that the incubation period is at least 16 months. Symptoms include excessive salivation, trouble swallowing, difficulty judging distance, a lack of coordination and drooping ears. It's always fatal.
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The experts say they can't prove that it can be transmitted to humans, but at the same time they warn against eating meat from a contaminated animal.

Just wondering if it would change your hunting habits...
 
Re: Will you hunt deer if CWD is found in your are

Keep in mind folks, that there hasn't been any documented cases of CWD being transmitted to a human.

I hunt in a state where CWD has been found in the wild deer herd. Alhtough the outbreak has been confined so far to extereme western Nebraska, the Game and Parks Commission offers free testing to hunters for deer taken anywhere in the state.

It used to be that a brain tissue sample was used. Now they remove a coule of lymph nodes in the neck to run the test. I walked the biologist take them out of my buck this year. Very interesting.

The cut the cheek tissue back to get to the lymph nodes, so if you want to have the buck mounted, you'll want to at least partially cape it before having the samples extracted.

CWD is definitely an issue, and I think it's only a matter of time before it shows up in Iowa's herd. It's not something to be afraid of, but education is the key to overcoming fear, and that's why having discussions like this one are important.

By the way, it took about two weeks to get the the CWD test results back on my buck and they came back negative. It did appear, though, that at one time he had EHD and had survived it. This was evidenced by hoof sloughing.
 
Re: Will you hunt deer if CWD is found in your are

i have seen this first hand, in the fall of 2002, not CWD, but EHD took over a portion of my county, i have been told the diseases are very similar. fortunate for me it was on the other side of the county. personally i would hunt them and definetly support holding a hunt to kill off all the deer in the area and anywhere else that deer may be affected(although there is no exact way of knowing). this absolutely miserable disease killed off a lot of the deer in that portion of my county! i hunt only one farm in that area and we found 44 alone on it(256 acres), 16 bucks and 28 does. total for this area i belive was 396 deer. 9 of the bucks that my crew found dead were definite booners, 2 scoriong in the 180's typical. although a lot of the deer that were killed were in an area of restricted hunting, the property i hunted bordered this area and it has really killed the hunting out there. i personally haven't hunted it since but if i did there are plenty of questions that would run through my mind like, is this deer inflicted but showing no signs right now(even though they say it is gone)? if i kill this deer is it really safe to eat(even though they say it is)? now the main reason i feel so strongly about killing off the herd is that i have seen first hand as to what a deer goes through just before it dies and ladies and gentlemen it is not pretty, for those of you who haven't witnessed this! it is truely sad and i hope you never have to witness it!!!!
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Re: Will you hunt deer if CWD is found in your are

In wisconsin they were going to try and kill off the heard. Then they changed there minds. So I dont think they'll go to that extream unless there in a high fenced area.
There a small artical in deer and deer hunting about cwd. In lab rats they have figured out how to stop it and even revearsed it. So at least there headed in the right dirrection.
 
Re: Will you hunt deer if CWD is found in your are

Here in WI my buddy hunts in CWD central (SW Wisconsin). The DNR has gotten to the point where they can get the gold standard test done in 2 to 3 weeks. At UW in madison they now have thier own lab for testing so it goes much faster.

They used to ship everything to Ames to be tested so if it does show up, Iowa is well equipped for the testing.

WI Shedhead
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Re: Will you hunt deer if CWD is found in your are

Personally I am not gonna worry about it very much.Ive read up as much as I can on the subject and its been around a long time, theyve had it in Colorado for over 30 years now and have had no reports of it being spread to people.Most animal populations are controlled to some extent by desieases but people have fished, hunted, and trapped them for hundreds of years.So I really dont see much difference in a desiease in deer or the way I hunt them.I may be a little more carefull dressing them out and not cut through the spine, into the brain, ect....And if it was definately confirmed Id probably not be feeding my kids deer that hadnt been tested.But does anyone know what the testing for that costs?I cant see it being cheap escpecially if your like me and shoot 5 or 6 deer a year.And if you got everyone in a state testing thier deer I cant really see getting the results back very fast.Theres a lotta information about CWD available but Ive never seen any that specificaly said not to eat deer shot in a cwd zone.
 
Re: Will you hunt deer if CWD is found in your are

Good info guys. I hope this will be contained, not only for the sake of potential risk to humans, but for the sake of the deer. Like most hunters, I truly have a lot of love and respect for these animals, and I don’t want them suffer needlessly. And you’re right LIV, eating a mcdonalds hamburger is probably a lot more risky.
 
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I would hunt and I would eat the meat of any deer that had no obvious signs of contamination. Caution and a little common sense will keep this monster at bay as the experts work on a solution.
 
Re: Will you hunt deer if CWD is found in your are

I agree with the caution and common sense, but my concern is the long incubation period in which a deer could not show any signs of being infected. CWD is related to BSE (mad cow) and 143 people have died of nvCJD (The human version of mad cow disease, a very similar condition known as new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) in England. I don't want to be scared of it, and I know it's not really a concern here at this time, but I think of the future generations of deer hunters and wonder what things will be like for them.
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If it was to show up here, I would want to get my deer tested for it. I would rather err on the side of caution on this one.
 
Awe, they all have CWD, just some go quicker than others, just like us.
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Might as well hunt them if they's dying anyway.
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