Thoughts on Eatable CWD Deer??

[longcruise]

While CWD was first identified in the holding pens in Fort Collins, the epicenter was later determined to be further north in Wyoming.

The problem with feeding deer is not the spreading of human diseases but spreading the CWD between deer.

The pens in Fort Collins were cleared and disinfected. Deer that tested free of CWD were put into the same pens and they later tested to have CWD. It was in the soil and it can't be removed by simply disinfecting.

 

[Okie Hog]

The problem with feeding deer is not the spreading of human diseases but spreading the CWD between deer.

Feeding wild deer is not the problem. CWD was spread by the transfer of infected deer. States steadfastly refused to rein in the high fence hunting areas and the deer breeders and allowed infected deer to be shipped.

 

[longcruise]

Okie, do you perhaps have a vested interest in feeding or bailing? What are the regulations in your state?

Here's a link to a scientific opinion that differs from yours.

http://cwd-info.org/chronic-wasting...pport-of-the-ban-on-baiting-and-feeding-deer/

Here's also a portion of the article.

Chronic Wasting Disease and the Science in support of the Ban on Baiting and Feeding Deer.

Timothy R. Van Deelen Ph.D. Wisconsin DNR Research

Summary Reliable science provides support for a ban of baiting and feeding of white-tailed deer to reduce disease risks for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). Peer-reviewed research papers published in reputable scientific journals indicate the following:

· CWD is transmitted laterally (live diseased deer infect other deer) · Deer can get CWD by ingesting something contaminated with the disease prion · CWD prions may be shed in feces and saliva · Disease course and symptoms indicate high potential for transmission where deer are concentrated · Evidence from captive situations indicates that deer can get CWD from highly contaminated environments. · Baiting and Feeding causes unnatural concentration of deer · Reduction of contact through a ban on baiting and feeding is likely very important to eradicating or containing a CWD outbreak. · Baiting and feeding continues to put Wisconsin’s deer herd at risk to other serious diseases

In addition, experts in CWD, wildlife disease and deer nutrition support bans on baiting and feeding as part of a comprehensive strategy to prevent and/or manage CWD.

Under a baiting and feeding ban, disease outbreaks are more likely to be smaller in scale and more apt to be contained or eliminated. With the long CWD incubation period and other factors that make discovery of a new outbreak difficult, an outbreak that is already widespread when detected because of baiting and feeding may not be able to be contained or eliminated.

This document provides details and explicit links to the supporting science.

Chronic Wasting Disease and the Science behind the Ban on Baiting and Feeding Deer.

Some critics claim that there is no scientific support for the judgment that resulted in the ban. This is simply untrue. In this document, I review some of the scientific evidence in support of the baiting and feeding ban.

 

[dccajc]

I want to know what the game law say regarding disposal of meat. In one State, "wanton waste" is when you fail to attempt to preserve and utilize the meat from the animal". In another it says "meat that is left in the field … or otherwise disposed of without regard to consumption". If the live animal said, " I have CWD" on it, could you shoot it and take the hide/antlers but leave the meat? What if you take home meat from what was a perfectly healthy deer but once home you throw it all away? What if you give it to the dog or use it for fertilizer? Is that a "proper utilization"? I personally wouldn't eat it. I just have no reason to. I can afford to buy meat and/or shoot something else. I am not interested in gambling with my health or anyone else's. There's enough junk in store-bought meat that it is killing us already. Is the State going to give you another deer tag since yours is "bad"? I have a lot of questions about diseased deer and the law but nonetheless I wouldn't eat it.

I with u i always cook my deer meat for all my friends I would never feed anything meat from a cwd deer and we live in west Tennessee its bad here I just can't take the risk.i guess I will hunt another species like turkey and duck I have hunted deer since I was 9 and I'm in my 50s its so sad I love to hunt deer .

 

[Spikebuck]

It would be interesting to see if the people who have contacted this have something common in their DNA that would make them genetically susceptible ...

Looks like genetics are but one way....

Prions are proteinacious infectious agents causing transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE): a group of neurodegenerative diseases that include kuru, Creutzfeldt–Jakob Disease (CJD), variant CJD (vCJD), Gerstmann-SträusslerScheinker disease (GSS) and fatal familial insomnia (FFI); other human prion diseases are
discussed in a separate fact sheet. Prion diseases are either sporadic, genetic or infectious. The cause of sporadic CJD (sCJD) is unknown. The genetic prion diseases are associated with a germline mutation in the human gene, PRNP. The infectious disease occurs in people exposed to food, biologicals or instruments contaminated with prions.

Genetic prion disease is inherited in an autosomal dominant manner. Most individuals diagnosed with genetic prion disease have an affected parent. However, a proband with genetic prion disease may have the disorder as the result of a de novo pathogenic variant. The proportion of cases caused by de novo pathogenic variants is unknown. Each child of an individual with a pathogenic PRNP variant has a 50% chance of inheriting the variant. Prenatal testing for pregnancies at increased risk of having a PRNP pathogenic variant is possible if the family-specific variant has been identified.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK1229/

https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/prion-disease#

 

[Okie Hog]

Okie, do you perhaps have a vested interest in feeding or bailing?

Yep, i run feeders to supplement their diet. Each feeder dispenses about three pounds of corn per day. We had a disastrous five year drought that ended in 2015: Many deer died. The deer in and around my property pulled through very well.

What are the regulations in your state?

Feeding and baiting deer is legal in Oklahoma. Thousands of tons of corn are fed here every year. CWD has not been found in a wild animal here. Two cases of CWD were found in commercial elk herds in OK.

There are seldom more than five or six deer at my feeders at any one time. Contrast this with over 200 deer in a ten acre area found at one breeding facility.

i don't believe one word of the WI article. The "experts in CWD" have trashed deer hunting in some areas. MN steadfastly refuses to permanently ban the movement of deer between commercial deer holding facilities (breeding farms and fenced "hunting" ranches".

"Earlier this month in the wake of the detection, the MBAH voted unanimously against a mandatory ban, opting instead for a voluntary one. Deer farmers and lobbyists who represent them opposed a mandatory ban, suggesting that it would be a "scarlet letter" on Minnesota farms.

According to the DNR, the Douglas County CWD discovery has connections to other Minnesota deer farms, and state officials need time to investigate locations that provided deer to, or received deer from, the hobby farm."

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-pers...on-prompts-minnesota-ban-farmed-deer-movement

Wisconsin is also playing footsie with CWD:

"National CWD expert Bryan Richards said Wisconsin’s current approach of allowing facilities with CWD-infected animals to continue operating poses a serious threat to the state’s wild deer population, which has seen more than 4,400 infected deer since the first CWD case in 2002.

Wisconsin now has more CWD-positive deer farms in operation than any other state in the nation, said Richards, who works for the U.S. Geological Survey at the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison.

There are nine CWD-positive deer facilities still in business — seven of which have seen additional cases of CWD on their properties, according to DATCP records.

National CWD expert Bryan Richards said Wisconsin’s current approach of allowing facilities with CWD-infected animals to continue operating poses a serious threat to the state’s wild deer population, which has seen more than 4,400 infected deer since the first CWD case in 2002.

Wisconsin now has more CWD-positive deer farms in operation than any other state in the nation, said Richards, who works for the U.S. Geological Survey at the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison.

There are nine CWD-positive deer facilities still in business — seven of which have seen additional cases of CWD on their properties, according to DATCP records."

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2018/11/wisconsin-cwd-spreads-on-deer-and-elk.html

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/11/22/chronic-wasting-disease-spreads-in-western-wisconsin

These two states have steadfastly refused to require double fencing of commercial deer operations.

 

[longcruise]

I am completely on board with you as to regulating game farms.

Research has pretty well established transmission from deer to deer and feeding and baiting is going to facilitate it. If that's not happening in your locality, that's a good thing. If CWD comes to your neighborhood then feeding and baiting will not be the cause but it will help spread it.

 

[Spikebuck]

Oakie Hog is correct that supplemental feeding, in and of itself, is not a cause of CWD. But Longcruise is correct that once CWD is in your wild herd, having a "concentrated" feeding area and/or also mineral licks or scent wicks, etc. can help spread the disease as these things concentrate wild deer to a very specific spot where a diseased deer has more opportunity to infect other deer via shed prions into the food or scrape or whatever, or bodily fluid contact.

How much this increases risk is a question in my mind because from my trail camera photos, natural scrapes attract every deer in the area with numerous bucks and does using the overhead licking branches. Normal crop fields can also really concentrate deer along the edges or more secluded areas of a field. Small water sources concentrate deer in dry areas. Deer, by their nature, are very social animals, so I think the "natural" spread via contact is prevalent where the disease is already in the herd, but creating even more opportunity via bait sites or scent locations, etc. could cause a greater rate of infection.

My two cents on that anyway.

And don't get me going on Minnesota's stance on deer farm protectionism...and my state representative is one of the worst as he is personally in ag, is supported by big ag, and his degree is ag. So deer farms could be the next armagedon and he'd vote in favor of them every time.

 

[Pukka Bundook]

Walking Eagle,

I too live in Alberta, and no testing required in our area, yet I am sure that we have cases of CWD.

Some years back I finished off the odd deer that were too sick to hardly move, and yet the Fish and wildlife said no problems in our area. These deer were muleys, and nearly disappeared for a few years. Last year we had more than I have seen since the late '90's.
We have a big and young buck comes to the bird -feeder, but I can see his back-bone under his winter jacket.
I normally throw some oats out for the deer, but wonder if concentrated feeding may add to the problem?
I'm in the parkland/foothills area, and those who "know" say no problem here, but I sure think so.

I can't see myself eating anything I know is contaminated...

Richard.

 

[Walkingeagle]

Walking Eagle,

I too live in Alberta, and no testing required in our area, yet I am sure that we have cases of CWD.

Some years back I finished off the odd deer that were too sick to hardly move, and yet the Fish and wildlife said no problems in our area. These deer were muleys, and nearly disappeared for a few years. Last year we had more than I have seen since the late '90's.
We have a big and young buck comes to the bird -feeder, but I can see his back-bone under his winter jacket.
I normally throw some oats out for the deer, but wonder if concentrated feeding may add to the problem?
I'm in the parkland/foothills area, and those who "know" say no problem here, but I sure think so.

I can't see myself eating anything I know is contaminated...

Richard.

I agree with the discussion regarding the transmission of this disease via unnatural concentration through feeders, man made mineral licks, bale feed, etc. and also agree that this was not the root cause.
I had never tested a deer before, and could not tell you how many different deer I’ve eaten over the years. I’ve been actively hunting for 35 years, and did so to provide all the meat my family required for each year. All legally taken of course, but our game laws are quite liberal if one chooses to sustain ones family from wild meat, it is easily done. So have many of my friends. Thus, I have no idea as to the sheer number of different deer I’ve eaten. Since relocating to more central Alberta, and having in-laws who farm in Eastern Alberta within the mandatory testing areas, I tested my mule deer buck this year for the first time. I was not expecting this result as the deer was as healthy as any I’ve ever seen. My step son took another nice mule buck, and a whitetail buck from the same quarter, both negative. Nobody ever had a positive result from this land before, so who knows?!?
In short, I complied with my lady’s wishes and we chose not to eat.
Walk