CWD Concern and SE Wyoming Deer & Elk

[ReaptheHeat]

Avoiding CWD areas is only step one. Anybody taking their animal for processing is getting CWD infected meat back, regardless if your animal had a "non detect".

How many people process their own meat?

 

[Coveyleader]

Have you hunted out there since before cwd was a problem.?

Yes, I started hunting it right when they did the initial culling and remember talking to the local division guy and he mentioned infection rates were very low at the time. He actually gave me a tip on a giant buck they had trapped and were supposed to kill (he had dropped his horns already) but he let it go as he was not happy at the time on deer killed vs positive test results. He mentioned it was a tank of a buck and simply didn’t want t to kill at that time. Now, it’s a mess. If you shoot 10 deer, I bet 6 or more will test positive. Especially if they’re bucks.

 

[Laramie]

Yes, I started hunting it right when they did the initial culling and remember talking to the local division guy and he mentioned infection rates were very low at the time. He actually gave me a tip on a giant buck they had trapped and were supposed to kill (he had dropped his horns already) but he let it go as he was not happy at the time on deer killed vs positive test results. He mentioned it was a tank of a buck and simply didn’t want t to kill at that time. Now, it’s a mess. If you shoot 10 deer, I bet 6 or more will test positive. Especially if they’re bucks.

Dang, that's rough.

 

[Laramie]

Some reinforcing info from the Boone and Crocket club. Really explains the decline in trophy class deer in CWD areas. https://www.boone-crockett.org/cwd-part-four

"Older deer are also more likely to be infected than young deer. Thus, older males (trophy animals) are the most likely group to be infected with CWD and the quickest to die from the infection. Field research in the western U.S. demonstrated that CWD can reduce the average age of deer (especially males) and dramatically reduce the number of trophy bucks in an affected herd."