CWD Impact in WI

[spike camp]

So in order to prevent a deer from contracting a terminal disease we’re going to kill them before. Seems like a great plan.
Assuming the prevalence rate is 10 to 20% in an area, if you go out and smoke 100 deer in the county, You just eliminated 80 to 90 of the healthy deer in that area.
It just doesn’t make sense. Deer are going continue to mate, use the same licking branches, use same scrapes, use the same rubs, and travel a great distance to do all these things. The disease is still there. You just greatly reduced a deer herd to prevent them from dying.

It’s not about ‘a deer’

It’s about keeping the prevalence level low in any given herd or area.

 

[Maverick1]

 

[spike camp]

Does high prevalence rates cause a large decrease in population?

Also as a side note, if it did come from a research facility, does anybody notice how dangerous these "scientists" are to our planet? It seems they enjoy playing God, and when it goes wrong, we the public, are left holding the bag. This stuff has to stop. It sounds oddly familiar to a situation we all were affected by four years ago....

To your first question, I believe that’s why the OP posted the article..but the answer is yes.
It just seemingly happens very slowly…that is my first hand account of witnessing the change in my area.

High prevalence means more sick deer that’ll spread the disease and every single deer that contracts CWD will not only die in about 18 months but in those final months they’ll be infecting other deer and releasing the highly infectious prions onto the landscape.

Thus, the only way to keep prevalence low, is to eliminate deer.

 

[RyanT26]

It’s not about ‘a deer’

It’s about keeping the prevalence level low in any given herd or area.

Well, a herd of deer is filled with deer.
What is the difference between a disease causing a large die off or hunters/W&P officials causing a large die off.
The results are the same.
Not trying to be argumentative, but if you have CWD in an area, short of eradicating every single deer in that area, bringing new topsoil, plants, and wildlife. It’s always going to be there.

 

[spike camp]

Well, a herd of deer is filled with deer.
What is the difference between a disease causing a large die off or hunters/W&P officials causing a large die off.
The results are the same.
Not trying to be argumentative, but if you have CWD in an area, short of eradicating every single deer in that area, bringing new topsoil, plants, and wildlife. It’s always going to be there.

If officials go out and kill 100 deer, boom done.

If 100 CWD infected deer are dropped into an area, they’ll continuously infect other deer for a year or two, and continuously shed infectious material onto the landscape.
Thus perpetuating the cycle, infecting more and more deer until the prevalence level reaches that 50% or more and at that point the area becomes endemic and will never be able to return to low level prevalence.


So the difference is boom done vs a perpetual always fatal cycle that’ll invariably impact more and more deer.

 

[Yoder]

This should be enough reason to ban baiting and feeders everywhere.

 

[OMF]

This should be enough reason to ban baiting and feeders everywhere.

Agreed 100%!

 

[Szwampdonkey]

Patrick Durkin is a Liberal Alarmist. Always was and always will be. I’ve hunted for decades in SE WIs CWD “epicenter” as well as Iowa Cty. There is zero decline in deer. What has declined is gun hunters as the kill has shifted largely to crossbow hunters with their kills being higher than ever. Couple that with the rapid loss of private farms/land to hunt deer amd the overall loss of licensed hunters as a whole and you have your “perceived” lack of deer.

Deer hunting in WI is alive and well as is the deer herd. But don’t just take my word for it here is all you need to know straight from the WI DNR via their deer metrics website.

Deer Statistics

apps.dnr.wi.gov

Patrick Durkin is to deer hunting what Fauci is to Covid. If the general public or those that listen to all their told aren’t afraid or panicking about CWD Durkins liberal university buddies won’t be able to collect paychecks and build careers based on govt grants to “fix” CWD. They have zero incentive to fix CWD they’d be out of work.

Durkin can be safely ignored.

 

[N2TRKYS]

Wear a mask, social distance.

 

[spike camp]

Patrick Durkin is a Liberal Alarmist. Always was and always will be. I’ve hunted for decades in SE WIs CWD “epicenter” as well as Iowa Cty. There is zero decline in deer. What has declined is gun hunters as the kill has shifted largely to crossbow hunters with their kills being higher than ever. Couple that with the rapid loss of private farms/land to hunt deer amd the overall loss of licensed hunters as a whole and you have your “perceived” lack of deer.

Deer hunting in WI is alive and well as is the deer herd. But don’t just take my word for it here is all you need to know straight from the WI DNR via their deer metrics website.

Deer Statistics

apps.dnr.wi.gov

Patrick Durkin is to deer hunting what Fauci is to Covid. If the general public or those that listen to all their told aren’t afraid or panicking about CWD Durkins liberal university buddies won’t be able to collect paychecks and build careers based on govt grants to “fix” CWD. They have zero incentive to fix CWD they’d be out of work.

Durkin can be safely ignored.

Might as well post the Keith Warren video where he claims CWD is fake.

 

[Bull_n_heat]

Does high prevalence rates cause a large decrease in population?

Also as a side note, if it did come from a research facility, does anybody notice how dangerous these "scientists" are to our planet? It seems they enjoy playing God, and when it goes wrong, we the public, are left holding the bag. This stuff has to stop. It sounds oddly familiar to a situation we all were affected by four years ago....

CWD wasn't "created" in a lab by scientists. It was an unfortunate situation where a TSE (Scrapie) crossed a previously unknown species boundary (perhaps due to a mutation or concentration or prions, perhaps both) when deer were held in the same area that infected sheep had been concentrated in (not sure the timeline, but it certainly wasn't simultaneously). No Scientist was "playing god" and they certainly weren't aiming to create a disease and "job security" a half century later.

I think the important thing here is that there is a lesson to be learned from concentrating the prions: The more that are out there, the more they spread to other animals and the higher likelihood they mutate and can potentially cross species boundaries.

 

[HingleMcCringleberry]

CWD wasn't "created" in a lab by scientists. It was an unfortunate situation where a TSE (Scrapie) crossed a previously unknown species boundary (perhaps due to a mutation or concentration or prions, perhaps both) when deer were held in the same area that infected sheep had been concentrated in (not sure the timeline, but it certainly wasn't simultaneously). No Scientist was "playing god" and they certainly weren't aiming to create a disease and "job security" a half century later.

I think the important thing here is that there is a lesson to be learned from concentrating the prions: The more that are out there, the more they spread to other animals and the higher likelihood they mutate and can potentially cross species boundaries.

I stated nothing about researchers attempting to create job security. I have no idea if it even originated from a research facility, but if it did their actions had enormous consequences that we all are now left to deal with. That's my point.

Has there been any formal documentation that it actually originated from a research facility or are we both speculating?

 

[NRA4LIFE]

I hunt white tails almost exclusively on my property in MO. They now have rules in effect on the opening weekend of gun season in certain counties that testing is mandatory. CWD has not yet been found in the county I'm in. However, a couple of the local sporting goods shops had freezers set up outside during the deer season to deposit heads to test. So that's a bit concerning.

When it was first detected in WI a number of years ago, my 2 brothers were getting piles of tags to kill anything, they hunted out on some refuge NW of Madison I think and they killed dozens. They didn't care if they were infected or not.

 

[K9kodi]

Couple questions? I assume the prions or infectious part of the disease lives in soil and such, like parvo in dogs? If this is the case, killing all deer off will not stop it, correct?

A lot of hunters claim to have had positive tests with their harvest, I believe them, and a lot of people have seen deer suffering from said disease, I believe it.

Has anyone known anyone to contract the disease from the deer? What’s the concern for hunters?

 

[NRA4LIFE]

There has never been a single confirmed case of it being transmitted to humans.

 

[Speaks]

There are some reports attempting to link two cases of CJD in humans to eating infected deer but it spurious at best. It wasn't even confirmed they ate infected deer, just hunted in an area where infections rates are high. There is no evidence of human transmission.

 

[K9kodi]

I’m no disagreeing w hou at all. Especially since when I heard of it, it was at the start of this debacle and I’m sure there was a lot put out due to lack of information and knowledge.

So you all have no problem eating deer that appear healthy but test positive ?

 

[WiscoHoundsman]

Just don’t test them and you will never know. I just treat it like mad cow when I buy local beef. I would never know either way.

 

[Balderdash]

Patrick Durkin is a Liberal Alarmist. Always was and always will be. I’ve hunted for decades in SE WIs CWD “epicenter” as well as Iowa Cty. There is zero decline in deer. What has declined is gun hunters as the kill has shifted largely to crossbow hunters with their kills being higher than ever. Couple that with the rapid loss of private farms/land to hunt deer amd the overall loss of licensed hunters as a whole and you have your “perceived” lack of deer.

Deer hunting in WI is alive and well as is the deer herd. But don’t just take my word for it here is all you need to know straight from the WI DNR via their deer metrics website.

Deer Statistics

apps.dnr.wi.gov

Patrick Durkin is to deer hunting what Fauci is to Covid. If the general public or those that listen to all their told aren’t afraid or panicking about CWD Durkins liberal university buddies won’t be able to collect paychecks and build careers based on govt grants to “fix” CWD. They have zero incentive to fix CWD they’d be out of work.

Durkin can be safely ignored.

I, too, have been dubious of Durkin's articles for quite some time. He fancies himself an expert in a lot of areas, but if you follow him long enough, its easy to see that he's really a professional blowhard who trades in packaging opinion as fact. Not unique these days, but distasteful just the same.

For years and years he was a DNR water boy as they were complicit in decimating the deer herd in northern WI. It's a sad state of affairs right now.

Not saying he never writes the truth or that he's got it all wrong in this particular instance, just that I wouldn't take anything Durkin writes as reality without first verifying via several sources.

 

[Balderdash]

This should be enough reason to ban baiting and feeders everywhere.

I don't really care if they ban feeding/baiting, but the premise that it spreads CWD more than natural deer to deer contact/natural deer habits is functionally and demonstratably false. Very little baiting or feeding has traditionally occurred in the Southern portion of WI, especially in the agricultural regions where CWD is most prevalent. In contrast, baiting and feeding was/is near religion in the Northwoods area of WI, the UP and parts of Canada, where, in point of fact, CWD is almost completely absent in wild deer. CWD has been found in northern counties, but almost exclusively on fenced in deer farms that get their deer from other areas. If deer baiting were so closely linked to CWD existence and unmitigated transmission, why wouldn't it be far more prevalent through areas in which baiting was/is widely practiced?


And if we're going to ban baiting, deer farming via food plots better be right with it. It unnaturally congregates deer, and unlike actual agriculture, unharvested crops left just for deer congregates them for much longer periods than does traditional agriculture harvest cycles.