CWD Management - Science or Money?

[averagehunter]

Hey, guys one of our staff just wrote a blog on the CWD topic. We would like to know your thoughts....

Question #1: How do we know CWD is 100% fatal?

Currently, there is no test for CWD on live animals. Reports are that researchers are working on tests for live animals, but they aren’t ready yet. The only concrete way to prove a big game animal has CWD is to take samples from dead animals, whether that be from roadkill, from hunters at check stations, from hunters willingly sending in their samples to a lab for voluntary testing of their harvested big game animals, or from culling animals that appear to be infected...

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE​

 

[canyonhunter47]

Definitely interesting thoughts. As far as I know, all prions (in any species) are not treatable so it would be a big surprise if one that attacks the brain didn’t have 100% mortality.

The allele 225F you mention is very interesting. Has its frequency been studied in populations that have no CWD? And is it across species or just in mule deer?

 

[Stevek]

There is a live test for deer/elk but you have to catch them to live test and take the samples to be sent in for testing. Texas has used live testing and collects rectal samples to test for CWD. Deer/Elk can carry CWD for years and may never show any symptoms till they are very old. Most deer/elk are killed by hunters or predators or die of old age or die of natural causes before they show signs of CWD. I have never seen a pic of an animal that has died from CWD, seen pics of those killed and tested after they were killed. The biggest issue with finding a dead animal that died from CWD is that any weak or sickly animal is a target for predators. Any animal that died from CWD will more than likely be eaten before it is found. 50,000,000 coyotes and vultures will prove me right.
Live Test

 

[Jaden Bales]

@averagehunter I'm still digging deeper into those questions you posed in that article (and from our coffee the other day!) It's good to get to the bottom of this.

Related to using hunting as a way to stop the growth of CWD - the Miller study published in 2020 is the one that makes the most sense to me. It seems to confirm that bucks are the carriers with such high hunting pressure on specifically buck deer in these units. I hunted 12 3rd season in 2020 and they surely put the hammer down on those deer, but I did find two different mature bucks in 5 days. Both times they got bumped before I could get close enough for a shot. Go figure.

Anyway, here's the link:

Hunting pressure modulates prion infection risk in mule deer herds

Download Citation | Hunting pressure modulates prion infection risk in mule deer herds | The emergence of chronic wasting disease, an infectious prion disease of multiple deer species, has motivated international calls for sustainable,... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on...

www.researchgate.net

Here's the graph that shows a pretty compelling story.

 

[spike camp]

Didn’t bother tapping the link…Live testing has been done for a while now.
Estes park elk, for example.

 

[Scottf270]

The whole CWD thing is as mismanaged as Covid is. I am not saying its not a concern, but you can't save something by killing all of it. The approach of nearly wiping out a wild herd to save it makes no sense, Are we going to eliminate a classroom of children because 5 of them get the flu?

The end result of a disease or pandemic if you will, is that it runs it's course and those that survive are strong and have natural immunity they hopefully pass on to others. When you just start killing to lower numbers, you may be killing the ones who have immunity and would not be affected. If you kill off the herd in the name of management are they any less dead than they 'might' be from CWD? They may die from CWD, but if you kill them in the name of 'science' they are guaranteed to die.

 

[Jaden Bales]

The whole CWD thing is as mismanaged as Covid is. I am not saying its not a concern, but you can't save something by killing all of it. The approach of nearly wiping out a wild herd to save it makes no sense, Are we going to eliminate a classroom of children because 5 of them get the flu?

The end result of a disease or pandemic if you will, is that it runs it's course and those that survive are strong and have natural immunity they hopefully pass on to others. When you just start killing to lower numbers, you may be killing the ones who have immunity and would not be affected. If you kill off the herd in the name of management are they any less dead than they 'might' be from CWD? They may die from CWD, but if you kill them in the name of 'science' they are guaranteed to die.

I think the math the scientists are running is a 25% reduction in population now is better than an 80% reduction when CWD is at 50% prevalence. See: Laramie Mountains and Riverton area in Wyoming.

 

[Fogalo]

We’ve taken 8-15 deer a year since cwd outbreak happened in Wisconsin in the early 2000s. We have tested every deer we have shot. That’s about 200 deer that our group has had tested over about 20 years. We didn’t start seeing positives until about five years ago when some of the bucks started testing positive (age 4+). In the past two years about 1 in every 3 does is positive and more than 50% of bucks are as well. Now we’re just starting to see some young deer show signs of it.

Here’s a photo of a buck looked like he had cwd. We haven’t had anymore pictures of him, weren’t able to find the body and none of our neighbors shot it. But this photo was taken prerut in 2020, this buck was not mature.



CWD is bad news. Nobody knows what to do about it and nothing has worked. My Mrs worked researching CWD and did live animal testing with vols. Guess what - they all died. If you want to say vols aren’t deer that’s fine look at protocol when sheep are identified with scrapie. Scrapie has hundreds of years of data. None of it looks good.

The outlook for CWD looks pretty bleak too.

 

[spike camp]

We’ve taken 8-15 deer a year since cwd outbreak happened in Wisconsin in the early 2000s. We have tested every deer we have shot. That’s about 200 deer that our group has had tested over about 20 years. We didn’t start seeing positives until about five years ago when some of the bucks started testing positive (age 4+). In the past two years about 1 in every 3 does is positive and more than 50% of bucks are as well. Now we’re just starting to see some young deer show signs of it.

Here’s a photo of a buck looked like he had cwd. We haven’t had anymore pictures of him, weren’t able to find the body and none of our neighbors shot it. But this photo was taken prerut in 2020, this buck was not mature.

View attachment 386299

CWD is bad news. Nobody knows what to do about it and nothing has worked. My Mrs worked researching CWD and did live animal testing with vols. Guess what - they all died. If you want to say vols aren’t deer that’s fine look at protocol when sheep are identified with scrapie. Scrapie has hundreds of years of data. None of it looks good.

The outlook for CWD looks pretty bleak too.

Exactly…
We’re seeing similar rates in front range Colorado.
It’s sickening to get positive after positive, on your own land.

 

[Fogalo]

Exactly…
We’re seeing similar rates in front range Colorado.
It’s sickening to get positive after positive, on your own land.

It is - I know some of our neighbors talk about it, some stopped testing - long time ago.

I know of a 1000 acre farm in WI that used to produce booners consistently with their management program got so bad the guy sold it and moved to another state. Used to see 40-50 deer a night in the winter. They said they couldn’t get bucks past 4 years old anymore. They would find a lot of them dead. But I don’t think they tested the carcasses.

@spike camp have you seen a decline in age structure?

 

[Fordguy]

If CWD had been on the landscape long term, there would be few if any pockets of animals that don't have the disease. Instead, we have the opposite. we have small pockets of increasing disease prevalence that expand into new areas. We've been able to watch as it slowly and unstoppably spreads across North America. I hunt multiple states, and I have my deer tested every year. I've never had one test positive, but the map showing where positive deer are from has steadily moved closer to where I hunt. The first positive case in my township was last year.

As far as CWD prevalence vs age structure in deer herds, there are a lot of states to with deer herds that can provide this data. I'm pretty sure that even where older bucks are a small part of the total population they have a higher rate of CWD based on (yes post mortem) test results.

As mentioned above, it's difficult to imagine that prion disease wouldn't result in death. This is not a virus or a bacteria that the body can build a resistance to through immune response. Mad Cow Disease, CJD, Scrapie, these are prion diseases. I think Alzheimer's is too. Admittedly I'm not a medical professional, but I don't know of any nonfatal prion diseases in any species. If you live long enough with prion disease, it will kill you. Certainty there are individuals in any population that will outlive their peers with the disease, that's just a physiological characteristic. Genetic makeup, metabolism, growth and a lot of other factors contribute to life expectancy with any disease,but especially to one that affects the building blocks that make up the basic materials in the body.

 

[spike camp]

It is - I know some of our neighbors talk about it, some stopped testing - long time ago.

I know of a 1000 acre farm in WI that used to produce booners consistently with their management program got so bad the guy sold it and moved to another state. Used to see 40-50 deer a night in the winter. They said they couldn’t get bucks past 4 years old anymore. They would find a lot of them dead. But I don’t think they tested the carcasses.

@spike camp have you seen a decline in age structure?

Yes, definitely.
8-10 years ago there were always multiple big mature bucks cruising (mule deer).
Definitely not the same now.
Every bigger buck we’ve killed in the last few years, has tested positive.
Now we’re starting to see positive does, which hasn’t been the case in the past.
I do a lot of local shed hunting on private, barely find deer sheds any more.
Used to find 200” sets, 10 years ago.
Now, nothing even close to that..maybe 120’s class sheds, if I’m lucky.

 

[eye_zick]

Hey, guys one of our staff just wrote a blog on the CWD topic. We would like to know your thoughts....

Question #1: How do we know CWD is 100% fatal?

Currently, there is no test for CWD on live animals. Reports are that researchers are working on tests for live animals, but they aren’t ready yet. The only concrete way to prove a big game animal has CWD is to take samples from dead animals, whether that be from roadkill, from hunters at check stations, from hunters willingly sending in their samples to a lab for voluntary testing of their harvested big game animals, or from culling animals that appear to be infected...

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE​

Why test live animals? We can assert CWD is 100% fatal because we know the prions are ingested, spread and accumulate in the nervous system, specifically the brain, and cause HOLES IN THE BRAIN. It will kill an animal, only as a matter of time. Its biologically impossible for CWD in cervids to not be fatal.

We know CWD has NOT always been around. Idaho has been testing since 1997, performed 1,000 tests annually and only had a positive case last year 2021. IDFG has more cases in the same unit this year.

I am with you on the CWD "Management" Plan. For all states its really testing plan, with overhunting as the backup plan if things look bleak. It's too late for that. CWD is so prevalent we wont have anything left to conserve given its grasp on current populations.

"Management actions in free-ranging cervid populations are generally ineffective in eliminating CWD due to the difficulty in removing CWD prions once they are present in the environment, combined with the lack of treatment, cure, or vaccine. Therefore, management actions are generally aimed at stabilizing and suppressing CWD outbreaks. The primary tool identified to date by states and provinces experienced in managing CWD in wild cervids is reduction of deer and elk populations in CWD-infected areas to limit the potential spread of the disease through contact. Tools include reduction of infected animals on the landscape, culling infected or suspect populations." https://idfg.idaho.gov/sites/default/files/cwd-strategy-2021.pdf

I would say the problem of CWD is the lack of education by the public, especially hunters. It is apparent, by using the CWD map provided by the USDA that cervids either fly, or humans have transmitted them. Again, looking at Idaho, hunters harvested animals in 2022 in a CWD positive unit and did not follow the CWD regulations established by the fish and game and local statute.

 

[WiscoHoundsman]

CWD has been in my county in Wisconsin since about 2002 we still have plenty of deer. It may have messed up the age structure but it’s hard to tell. My dad talks about the days when they used to shoot any buck they seen. Growing up starting to hunt in the early 2000’s we had earn a buck in Wisconsin. Kill a doe to get a buck tag. We may have had less deer overall but ended up with some nice bucks around until they switched away from earn a buck. I haven’t seen it mentioned yet but the way people hunt mostly for trophy bucks around me leaves a lot of doe and young bucks on the landscape. With or without CWD not every buck makes it to 4 or 5 years old with car accidents, coyotes, hunting, ect.

Maybe CWD will wipe out the heard here someday but it’s slow and I haven’t noticed less deer in the past 15 years. I know my uncle would like less in his bean and corn fields

 

[Jimss]

I actually live in the CWD capital of the Western US where CWD all started. The first case of CWD in wild deer was in the US was in 1981 only a few miles from my home. The deer are still alive and well in this area even though the CPW tried to completely eliminate them back in the 1980's with large scale culling projects. That's a whopping 40+ years ago! God knows the prions are still in the soil. The deer have survived and are doing very well in our area! My guess is that the giant culling program that was in place when it first was found slowed the spread but the spread was inevitable. There has never been a major die-off of deer and the deer have recovered well even though prions were first introduced 40+ years ago. I spend just about every day at work in muley country where CWD began and have not seen any major die-offs in 40 years...other than from the giant culling projects!

With that said, I've seen a lot worse die-offs of deer from blue-tongue and other diseases. In my eyes, spending hours upon hours where CWD was first introduced 40+ years ago I believe that CWD has been totally blown out of proportion. There is definitely still a lot to learn but from what I've seen there are a lot of healthy mature bucks running around in CWD infested areas 40 years after prions hit the soil in my area.

I would strongly disagree in regard to Eye-Zick's post above in regard to all CWD cases being fatal and that there is no resistance. Here's a few publications that state that there is a real possibility that there is CWD resistance and there is still a lot of unknowns! The publication on top of the list below actually supposedly used selective breeding to success raising whitetails that were CWD resistant. I have included only a few of the multitude of resistant papers on CWD.

Selective Breeding for Disease-Resistant PRNP Variants to Manage Chronic Wasting Disease in Farmed Whitetail Deer

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) of cervids caused by a misfolded variant of the normal cellular prion protein, and it is closely related to sheep scrapie. Variations in a host’s prion gene, PRNP, and its primary protein structure...

www.mdpi.com

The role of genetics in chronic wasting disease of North American cervids

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a major concern for the management of North American cervid populations. This fatal prion disease has led to declines in populations which have high CWD prevalence ...

www.tandfonline.com

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.4161/pri.2.1.6321

Geographic Distribution of Chronic Wasting Disease Resistant Alleles in Nebraska, with Comments on the Evolution of Resistance

Abstract. Infectious diseases create major challenges for wildlife management. In particular, prion diseases are fatal and incurable, leaving managers with limited options. In cervids, chronic wasting disease (CWD) can decimate captive and wild populations by affecting neural tissue leading to...

meridian.allenpress.com

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/104063870601800118

 

[PathFinder]

Without referencing any specific data or policy, I think the overarching issue with CWD is that game departments in every state want to enact policy before they have sufficient understanding to enact effective policy. State F&G biologists (in every state) seem not to do a lot of biology. They make policy based wholly on conjecture and then refuse to accept that anything they've done was incorrect. Their blatant refusal to do further research is astounding. Why are there no long term, clinical, repeatable studies on genetic factors, modes and rates of transmission, and fatality? Why is knee-jerk policy their first action, rather than scientific investigation?

 

[eye_zick]

I actually live in the CWD capital of the Western US where CWD all started. The first case of CWD in wild deer was in the US was in 1981 only a few miles from my home. The deer are still alive and well in this area even though the CPW tried to completely eliminate them back in the 1980's with large scale culling projects. That's a whopping 40+ years ago! God knows the prions are still in the soil. The deer have survived and are doing very well in our area! My guess is that the giant culling program that was in place when it first was found slowed the spread but the spread was inevitable. There has never been a major die-off of deer and the deer have recovered well even though prions were first introduced 40+ years ago. I spend just about every day at work in muley country where CWD began and have not seen any major die-offs in 40 years...other than from the giant culling projects!

With that said, I've seen a lot worse die-offs of deer from blue-tongue and other diseases. In my eyes, spending hours upon hours where CWD was first introduced 40+ years ago I believe that CWD has been totally blown out of proportion. There is definitely still a lot to learn but from what I've seen there are a lot of healthy mature bucks running around in CWD infested areas 40 years after prions hit the soil in my area.

I would strongly disagree in regard to Eye-Zick's post above in regard to all CWD cases being fatal and that there is no resistance. Here's a few publications that state that there is a real possibility that there is CWD resistance and there is still a lot of unknowns! The publication on top of the list below actually supposedly used selective breeding to success raising whitetails that were CWD resistant. I have included only a few of the multitude of resistant papers on CWD.

Selective Breeding for Disease-Resistant PRNP Variants to Manage Chronic Wasting Disease in Farmed Whitetail Deer

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) of cervids caused by a misfolded variant of the normal cellular prion protein, and it is closely related to sheep scrapie. Variations in a host’s prion gene, PRNP, and its primary protein structure...

www.mdpi.com

The role of genetics in chronic wasting disease of North American cervids

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a major concern for the management of North American cervid populations. This fatal prion disease has led to declines in populations which have high CWD prevalence ...

www.tandfonline.com

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.4161/pri.2.1.6321

Geographic Distribution of Chronic Wasting Disease Resistant Alleles in Nebraska, with Comments on the Evolution of Resistance

Abstract. Infectious diseases create major challenges for wildlife management. In particular, prion diseases are fatal and incurable, leaving managers with limited options. In cervids, chronic wasting disease (CWD) can decimate captive and wild populations by affecting neural tissue leading to...

meridian.allenpress.com

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/104063870601800118

Resistance does not mean immunity. Resistance does not mean they will not die if they become infected with CWD. Resistance only means they may not become infected as easily. All CWD cases are fatal. It is irrefutable biology. It cannot be "fought off" and the prion actually causes a chain reaction making other proteins misfold.

There are multiple peer reviewed papers that all state CWD is 100% fatal.

Chronic Wasting Disease Drives Population Decline of White-Tailed Deer

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is an invariably fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy of white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk, and moose. Despite a 100% fatality rate, areas of high prevalence, and increasingly expanding geographic endemic areas, little is known about the population-level...

journals.plos.org

There are multiple peer reviewed articles demonstrating cause and effect of CWD on population declines.

Endemic chronic wasting disease causes mule deer population decline in Wyoming - PMC

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy affecting white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni), and moose (Alces alces shirasi) in ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

I'm with you, despite the prevalence of CWD, little is understood why some populations have not declined as steeply as others. Take your experience for example, sure its been around for 40 years and it does not appeared to you to have a drastic effect on Colorado mule deer population. However, broaden your horizon to Wyoming. Again, multiple peer reviewed studies show CWD as the primary cause of population decline for Wyoming herds.

But we both know it is difficult, if not impossible, to unravel the reasons why mule deer populations are on the decline across the west. We know drought, predation, grazing, human/suburban growth all effect our mule deer populations. If your mule deer are doing as well as they were 40 years ago with CWD, it is reasonable they could experience population growth rather than stability.

 

[Jimss]

I totally call your bluff on resistant deer! We will agree to disagree on that point! The same "fatal" attachment has been used to label CWD since time 0 without any backing. All papers refer to the same fatal reference without any scientific support. Anyone that has read CWD literature knows that there has been no way of determining if CWD exists in a particular deer until they are killed and samples are taken so there is no way to know when a deer contracts CWD, how long they have had it, and whether a deer would have died from CWD. Lots and lots of unknowns when the fatal label was issued to CWD 40+ years ago!

Directly from the Wyoming study you highlighted above:
this population did not appear to decline as dramatically during the study as our estimate of λ would suggest based on WGFD population estimates (approximately a 4% decline from 2010 to 2014) [19]. While the 2010 and 2014 population size estimates were not strikingly different, the general trend over time suggests a declining population. From 2011 to 2012, WGFD estimated a 19% decline in mule deer numbers and a 15% decline the following year [19]. These declines observed during our study fall within our 95% CI for λ (0.72, 0.87). In 2013, greater spring precipitation ended a year-long drought and moderate winter conditions resulted in a 5% increase of the population estimate in 2014 [19]

I wouldn't exactly say the decline in the deer from CWD is anything out of the ordinary. Winterkill, road kill, and predators often kill a higher proportion of deer than CWD killed in that particular survey! They also need a lot more years of monitoring to firm up CWD death rates vs weather, winterkill, predators, etc. I see a lot of faults in a short-term study when you are talking about so many outside variables!

I have a buddy that guides in Nebraska next door to Wyo. The muley population almost has been eliminated the past few years from blue-tongue in his area. Bluetongue has also put a major dent in the whitetail population. No one even raises an eyebrow about bluetongue and other diseases! How about EHD and blue tongue in Wyo?

There is a lot more deer around today than after the CPW did the major culling projects in the areas where CWD first existed 40ish years ago. Some areas almost had 0 deer after the slaughter! Wouldn't you expect CWD prions to still be in infested areas and increasing every year to the extent of killing off all deer if CWD was so fatal? I'm pretty sure there would be a steep upward trend in CWD as more and more prions are added to the soil? That trend hasn't happened after 40 years in Colo! There is 0 doubt in my mind the CWD debate is blown way out of proportion!

The CPW has also increased doe and buck tags throughout Western Colo to the extent that there is no way in hell the population can do anything but decline...especially in years with winterkill.

From about 1980 through 2010 Colo was re-writing the B&C books for record book older age class bucks. How were the bucks able to age to reach B&C proportions with CWD being so detrimental and fatal the past 40 years in Colo? During those "golden CWD years of B&C bucks" in Colo mature bucks with the best genetics were the ones doing the breeding. We can all pat the CPW on the back for issuing more doe and buck tags and late rut rifle season dates to combat CWD and harvesting the remaining older age class bucks that spread CWD.

Could in fact, the older age class bucks that live long lives in CWD infected areas actually be resistant to CWD? No one knows and the best genetics in the entire herd that does the breeding may actually be currently be targeted in Colo with later season dates and higher tag quotas?

It's evident that in Colo the CPW has switched it's thinking to sell more tags and offer more hunter opportunity. Anyone that spends time in the hills in Colo has noticed that the number of doe and buck tags has increased even with the decline in deer population. Add on rut season dates, predators, winterkill, and other factors it doesn't take a rocket-scientist to figure out what is happening to mature bucks in Colo. CWD may be a minor part of the population decline...but come on....it isn't wiping out any deer herds in Colo after 40 years of prions being in the soil! Wouldn't the prions continue to increase every year if more and more CWD deer were present and adding additional contaminated CWD prions to the soil?

I say bull hockey that CWD is killing off herds of deer in Colo or elsewhere! For goodness sake, CWD prions have been present in Colo for 40 years without a single deer wipe out! Let the predators kill the few truly sick CWD deer present and allow resistant deer to thrive!

 

[eye_zick]

First off - let me apologize if this is obnoxious, or tedious etc - HOWEVER - I have firm belief in discussing things we can disagree on. It broadens our aptitude.

I totally call your bluff on resistant deer! We will agree to disagree on that point! The same "fatal" attachment has been used to label CWD since time 0 without any backing. All papers refer to the same fatal reference without any scientific support. Anyone that has read CWD literature knows that there has been no way of determining if CWD exists in a particular deer until they are killed and samples are taken so there is no way to know when a deer contracts CWD, how long they have had it, and whether a deer would have died from CWD. Lots and lots of unknowns when the fatal label was issued to CWD 40+ years ago!

Don't call my bluff on resistant deer, call out the biologists. It appears, you're doubling down on your stance of CWD not being fatal, and even assert the term "fatal" is used to label CWD without any backing, there are too many studies that all cover the fatality rate of CWD.

Directly from the Wyoming study you highlighted above:
this population did not appear to decline as dramatically during the study as our estimate of λ would suggest based on WGFD population estimates (approximately a 4% decline from 2010 to 2014) [19]. While the 2010 and 2014 population size estimates were not strikingly different, the general trend over time suggests a declining population. From 2011 to 2012, WGFD estimated a 19% decline in mule deer numbers and a 15% decline the following year [19]. These declines observed during our study fall within our 95% CI for λ (0.72, 0.87). In 2013, greater spring precipitation ended a year-long drought and moderate winter conditions resulted in a 5% increase of the population estimate in 2014 [19]

"the general trend over time suggests a declining population" - in a 2014 study

Endemic chronic wasting disease causes mule deer population decline in Wyoming

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy affecting white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni), and moose (Alces alces shirasi) in North America. In southeastern Wyoming average...

journals.plos.org

2017 study states Wyoming population would be stable if CWD were absent, but instead the herd is declining at 21% -seems pretty significant to me

I wouldn't exactly say the decline in the deer from CWD is anything out of the ordinary. Winterkill, road kill, and predators often kill a higher proportion of deer than CWD killed in that particular survey! They also need a lot more years of monitoring to firm up CWD death rates vs weather, winterkill, predators, etc. I see a lot of faults in a short-term study when you are talking about so many outside variables!

For the vast majority of deer herds, I absolutely agree. I would only clarify, I see value in continuing to study CWD, because other prion caused diseases, ie mad cow, scrapie, CJD, are not well understood, and we need to ensure we understand the transmutability to other species etc

I have a buddy that guides in Nebraska next door to Wyo. The muley population almost has been eliminated the past few years from blue-tongue in his area. Bluetongue has also put a major dent in the whitetail population. No one even raises an eyebrow about bluetongue and other diseases! How about EHD and blue tongue in Wyo?

Again, totally agree and again I would love to see more hunter support for studies of all zoonotic diseases for same reasoning mentioned above.

There is a lot more deer around today than after the CPW did the major culling projects in the areas where CWD first existed 40ish years ago. Some areas almost had 0 deer after the slaughter! Wouldn't you expect CWD prions to still be in infested areas and increasing every year to the extent of killing off all deer if CWD was so fatal? I'm pretty sure there would be a steep upward trend in CWD as more and more prions are added to the soil? That trend hasn't happened after 40 years in Colo! There is 0 doubt in my mind the CWD debate is blown way out of proportion!

You cannot assert what the effects were of their efforts. It would be just as dishonest for me to say that the culling worked and is the only reason CWD is not as prevalent in Colorado as it would have been if not for the culling.

From about 1980 through 2010 Colo was re-writing the B&C books for record book older age class bucks. How were the bucks able to age to reach B&C proportions with CWD being so detrimental and fatal the past 40 years in Colo? During those "golden CWD years of B&C bucks" in Colo mature bucks with the best genetics were the ones doing the breeding. We can all pat the CPW on the back for issuing more doe and buck tags and late rut rifle season dates to combat CWD and harvesting the remaining older age class bucks that spread CWD.

The "CWD management plan" at every state seems to be "Test and if the disease gets bad we'll just issue more tags and target rutting bucks and reduce overall herd population" which is not a plan at all... The only way I can see us getting a different plan is more studies of alternate methods to contain the disease.

Could in fact, the older age class bucks that live long lives in CWD infected areas actually be resistant to CWD? No one knows and the best genetics in the entire herd that does the breeding may actually be currently be targeted in Colo with later season dates and higher tag quotas?

There is an often torted rhetoric that CWD can only be done on dead deer/ungulates, and that is simply false. Tonsil biopsies can be used to diagnose CWD in live deer; although the procedure is minimally invasive, it requires general anesthesia and would not, therefore, be practical under field conditions. We have completed a study using this method, total deer 143 (small sample size, need more studies!). You can even download the raw data, filter it, and you get 65% of mule deer over 4.5 years old as CWD positive (17/26, bucks and does). There were only 4 bucks 4.5 years and older in this study, all bucks tested CWD positive, 75% of 4.5 year old bucks died of CWD within the first year of the study (within the first year of CWD test) with the fourth buck having a negative test at 4.5 years, positive 5.5 and no further tests allowed on bucks.

It's evident that in Colo the CPW has switched it's thinking to sell more tags and offer more hunter opportunity. Anyone that spends time in the hills in Colo has noticed that the number of doe and buck tags has increased even with the decline in deer population. Add on rut season dates, predators, winterkill, and other factors it doesn't take a rocket-scientist to figure out what is happening to mature bucks in Colo. CWD may be a minor part of the population decline...but come on....it isn't wiping out any deer herds in Colo after 40 years of prions being in the soil! Wouldn't the prions continue to increase every year if more and more CWD deer were present and adding additional contaminated CWD prions to the soil?

Colorado does CWD testing on 5 year intervals, with 2020 being the last testing year. Overall trends show rising rates of infection across the state. Some areas are around 14-15%. CPW wont release the full data until spring 2023. You can search it, but 25% CWD positive rate is associated with declining population due to CWD.

Many factors effect how fast CWD will spread. Yes, the prions persist in the environment and eventually will spread. We know the ending stages of CWD cause excessive thirst, drooling, urinating etc - and it has been hypothesized CWD spreads faster in areas with few water sources. Sick deer tend to stay near water, infect the area, and due to its frequent use by others, CWD spreads faster.

I say bull hockey that CWD is killing off herds of deer in Colo or elsewhere! For goodness sake, CWD prions have been present in Colo for 40 years without a single deer wipe out!

Not killing deer off elsewhere? C'mon you've cited studies that literally state the opposite. Why cite a source to only cherry pick what you want...

Let the predators kill the few truly sick CWD deer present and allow resistant deer to thrive!

Predators may be a key factor in reducing the rate CWD spreads, if they kill the deer in the early stages of sickness, the deer may not be able to infect the environment as much, and the prions may not have built up as much as a deer that dies due to CWD, fewer prions in the environment.

Humans are predators, so we should allow hunters to kill more deer in hopes they are killing the truly sick ones?

My general ideology regarding CWD is that we have the responsibility to ensuing generations to take a proactive stance on CWD. Worse case scenario, in a proactive approach, is we are wrong and mule deer will end up at the same population level regardless of our efforts. Worse case scenario in a reactive, "oh sh!t where did the deer go" approach is there will be little to no deer to manage, perhaps even ending up under EPA protection as an endangered species...