Has CWD affected your hunting plans?

[Stalker69]

With all venison of various deer eaten every year in the US there has never been a case of a human contracting it from the meat they ate.

How many humans have been tested for it ? Like 0. They wouldn't test my mom or father in law after there passing. Just said thet had dementi, alzhimers.

 

[Buckshot85]

The human version, I believe, is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Read up on that.
But, not from CWD.

 

[Stalker69]

The human version, I believe, is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Read up on that.
But, not from CWD.

Oh I have read a good deal about it, but they don't normally test for it, unless your younger.

 

[Yoder]

No factor. Unless the deer looks like it's sick I could care less. Maybe I'll be the first CWD zombie to start the apocalypse.

 

[wapitibob]

nope

 

[wind gypsy]

Hasn't changed my strategy yet but it will I'm sure. It's a bummer how certain populations are getting hammered even if i'm not decidedly against aggressive harvest in many instances.

 

[Stalker69]

No factor. Unless the deer looks like it's sick I could care less. Maybe I'll be the first CWD zombie to start the apocalypse.

Good enough, you may want to read up on it. They don't show any signs( look totally healthy) until the last stage. Had three buddies kill elk last season. Two tested positive one negative. You could not in any way tell a difference while they were alive or after field dressing.

 

[Yoder]

Good enough, you may want to read up on it. They don't show any signs( look totally healthy) until the last stage. Had three buddies kill elk last season. Two tested positive one negative. You could not in any way tell a difference while they were alive or after field dressing.

I honestly don't want to know. I'm just going to eat them anyway. For all I know, I could have eaten a few already. I would bet quite a few of us have. If you take anything to a processor you are going to be exposed to it anyway. From what I've read, I doubt you local deer processor is cleaning all of their equipment well enough to kill prions.

 

[ezwy]

On our late whitetail tags it was a mandatory testing area. If it tests positive, there's that uncertainty about eating it and the loss of excitement about the hunt. Personally I see basically zero risk. It's not like we test for brucellosis and every other disease, and then toss the meat for being positive because there's some one in a million risk it could transfer to humans.
So my philosophy now is to not look at the test results. Several deer almost certainly had it. I just continue on as if I didn't know.

In areas that are prevalent. Don't test or don't hunt. Whichever you're okay with.

 

[Rich M]

It would make me trophy hunt if it was a good unit. Otherwise i wouldnt go.

 

[mav41]

Hasn't changed anything for me in Colorado yet, not as worried about CWD as I am the CPW

 

[Overdrive]

Hasn't changed my hunting plans.

The outfitter I work for in Wyoming though has cut back on how many deer hunts they'll do this year. Last year 3 out of the 5 deer taken tested positive. They just don't want to be charging good money for hunt as the mature bucks are declining.

 

[tkhuntsman]

With the prevalence of CWD growing on the western landscape, have you changed your application strategy? Do you have a point where you think you will? Say if the prevalence is greater then 20%?

No I don't even give it a thought until it's time to shoot. Obviously I'm not going to take an unhealthy looking animal. If I'm in an area with a high prevalence I will have it tested.

 

[Gregt9146]

No, i will continue to apply

 

[BigGreen08]

Hasn't changed anything for me in Colorado yet, not as worried about CWD as I am the CPW

No Kidding! 0.5% have CWD… let’s kill them all!!

 

[steeleb3]

With the prevalence of CWD growing on the western landscape, have you changed your application strategy? Do you have a point where you think you will? Say if the prevalence is greater then 20%?

For chasing BIG mule deer, it hasn't. For chasing food mule deer, it has.

 

[cuttingedge]

Yes. I went back to Arkansas to whitetail hunt last fall. The county I was hunting in was an "orange" county bordering a "red" county with confirmed CWD. At the point I am in with my hunting career, meaning I'm an older guy, I love hunting but I am not the killer I used to be. I hunted for a month, saw a bunch of deer, and never fired a shot. Getting the meat tested and keeping it separated along with having to bring it nearly 900 miles home made it pretty easy to observe and not harvest. Still had a great time in the woods.

 

[Fordguy]

CWD hasn't changed how and where I hunt yet, but I expect that it will sometime in the near future. I've watched the positive test results creep closer over the last few years. There have been some in the same township recently. I've tested everything for about the last decade and never had a positive result, but it's only a matter of time. There's a very logical reason why the CDC advises that we don't consume CWD positive venison, and it's not because the CDC is made up of vegan anti-hunters. To eat or not to eat... I'll give it a hard pass if I know it's positive.

 

[spike camp]

No Kidding! 0.5% have CWD… let’s kill them all!!

I wish it was 0.5%
Here on the front range, we’re averaging about 50-60% positive of the Mulies we’ve killed…and that’s just on 35 acres.

CWD is definitely an issue, that is compounding daily.