Thoughts on my own CWD situation

If man gets CWD, and CWD symptoms don't show for 18-24 months and then kill after that, this should pretty much take out the world population within 4 years or so, once man 1 gets CWD, right? Infected man eats at one bait site, I mean buffet, everyone there will get it. One of those folks will fly in a plane, infect those folks, and then the country they travel to. It'll be a more effective covid at controlling world population.
 
Kuru disease had instances where symptoms didn't show up for 10-50 years after consumption of infected tissue. That's the wildcard with prion disease that keeps me taking the precautions I do when harvesting deer.

50 years from now and I'm an old man, or dead already. 50 years from now my children still have a lot of years that should be ahead of them.

We know that humans could contract Mad Cow. Incidence of that contraction was still very low and only affected a relatively small number of people. The question is how much risk are you okay with assuming? There are a few steps I can take to reduce the risk of feeding CWD infected deer to my friends and family, so I take them. I also realize the probability of risk with CWD is very low and understand why some don't.
 
In regards to the OP's question, I would echo what others have said about talking to state biologist about rate of infection in your area and go from there.

The area we hunt had 10% of mule deer positive the last time they tested that hunt unit (8-10 years ago). We've had 2 test positive, out of around 10 that we've tested since then, hunting the same areas every year. The two that were positive were both young bucks my son shot, both appeared perfectly healthy.
 
My guess is that a sample is still viable for testing as I would think misfolded prions don’t go away. So me- I would test and then make a risk/reward decision on how to proceed.
 
For those of you who consider CWD poses a risk to your health, how do you live your life. If you think CWD is a risk look at the stats on accidents around the house, do you ever climb a ladder, get in a vehicle, ride a bike, let alone sit in a tree stand. If you think CWD is a risk the rest of life must terrify you.
 
NMJM said:
For those of you who consider CWD poses a risk to your health, how do you live your life. If you think CWD is a risk look at the stats on accidents around the house, do you ever climb a ladder, get in a vehicle, ride a bike, let alone sit in a tree stand. If you think CWD is a risk the rest of life must terrify you.
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Exactly, or shoot a gun.
 
Being in Oklahoma with 4-5 harvest a year i get were your coming from.
Not as many studies here but Arkansas has a very high percentage of positive deer.
Very high in the older deer.
It’s a total judgement call.
I personally look at my deer closely in there behavior and than the meat and organs.
If any doubt or anything I dont like I would leave to the coyotes.
Same when I clean fish.
I wouldn’t hesitate to eat it if you noticed nothing but I also wouldn’t hesitate throwing it all away to give you and your family peice of mind.
In 30 years I have only seen two odd acting deer.
 
I wonder how many hunters have eaten venison where the animal had CWD and they never knew it. I'll bet it is a good number of us. I think this is a classic, "the sky is falling" panic. No known cases of it transferring to humans. Should we still be carful when field dressing game, yes. If you have it tested and it comes out positive for CWD, then it's up to the individual to decide what to do with the meat. I for one will eat it. Just so you know I have eaten venison form Wi. deer and NM elk that was never tested.
 
92xj said:
If man gets CWD, and CWD symptoms don't show for 18-24 months and then kill after that, this should pretty much take out the world population within 4 years or so, once man 1 gets CWD, right? Infected man eats at one bait site, I mean buffet, everyone there will get it. One of those folks will fly in a plane, infect those folks, and then the country they travel to. It'll be a more effective covid at controlling world population.
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This is shockingly sound reasoning.
 
More likely to be killed by a drunk driver or lightning on way to a hunt, than the currently 0 chance of contracting CWD. Risk assessment is interesting.
 
92xj said:
If man gets CWD, and CWD symptoms don't show for 18-24 months and then kill after that, this should pretty much take out the world population within 4 years or so, once man 1 gets CWD, right? Infected man eats at one bait site, I mean buffet, everyone there will get it. One of those folks will fly in a plane, infect those folks, and then the country they travel to. It'll be a more effective covid at controlling world population.
Click to expand...
No. Not at all. Unless people are eating that person.

Last I checked cannibalism is rather rare.
 
Ryan Avery said:
it's funny CWD was first found in a government facility with captive deer…

I'm far more worried about EHD than CWD.
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Exactly this. Then moved by that facility to another, where more cases popped up, it took over a decade from the research facility for it to be "identified" in the wild. Sounds familiar. Almost like something else that happened recently.
 
Wouldn't you have a better chance of getting when working deer up than after meat is cooked?If there was as much money spent on EHD as there is on the few positive CWD,EHD would be stopped and it kills thousands of deer a year. Seems strange they have spent billions and still CWD just creeps along.
 
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