A word on the TWRA Whistleblower Claims

[backyardtndeer]

I had two samples collected by TWRA at Potts Processing in Wartrace in 2018.

Yeah, that article says they collected 3100 samples in 2018.

I sincerely hope that all the positives that are happening outside ground zero are false positives, time will tell.

 

[JJ3]

I'm saying that this type of random, solitary spread over large distances DOES NOT HAPPEN IN THE WILD. That's not how diseases spread. Deer don't get on airplanes. Look at the spread in other states - it generally has been gradual and progressive.

If these were valid positives, we likely would have found others in and around them with the volume of testing (thousands of deer tested per year from these counties). But that hasn't happened.

Mississippi detected positive in a few scattered counties between Memphis and Vicksburg about the same time (not including the hot zone border counties). I believe that testing in subsequent years has not found additional positives. Similar scenario — 50 - 100 miles from next closest positives. Makes you think vultures must be a vector for spreading the prions on the landscape. It's been a couple of years since I read about those, but I believe Mississippi was performing a second confirmation test.

I had my first positive in Haywood County in November and received a call from TWRA biologist last week. She said they are using the ELISA test, and only running a second confirmation test if it is located in a new county.

 

[Andy S.]

I had my first positive in Haywood County in November and received a call from TWRA biologist last week. She said they are using the ELISA test, and only running a second confirmation test if it is located in a new county.

Good current info. What quadrant of the county? Buck/doe? Approximate age?

 

[JJ3]

Good current info. What quadrant of the county? Buck/doe? Approximate age?

SW Haywood. Taxidermist has the jawbone, but I believe 4.5+. Big deer — I measured the girth at 45".

 

[Andy S.]

Thanks. I hunt a tract in SW quadrant of Haywood. Had 6-8 deer tested in last 3 years, all "not detected" thus far.

 

[MickThompson]

Says here they started testing in 2018, but whatever https://www.tennessean.com/story/sp...ic-wasting-disease-tennessee-deer/2639657001/

Little better article here https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/deer-biologist-accuses-tennessee-wildlife-002939202.html

I pulled samples as a student at UT Martin in the early 2000s

 

[Andy S.]

I pulled samples as a student at UT Martin in the early 2000s

What happened to those samples?

 

[Antler Daddy]

Mississippi detected positive in a few scattered counties between Memphis and Vicksburg about the same time (not including the hot zone border counties). I believe that testing in subsequent years has not found additional positives. Similar scenario — 50 - 100 miles from next closest positives. Makes you think vultures must be a vector for spreading the prions on the landscape. It's been a couple of years since I read about those, but I believe Mississippi was performing a second confirmation test.

I had my first positive in Haywood County in November and received a call from TWRA biologist last week. She said they are using the ELISA test, and only running a second confirmation test if it is located in a new county.

Did you get the option to run the 2nd test? It's your deer once killed…not the state's property anymore!

 

[MickThompson]

What happened to those samples?

TWRA sent them off for testing

 

[Andy S.]

That is incorrect. They ran a big test over a year or two back when Daryl was Head Biologist. That was back in the early 2000s.

Daryl was BG Coordinator 2004-2011. IIRC, early days "sampling and surveillance" was 100-300 deer tested statewide. (95 counties, 27M acres and 180k deer killed). The Agency really ramped up CWD testing around 2016 to 2k samples statewide and has increased annual sampling to date (~ 13k in 2018, ~ 13k in 2020, etc).

 

[Andy S.]

TWRA sent them off for testing

Results published? Do you recall total sampling statewide?

 

[MickThompson]

Results published? Do you recall total sampling statewide?

I'm sure it's all published somewhere but that was about 20 years ago and I've slept since then.

 

[JJ3]

Did you get the option to run the 2nd test? It's your deer once killed…not the state's property anymore!

Not given that option and I didn't ask. I had the call with the biologist 10 days after I got notification of the positive test result.

 

[tnanh]

To think all this crap started in a research facility in Colorado. Believe it was recommended they kill the herd but it never happened...

Ames Plantation is also a research facility. May be coincidence. May not be.

 

[Popcorn]

At this point one has to wonder about the provider or manufacturer of the test kits.
A few false positives sure drove test kit sales up…

In this day and time you got to consider everything

 

[TheLBLman]

. . . . . false positives sure drove test kit sales up…

AND EXACTLY SAME THING HAPPENED WITH SO MUCH COVID TEST RESULTS!

 

[Smo]

Glands were cut from this one killed on Laurel Hill WMA back in 2019..

 

[Biggun4214]

I don't remember what year they started, but testing in Region 4 had been going on for a few years before I retired in spring of 2019.

 

[BigAl]

The outlier deer are a mystery. But you have to remember, this all probably started as a single outlier deer somewhere near Ames.
People are probably to blame for it getting here (not natural spread) and they're probably to blame for the outlier positives rather than natural spread.

 

[backyardtndeer]

The outlier deer are a mystery. But you have to remember, this all probably started as a single outlier deer somewhere near Ames.
People are probably to blame for it getting here (not natural spread) and they're probably to blame for the outlier positives rather than natural spread.

Very good chance that this is true. All it would have took was one moron to bring an infected deer into what became ground zero.