CWD now confirmed in North Carolina

[casjoker]

This is what I don't understand about the panic with CWD. CWD has been known for 30+ years in the Western State's deer and elk herds. While I hear percentages as high as 19% annual death rate from CWD the deer and elk herds seem to be fine out West. Why is TN authorizing the killing of every deer in the areas where CWD is found, this strategy has been proven not to work.

 

[Ski]

This is what I don't understand about the panic with CWD. CWD has been known for 30+ years in the Western State's deer and elk herds. While I hear percentages as high as 19% annual death rate from CWD the deer and elk herds seem to be fine out West. Why is TN authorizing the killing of every deer in the areas where CWD is found, this strategy has been proven not to work.

I have no idea, cannot understand it. Populations of herds have been shown to be genetically immune to CWD, so it seems perhaps God already has a good handle on the situation despite us humans panicking. Indiscriminate killing of deer would inevitably include the genetically immune, which seems counter productive to me. I vote managing the seasons & bag limits as if CWD didn't exist and let nature sort it out. Seems to be working just fine out west.

 

[mike243]

Please show where twra is authorizing every deer to be killed in those area's. a decrease in deer numbers might be offset by the number of folks that decide to not chance catching it, coarse who's to say folks haven't gotten it and died never to be diagnosed properly?

 

[TheLBLman]

CWD in Tennessee has already had a profound effect on me.
. . . . . . . .
Our challenge is how to appropriately respond to this threat going forward.

We have stressed that there has been no known case of CWD being transmitted to humans by them consuming venison and that, in all probability, thousands of CWD infected deer have been consumed by people because those deer looked healthy.

Compounding our problem is the fact that some of the areas in the surveillance zone have some of the highest deer densities in the state & , as Wes correctly stated, many hunters were concerned & far fewer hunted, so the harvest in these surveillance zone counties was down 26% from the average of the previous 5 years.

I have a very strong interest in seeing that the best interest of deer hunters are taken into account. I don't want to see KY do like some states that have employed snipers to indiscriminately cull deer. And I don't want to do nothing , like Wisconsin has done for the past several years, where many outfitters have gone under, land prices have fallen, & approximately half the deer are now infected with CWD. I would much prefer excess deer be harvested by legal hunters who want the deer and aren't afraid to eat them, even if we have to take steps to liberalize harvest limits to make that happen.

Please don't hesitate to message me with any ideas. KDFWR is breaking new ground here in that we are the first state DNR attempting to manage CWD before we have a positive case.

Best regards,

Robin Floyd

Rob, all you say makes a lot of sense.
I think our biggest single challenge may be in convincing hunters, and non-hunters who had been consuming venison, that venison remains safer to eat than lettuce on a salad bar.

In many instances, the actions of many game agency responses in fear of CWD have spoken louder than the words proclaiming even CWD-infected venison safe to eat. When the regulations demand hunters treat a harvested deer as though it's radioactive waste, they start thinking like Mike243, and just quit deer hunting.

But even for those still eager to eat venison, many are finding the regulations so burdensome they're quitting deer hunting in the CWD zones. These regulations are even driving many processors out of business, creating a new burden for those hunters who don't process their own deer.

Again, I do not believe CWD has done as much harm as has been caused by how we have responded to the CWD. Maybe the KDFW can produce a better plan.

 

[Big Pop]

But, but the biologist said....blah, blah, blah. Trust the science! Where have I heard that before?

Lightning will get you thru a keyhole if it's after you! Just sayin...

 

[Headhunter]

I was in NM when CWD first broke really hard, although it had been known decades prior. We hunters freaked out in panic, genuinely worried that hunting was going to be a thing of the past. We all just knew the end was nigh. Then......nothing happened. Year after year, season after season, nothing happened. The hunting in all of the western CWD states is every bit as strong today as it was when CWD was discovered, and not one hunter yet has turned into a zombie from eating the meat. No head in sand here. My eyes are wide open and have been since the CWD scare first broke hard. I'm well aware of how dangerous & serious the disease is, as well as aware of how grossly hyperbolized the topic has become. If CWD is transmissible to humans then I'll be patient zero. I won't stop eating venison.

so many here need to read this post. I have thought this for a long time.

 

[mike243]

I read it and it still, choices, Aides can kill ya still choices, your choice go for it, don't expect me to pity you or pay for you to get treatment ect.. Your choice like everybody else. Left turn right turn have at it,

 

[TNDeerGuy]

My give a darn about CWD is almost at zero, much like many that I'm talking to. It has been around for decades in other parts of the country and nothing has happened. This has "trust the science" and lack of common sense from CV-19 written all over it. Many of these new states are in absolute freak out mode, and ignoring data and reports that are decades old. I'll make decisions that are the best for me and mine.

 

[Speedwell-Hunter]

It has.
I don't think this is much issue going forward.
What will spread CWD now is most likely hunter transported dead deer, along with predator, scavenger and raptor (mainly buzzard) feces.

Yes, the transportation of hunters' dead deer across county lines is also illegal, but greatly ignored, and hard to enforce.

Combine the inability to conveniently legally transport deer home (or to the processor) with so many people not even wanting to consume venison:
Many TN hunters are simply "done" deer hunting in TN, as a high percentage of them deer hunt in some other county other than the one they reside. The majority I run into have been driving an average of 4 hours one way.

Even without your county being declared a CWD one, the long drives, the expensive gas, and the unreasonably high lease prices were already causing many TN hunters to instead just go hunt deer on public lands in other states rather than their home state.

Many resident TN hunters have already been finding public lands to hunt in Southern Illinois, Kentucky, Southern Indiana & Ohio, even closer to their homes than where they had been doing deer hunting in TN. Much of the public land deer hunting in these states actually can provide more opportunity for higher scoring bucks than even intensely "managed" private land in TN.

I don't expect that pilgrimage to other states to last more than a few years. Those states will also be facing many the same type CWD issues we have just seen sooner in TN. But then, if they do relatively less testing, they may go longer before "documenting" in most counties? Or maybe, they will just decide to let Mother Nature work it out, and not destroy the future of deer hunting in their states? Or maybe more people will decide there's actually no more risk in consuming cwd-infected deer than consuming store-bought chicken?

Also, it's not just the continuous CWD geographical spreading, like coming from Henry County to Stewart County, but the rate of CWD (incidence per 100 deer or per square mile, county, etc.). The incident rate has been so low we've been unlikely to "document" it with the limited testing being done (at least in counties where it's not been documented yet).

Most deer have not been tested.
Deer die year round, many if not most dead deer are never seen by humans,
much less tested.

But as the rate of testing, and the CWD incident rate rises, along with continued CWD expansion, we can expect a lot more CWD counties to be added in the coming year.

Buzzards have no boundaries,
and neither does CWD.

i see you are near Knoxville, do we have a place to take the nodes for testing? thanks

 

[Speedwell-Hunter]

I was in NM when CWD first broke really hard, although it had been known decades prior. We hunters freaked out in panic, genuinely worried that hunting was going to be a thing of the past. We all just knew the end was nigh. Then......nothing happened. Year after year, season after season, nothing happened. The hunting in all of the western CWD states is every bit as strong today as it was when CWD was discovered, and not one hunter yet has turned into a zombie from eating the meat. No head in sand here. My eyes are wide open and have been since the CWD scare first broke hard. I'm well aware of how dangerous & serious the disease is, as well as aware of how grossly hyperbolized the topic has become. If CWD is transmissible to humans then I'll be patient zero. I won't stop eating venison.

are there any reported cases in humans? surely for how long the disease has been around a human case of CWD would have happened..any data?

 

[Speedwell-Hunter]

The Alliance for Public Wildlife, a group that has been very concerned about this, estimates between 7,000 and 15,000 chronic wasting disease-positive animals are being consumed annually in the United States, with that number likely to increase about 20 percent each year for the next three to five years. So clearly the magnitude is growing.

Yet no one ever had

Another state down.

One deer found positive

it….