Oklahoma to combat CWD by releasing Captive deer

[BigAl]

Who thinks this is a good/bad idea?
https://www.outdoorlife.com/conserv...ting Disease Genetic,deer herds in the state.

 

[Ski]

Turn them loose I say. Worth a try.

 

[Bell3wv]

Grab a beer and some popcorn and watch the show.

 

[timberjack86]

Looks like the deer farms are fixing to be booming

 

[MickThompson]

Looks like the deer farms are fixing to be booming

The very deer farms that have been implicated in spreading the disease. The species jump happened at a government "deer farm"

What could possibly go wrong?

 

[BSK]

Fascinating concept. But the length of research and understanding of what is occurring is rudimentary at best, and possibly highly flawed. EXTREMELY dangerous - to the point of absolute scientific malpractice - to release those deer into the wild.

My guess, the legislator is being bamboozled by deer breeders trying desperately to save their industry.

Nature will get around to finding deer genetically resistant to CWD. Get out of her way and let her work.

 

[AlabamaSwamper]

Deer breeders ain't spreading CWD. That was done in the back of hunter's trucks if it wasn't an already naturally occurring thing.

And heck, at least someone is being proactive. May not be the best idea but it beats telling hunters to kill every deer they see. You know, because that has worked everywhere it's been tried.

 

[fairchaser]

CWD when it's endemic in the herd is worse than almost anything. Selective breeding is how scrapie was eliminated from the sheep industry. I agree there are some risks to the wild population but compared to CWD they seem minimal.

Sure I think deer will eventually overcome the disease on their own in a few hundred years. But, that's too long! Millions of deer will die maybe unnecessarily and the deer hunting tradition will die.

I say do it! CWD is just too terrible!

 

[BSK]

With so little data and time to observe negative effects, releasing genetically modified deer into the wild is the kind of scientific hubris and arrogance that brought is Covid 19.

 

[MickThompson]

CWD when it's endemic in the herd is worse than almost anything. Selective breeding is how scrapie was eliminated from the sheep industry. I agree there are some risks to the wild population but compared to CWD they seem minimal.

Sure I think deer will eventually overcome the disease on their own in a few hundred years. But, that's too long! Millions of deer will die maybe unnecessarily and the deer hunting tradition will die.

I say do it! CWD is just too terrible!

I would imagine that it took a considerable amount of time to breed resistant sheep too. Realistically they had to eliminate (kill) all sheep that were susceptible and replace them with sheep that weren't- no small feat behind a fence, and probably impossible outside of one. All a sheep needs to do is resist the disease until it reaches slaughter age- typically a year or less. CWD immune deer need to last a lot longer.

What else gets bred out with that gene as well? There's always other consequences, kinda like fast food tomatoes. They're terrible because they're bred to not get crushed in a huge box in transport. No room for flavor and disease resistance from what I've been told.

 

[BigAl]

I think its just a way for the deer farms to save face as well as continue to make money. Some of the guys on the facebook groups are arguing the deer farms had nothing to do with CWD or its spread.

But if data shows it would work I wouldn't be against it. And as bad as Ames is, could it make things worse?

 

[fairchaser]

I would imagine that it took a considerable amount of time to breed resistant sheep too. Realistically they had to eliminate (kill) all sheep that were susceptible and replace them with sheep that weren't- no small feat behind a fence, and probably impossible outside of one. All a sheep needs to do is resist the disease until it reaches slaughter age- typically a year or less. CWD immune deer need to last a lot longer.

What else gets bred out with that gene as well? There's always other consequences, kinda like fast food tomatoes. They're terrible because they're bred to not get crushed in a huge box in transport. No room for flavor and disease resistance from what I've been told.

In 50 years there's been no answer for a way to fight back against this disease other than to try and kill everything. From what I've heard, scrapie was eliminated completely by breeding out certain susceptible genetics and breeding in resistant genetics. Nature will do this eventually but at what cost? You say we might get something worse than CWD in the heard. What can be worse than death?

 

[BSK]

I think its just a way for the deer farms to save face as well as continue to make money. Some of the guys on the facebook groups are arguing the deer farms had nothing to do with CWD or its spread.

But if data shows it would work I wouldn't be against it. And as bad as Ames is, could it make things worse?

Deer farming had everything to do with the spread of CWD (although not it's creation). And often through illegal means (selling breeder bucks to people they knew were releasing these deer into the wild).

What data? two to three years of data from one facility? No long-term studies on potential side effects and genetic anomalies? And once any potential problems are out in the wild, there's no turning back. Absolute scientific malpractice.

Altering viruses to make them super-contagious in humans isn't a problem. It's such important research. We can control it. How did that work out?

 

[knightrider]

CWD when it's endemic in the herd is worse than almost anything. Selective breeding is how scrapie was eliminated from the sheep industry. I agree there are some risks to the wild population but compared to CWD they seem minimal.

Sure I think deer will eventually overcome the disease on their own in a few hundred years. But, that's too long! Millions of deer will die maybe unnecessarily and the deer hunting tradition will die.

I say do it! CWD is just too terrible!

So terrible that 60 years later there are still huntable populations where it first begin mankind will make this a thousand times worse by interfering rather than letting nature handle it!

 

[knightrider]

Deer breeders ain't spreading CWD. That was done in the back of hunter's trucks if it wasn't an already naturally occurring thing.

And heck, at least someone is being proactive. May not be the best idea but it beats telling hunters to kill every deer they see. You know, because that has worked everywhere it's been tried.

It was definitely in breeding herds than shipped all over the damn country, get your head out of the sand, the breeders have caused more harm to hunting than the tv hunters or antis every thought of, and all for a dollar!!

 

[MickThompson]

In 50 years there's been no answer for a way to fight back against this disease other than to try and kill everything. From what I've heard, scrapie was eliminated completely by breeding out certain susceptible genetics and breeding in resistant genetics. Nature will do this eventually but at what cost? You say we might get something worse than CWD in the heard. What can be worse than death?

Pen raised quail come to mind. The act of farming and domesticating them renders them unable to sustain in the wild with just a few generations.

I guess I'm saying that sometimes there are no easy answers except to not screw it up in the first place but that's not really in human nature though.

 

[megalomaniac]

Read the article...

According to it, the first case of CWD was detected just last year after over a decade of sampling...

So OK wants to release captive deer into wild herds that do not even have CWD??? That makes zero sense.

 

[AlabamaSwamper]

It was definitely in breeding herds than shipped all over the damn country, get your head out of the sand, the breeders have caused more harm to hunting than the tv hunters or antis every thought of, and all for a dollar!!

Of course it was and still is

But deer riding in the back of trucks from Midwest states contributed to the spread in most areas.

Captive deer started it but hunters spread it way more than deer breeders.

 

[AlabamaSwamper]

It was definitely in breeding herds than shipped all over the damn country, get your head out of the sand, the breeders have caused more harm to hunting than the tv hunters or antis every thought of, and all for a dollar!!

Of course it was and still is

But deer riding in the back of trucks from Midwest states contributed to the spread in most areas.

Captive deer started it but hunters spread it way more than deer breeders.

Deer farming had everything to do with the spread of CWD (although not it's creation). And often through illegal means (selling breeder bucks to people they knew were releasing these deer into the wild).

Any chance this happened in West Tennessee?

 

[MickThompson]

Read the article...

According to it, the first case of CWD was detected just last year after over a decade of sampling...

So OK wants to release captive deer into wild herds that do not even have CWD??? That makes zero sense.

I bet without much digging you would find the bill sponsor(s) are friends with deer breeders

 

[scn]

Of course it was and still is

But deer riding in the back of trucks from Midwest states contributed to the spread in most areas.

Captive deer started it but hunters spread it way more than deer breeders.

I'm guessing it was just a coincidence that CWD showed up in multiple states within a few miles of deer farms?

 

[bowhunterfanatic]

Of course it was and still is

But deer riding in the back of trucks from Midwest states contributed to the spread in most areas.

Captive deer started it but hunters spread it way more than deer breeders.

Any chance this happened in West Tennessee?

More like any chance it didn't…?

 

[AlabamaSwamper]

I'm guessing it was just a coincidence that CWD showed up in multiple states within a few miles of deer farms?

I doubt it
But there isn't any close to the positives in Alabama. Is there known positives in West Tennessee in high fences? I have no idea. Was high fenced deer released somewhere over there?

I know there isn't any high fences in Nebraska close to where we hunt but CWD has been there for 25 years in that area.

 

[Ski]

With so little data and time to observe negative effects, releasing genetically modified deer into the wild is the kind of scientific hubris and arrogance that brought is Covid 19.

What is an acceptable time-line? At what point is enough research enough? Who establishes the standards, and how?

I don't think releasing captive deer is a good idea. But what is the worst possible unintended consequence? Releasing an unliving, immortal, 100% fatal contagion that resides in the soil for eternity?

I don't know what approach is best. But every advancement comes from taking a risk to experiment. Sure there are some failures and outright disasters when the risks are realized. But there are also critical successes. We don't really know until after the fact how things will turn out. At this point I don't necessarily feel CWD is advancing rapidly enough to warrant extreme risk countermeasures, but I also am not sure exactly where that point is. To me this seems like a second down hail Mary when there's reasonable chance at a goal in the third down. But I'm not the coach.

 

[BigAl]

I doubt it
But there isn't any close to the positives in Alabama. Is there known positives in West Tennessee in high fences? I have no idea. Was high fenced deer released somewhere over there?

I know there isn't any high fences in Nebraska close to where we hunt but CWD has been there for 25 years in that area.

THe outbreak in West, TN occurred near Ames and a couple of high fence places. I've heard the finger pointed at both. I've heard someone say they know exactly where/how it started, but no one really names any names, places, or people. Also haven't heard if CWD spread into the high fence places. Someone else on here might know.

 

[killingtime 41]

Nature will figure it out. There is nothing man will do but make problems worse. We have an absolute record of doing that. No easy fix's and no short answers to the problem. I would say before they go and release them. They certainly should do a controlled study some how. Might take several years of data. But once released you don't want even worse problems. Now released into the wild deer herd. No coming back after the fact I wouldn't think.

 

[fairchaser]

THe outbreak in West, TN occurred near Ames and a couple of high fence places. I've heard the finger pointed at both. I've heard someone say they know exactly where/how it started, but no one really names any names, places, or people. Also haven't heard if CWD spread into the high fence places. Someone else on here might know.

I've heard the same thing Big Al. The state knows who but the individuals since died and they didn't want to go after the descendants. It wasn't Ames for sure but near Ames. That's all I know. Water under the bridge now.

Years ago before anyone knew any better, it was believed herd dynamics could be improved by introducing big antlered genetics and some were willing to spend the money to find out. Sad we all have to suffer now.

 

[Doskil]

How do you prevent these deer from being shot or hit by a car before they can do anything?

 

[whistlinwingman]

I may be wrong and I'm sure it's much more difficult to combat due the way it spreads, but I feel we should focus more efforts on EHD and not CWD. Seems to be a more intense, lethal, and more spread than CWD.

 

[scn]

I may be wrong and I'm sure it's much more difficult to combat due the way it spreads, but I feel we should focus more efforts on EHD and not CWD. Seems to be a more intense, lethal, and more spread than CWD.

There is virtually nothing that can be done for EHD.