A sad day.

[CowboyLeroy]

I knew it was a 'when, not if' situation with CWD but that day finally came. Georgia DNR sent out a notification yesterday declaring the first case of CWD in a wild deer. Tennessee and Alabama both have documented cases of CWD so I expected when it came to come from the north or northwest corner of the state, not randomly pop up smack in the middle of South Georgia.

First Positive Case of Chronic Wasting Disease Confirmed In Georgia | Department Of Natural Resources Division

The sample was taken from a two-and-a-half-year-old male white-tailed deer harvested on private property. Immediately following the positive confirmation, WRD staff implemented the CWD Response Plan and are taking additional samples from the area. “I want to assure our hunters that deer hunting...

georgiawildlife.com

 

[Laelkhunter]

Not good.

 

[Nick87]

Well I've got bad news. Last year was probably the best your ever going to see it. Hope I'm wrong.

 

[Bonasababy]

Not familiar with your state, but in many cases the way it moves around is not from deer to deer through natural deer movements--but due to fenced cervid operations bringing in infected deer and not managing (or in our states case, not even being required to until recently) manage their fences and operations in a manner that all but eliminates passage to wild deer. If it didn't show up very close to another known endemic area I'd look to fenced operations first.

 

[ismith]

Not familiar with your state, but in many cases the way it moves around is not from deer to deer through natural deer movements--but due to fenced cervid operations bringing in infected deer and not managing (or in case, not even being required to until recently) manage their fences and operations in a manner that all but eliminates passage to wild deer. If it didn't show up very close to another known endemic area I'd look to fenced operations first.

As far as I’m concerned, the blame for CWD is squarely on the shoulders of the captive cervid industry.

 

[CowboyLeroy]

Well I've got bad news. Last year was probably the best your ever going to see it. Hope I'm wrong.

I think you're probably right. Normally both sides of I-75 have standing high fences to keep the deer out, which would be a great buffer for me on the west side but after this last hurricane most of them have been flattened.

 

[CowboyLeroy]

Not familiar with your state, but in many cases the way it moves around is not from deer to deer through natural deer movements--but due to fenced cervid operations bringing in infected deer and not managing (or in our states case, not even being required to until recently) manage their fences and operations in a manner that all but eliminates passage to wild deer. If it didn't show up very close to another known endemic area I'd look to fenced operations first.

To my knowledge we don't have deer farms in GA. If I had to guess it would be that it came in in a doe pee bottle.

 

[Treeshark]

To my knowledge we don't have deer farms in GA. If I had to guess it would be that it came in in a doe pee bottle.

Could be, but my guess would be a transplanted deer if some sort.

 

[CowboyLeroy]

Could be, but my guess would be a transplanted deer if some sort.

Maybe. I've told people the doe pee attractant is a disaster waiting to happen

 

[Treeshark]

Maybe. I've told people the doe pee attractant is a disaster waiting to happen

I’ve never thought of that but I wouldn’t be surprised.

 

[EastTNHunter]

Fenced deer and doe pee are two suspected transporters, but a third is people bringing back deer from infected areas and disposing of the carcass which includes the disease in brain matter and spinal column fluid. Once the prions get in the soil then they do not go away, and can be taken up into plants along with nutrients, which deer then ingest. Hence the laws carcass transport restrictions

 

[tim629]

Fenced deer and doe pee are two suspected transporters, but a third is people bringing back deer from infected areas and disposing of the carcass which includes the disease in brain matter and spinal column fluid. Once the prions get in the soil then they do not go away, and can be taken up into plants along with nutrients, which deer then ingest. Hence the laws carcass transport restrictions

I agree with you, it's an unpopular opinion/hypothesis. Go west shoot an elk, quarter it, bring the head back, wife says no-taxidermy goes over the bank with the bones. I don't think the captive herds are 100% free of blame but I also don't think they are 100% to blame either. Backyard unlicensed captive is actually probably a larger risk than the bigger commercial high fence operators that people think of when they hear "deer farm", when you're fencing in 100-500K individuals, you're doing a good job fencing out the wild population and maintaining your fences because it gets expensive to lose a deer worth 100K+ let alone a few of them.

I live in NY go back to PA yearly to hunt and make sure anything is deboned in PA before bringing it back to NY. One of my deer was randomly picked for testing while at the processor, I got a call from NY DEC asking for details on the processing and possession and I got a certified letter from PA GC stating that a deer I shot was positive. It isn't hard to follow those regulations, but it also wouldn't have been hard to bring the carcass back to NY, cut it up in the garage, throw the waste over the bank and bring CWD into NY again

 

[Bullshot]

CWD is here to stay. Probably has been around for a million years. Yet it’s undoubtedly true that humans have created some circumstances that allow it to spread/flare up in ways it wouldnt have naturally. There is nothing known that can eliminate it from the landscape and realistically little that can be done to contain its geographic march at this point, but the billion percent increase in testing may also be painting an inaccurate picture of fear/doom. Once we have the technology, I’ll bet we can detect microplastics buried within the CWD prion so it is partly a factor of look for something and you’ll probably find it. It will run its course however long it needs to. I figure that once we hit the 100 year anniversary of its detection and society still functions and deer herds still exist, some of the furor may finally die down. Gonna be a little while yet for that to happen, and right now CWD exists at the nexus of science/politics/money… which keeps it in the forefront of the wildlife management field like an embedded tick.

 

[Bonasababy]

I had forgotten that ..if my recollection is accurate...GA is one of those states that has imported larger northern deer in the zeal for bigger bucks. That could easily be the cause. Some informed speculation that's been the origin in some states

 

[3855WIN]

I had forgotten that ..if my recollection is accurate...GA is one of those states that has imported larger northern deer in the zeal for bigger bucks. That could easily be the cause. Some informed speculation that's been the origin in some states

That wasn’t the zeal for bigger bucks. That was to restock the deer herd.

 

[3855WIN]

Fenced deer and doe pee are two suspected transporters, but a third is people bringing back deer from infected areas and disposing of the carcass which includes the disease in brain matter and spinal column fluid. Once the prions get in the soil then they do not go away, and can be taken up into plants along with nutrients, which deer then ingest. Hence the laws carcass transport restrictions

The deer may ingest the plants, but are they infected from that? I understand the precautions, but I don’t believe that plants have been proven to pass the disease.

The randomness of the outbreak locations tends to point to CWD already being in the area for a long time.

I do wish all game departments would shut down deer pens.

 

[idelkslayer]

Could be, but my guess would be a transplanted deer if some sort.

What about agricultural products? Moving harvested crops, hay, or other products that have some soil containing cwd prions. CWD has appeared in many places without captive cervid operations and hundreds of miles from the nearest known infection site. Something other than captive cervids is spreading this. That's not to say that captive cervids are not a vector but something else is happening too.

 

[EKYHunter]

From Kentucky’s deer regs.

 

[FairWeather]

One more piece of bad news to add to the overflowing dumpster fire.