The "CWD is a HOAX" movement is building

[YukonGold]

The thing that scares me the most about CWD is that just because it doesn't currently appear to be transmissible to humans, that doesn't mean it never will be. There is already precedent for prions being transmissible between taxa (mad cow disease). I think the best argument for trying to keep prevalence low (acknowledging that it will never be eradicated) is to minimize the chance of some deer CWD prion, somewhere, finally infecting a human who eats it. If that ever happens...I shudder to think what that will do to hunting.

 

[Beignet]

We've got it pretty bad here in PA now. About half the state has CWD in the wild population to some degree. My prediction is we'll be reinfecting NY in the next decade from its southern border. Unfortunate for them, and curious to see how they handle it.

DEC is absolutely anticipating this. I participated in some focus groups with DEC and Cornell U on how to best get the message out there. Additionally, a local chapter of a national sporting group campaigned the governor and helped get her to veto bad legislation that would have statutorily placed antler point restrictions on some units near the border. This helped allow DEC to have a full management tool chest when it does eventually happen.

 

[jimss]

CWD and it's prions have been around for up to 40 years. With the thousands of CWD positive animals harvested wouldn't you think there would have been a human casualty by now? Every day you get in your truck to drive to work or grocery store you stand a lot better chance of kick'n the bucket than CWD will ever have!

 

[YukonGold]

CWD and it's prions have been around for up to 40 years. With the thousands of CWD positive animals harvested wouldn't you think there would have been a human casualty by now? Every day you get in your truck to drive to work or grocery store you stand a lot better chance of kick'n the bucket than CWD will ever have!

40 years isn't a heck of a long time when you consider the evolutionary scale of infectious diseases. How long was avian flu around and not a concern for human transmission, until suddenly it was? And all it takes is for ONE person to get sick from a CWD prion for it to shake up enough folks to impact hunting, which is my point. And unlike avian flu and many other zoonotic diseases, there is no cure or treatment for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

edit to add: the more times you expose an infectious agent to another species, the more chances you give it to evolve into something that can cross the species barrier. That's the basic reason every agency recommends not eating an animal that tests positive for CWD.

 

[3855WIN]

The thing that scares me the most about CWD is that just because it doesn't currently appear to be transmissible to humans, that doesn't mean it never will be. There is already precedent for prions being transmissible between taxa (mad cow disease). I think the best argument for trying to keep prevalence low (acknowledging that it will never be eradicated) is to minimize the chance of some deer CWD prion, somewhere, finally infecting a human who eats it. If that ever happens...I shudder to think what that will do to hunting.

Hunting will be the least of our worries if it jumps to humans.

 

[brocksw]

Hunting will be the least of our worries if it jumps to humans.

Incubation period for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) was a decade for bovine to human transmission. If it's similar for CWD, we would automatically be behind the 8-ball in terms of a response.

 

[jimss]

Yukon, you better not leave your home...you may catch Covid, West Nile, die in an auto wreck, get shot in the head by a lunatic etc. There's a heck of a lot worse things in the World to worry about right now than CWD!

 

[shootbrownelk]

The thing that scares me the most about CWD is that just because it doesn't currently appear to be transmissible to humans, that doesn't mean it never will be. There is already precedent for prions being transmissible between taxa (mad cow disease). I think the best argument for trying to keep prevalence low (acknowledging that it will never be eradicated) is to minimize the chance of some deer CWD prion, somewhere, finally infecting a human who eats it. If that ever happens...I shudder to think what that will do to hunting.

I shudder to think what that will do to not only deer hunting, but elk, moose as well. Antelope tags will be really hard to get. LOL

 

[appaloosa]

CWD and it's prions have been around for up to 40 years. With the thousands of CWD positive animals harvested wouldn't you think there would have been a human casualty by now? Every day you get in your truck to drive to work or grocery store you stand a lot better chance of kick'n the bucket than CWD will ever have!

Look at the history of TSEs. It is not a matter of if, it is only a matter of when a human case will be confirmed. It could be tomorrow, it could be 100 years from now, but it will happen.

Yukon, you better not leave your home...you may catch Covid, West Nile, die in an auto wreck, get shot in the head by a lunatic etc. There's a heck of a lot worse things in the World to worry about right now than CWD!

You think people's reaction to CWD is overblown now? Wait until we see a confirmed human case. How do think people will react to knowing that a fatal infectious disease might be in the soil of their primary food sources like corn and wheat, or potentially contaminating their drinking water? (BTW, the National Elk Refuge sits smack dab on top of the primary source of drinking water for the entire town of Jackson Hole, do you think that will generate some concern among influential people).
To blow this off, ignore it, or "let it run its course" is completely ignorant and foolish. What do you think the general public's tolerance for cervids will be if they are known be carrying around potentially fatal infectious disease. You think natural resource agencies are waging war on deer now....

 

[YukonGold]

Yukon, you better not leave your home...you may catch Covid, West Nile, die in an auto wreck, get shot in the head by a lunatic etc. There's a heck of a lot worse things in the World to worry about right now than CWD!

dude, where did I say I was scared of contracting CWD? I'm saying a cross-species jump will affect hunting. You need to brush up on your reading comprehension skills. Easy enough to quit hunting cervids if you're afraid of CWD. Less easy to fund wildlife management, protect habitat, manage populations, or engage people in the outdoors if suddenly nobody wants to hunt cervids.

 

[appaloosa]

In an incredibly ironic twist, I just found out the deer my son shot was CWD positive. Offering to ship the meat to anyone who still denies it's existence and is willing to consume it.

 

[Big Fin]

Dang. That's a bummer. Matthew's Wyoming deer was taken in a voluntary testing area. I removed the lymph nodes and submitted them, out of curiosity. His came back as "Not Detected."

 

[Shangobango]

In my mind, the population reduction is more an attempt to keep CWD geographically restricted, and prevalences low to slow transmission. So that at some point in the future, you still have some clean ground and healthy animals to work with.

The entire point right now, given what we know and the tools we have, is to buy time. We aren’t going to cure anything with our current state of knowledge. It’s to conserve an opportunity to do something in the future if or hopefully when we have better knowledge, or better tools. In almost every aspect of conservation, it is easier and more effective to preserve what you have than to restore what you lost. CWD is no different. The resource we have been trying to preserve is clean ground, and healthy seed stock.

That it is the first time I have seen this laid out in this manner.

Thanks for the perspective.

 

[Shangobango]

In an incredibly ironic twist, I just found out the deer my son shot was CWD positive. Offering to ship the meat to anyone who still denies it's existence and is willing to consume it.
View attachment 250887

What if they accept it’s existence and are still willing to consume it?

 

[appaloosa]

What if they accept it’s existence and are still willing to consume it?

Deal

 

[BrentD]

Deal

And what if they then get mysteriously sick and die?

 

[Shangobango]

Deal

I don’t want it. I am not going to knowingly eat a diseased animal and wouldn’t want to knowingly bring meat from a CWD positive animal into my area.

Had our first positive deer early 2022.

I do wonder how many CWD positive deer have been eaten with the folks consuming it being none the wiser.

Was just curious if the offer was just for those who deny CWD’s existence or was it open to those foolish enough not to care…

 

[MThuntr]

I shot 2 in the CWD hot spot in SW MT. Of the 2 in the hotspot 1 tested positive. We were given access to a small property outside of Dillon that was concerned about CWD. The weather was not cooperative but we shot 1 doe. Results this morning are NOT DETECTED. The doe I had that tested positive was a 1.5 year old doe with twins. No signs of disease but I certainly took the meat to the dump. FWP will reinstate my B tag in 2023.

The biologist at Sheridan, MT said in 21-22 they averaged a 50.2% positive/detected rate in the hotspot (64% in adult bucks). '22 season with tests still pending, a 44% positive among all deer and an 80% detection in adult bucks. The bio's data suggested a 71 to 18 deer per mile reduction over the 2021-22 season. They decided earlier this week to have a very restricted CWD hunt in the hotspot which is 95% private lands.

Several people I know refused to test so they took advantage of previous CWD season; even shooting multiple bucks with B tags, without offering data. I think the previous seasons that the CWD hunt removed a lot of public land deer that tested negative or not tested so I'm glad to see they really changed focus area to only the hotspot and not surround areas with very low positive tests.

 

[JLS]

Several people I know refused to test so they took advantage of previous CWD season; even shooting multiple bucks with B tags, without offering data.

I am dumbfounded there isn’t a mandatory testing with this.

 

[MThuntr]

I am dumbfounded there isn’t a mandatory testing with this.

The property I hunt within the CWD hotspot requires it or you're done which is a proper risk to justify the 5 minutes it takes to get the lymph nodes out. I wish FWP would require it but they seem to be disinterested actually tracking hunter harvest.