Stay Sharp
Well-known member
After 17 years of CWD here in WI and me being an avid deer hunter during that time, Ive seen it all in my state in regards to the alerts/notices/management prescriptions, etc from the receiving end (the hunter) Also (in 2007) I was commissioned by the (then) secretary of the DNR to sit on our state's CWD stakeholders advisory group to address and plot out the CWD management plan and have met with and talked to the scientists and researchers at the forefront of CWD research and having continuing to keep abreast of and following all the CWD research and news and science and research papers since then AND as a hunter of 45 years, I can tell you that in fact the solution to CWD (if such a thing exists and I contend it does not) WILL NOT be resolved because of anybody in blaze orange or camouflage as we CANNOT hunt or shoot our way to a CWD solution. Its simply not possible.
The people that will actually have an impact on CWD will be wearing white lab coats. Hunters are not a vector, nor is baiting/feeding. Baiting and feeding DID NOT start CWD nor will its absence stop/halt/slow the spread/reduce instances of CWD and there is not a single management prescription your state game agency will enact that will stop CWD nor any legislative act that will stop CWD or reduce its spread. We hold these truths to be self evident. Ive been studying this via research papers for 12 years.
By the time CWD prevalence is high enough to be detected in free ranging herds via random sampling, the environment the animals live in contains the CWD prions. The infected soil is 700% more ineffective than is deer to deer contact. That fact was presented to our group back in 2007.
cwd-info.org
Plants growing in that prion infected soils then uptake the infectious agent and host animals eat the plants and the soil meaning that an environmental reservoir exists that no longer requires infected host animals to spread CWD.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Knowing this about the soil and the plant uptake should give bait plotters (food plotters) pause, but it wont.
Some thought it a good idea to attempt to eradicate the disease by eradicating the deer. Even if you hire an occupying force to poison and shoot every single deer (which is not possible), and keep the landscape free of deer for a decade, new deer introduced to an area with an environmental reservoir of infectious agent, the new deer that are susceptible to infection (and not all deer are based in their genotype) that would be introduced to the area will eventually become infected. Even if your state makes as its goal to kill 100% of the deer in the infected area, it WILL NOT stop CWD. Your state knows this.
In the ranking of those that can or will have an impact on solving CWD. Hunters rank last so all management prescriptions placed on them are merely feel good measures tricking the public into thinking we are doing something because doing nothing is unacceptable and humans are arrogant enough to think they have a solution for everything including stopping CWD in Wild free ranging herds. The most effect and any long term solution will come from guys in white lab coats (if this ever happens at all). Lawmakers and your state game agency are and will be ineffective and they will lash out wildly with prescriptions that will actually be counter to their goals. They will think they are impactful and they may even mean well but your game commission and legislators will overreact and make the situation worse. It happens in nearly every state and there is no penalty for them acting poorly as they can fall back on "we are doing something" and "We are doing our best." and "we are acting in the best interest of the herd" There is no accountability for them getting it terribly wrong (and they will) As we found in WI, the management prescriptions levied on hunters and deer were worse for deer and deer hunting than CWD could ever be. Killing healthy deer to save the deer has been demonstrated folly as well as destroying the relationship between hunters and game agencies which lingers longer than CWD in the soil
But why think at the state wide level? Try to stop/cure CWD at the county or management unit level. Lets pick an area with enough CWD infected animals that it shows up in random testing. By this time the soil and plants have the infected environmental reservoir but magically, your state is able to kill every deer in that zone and keep out every new intruding deer. But they failed because they didnt also kill and keep out every crow, coyote and wolf and mole and vole that can transmit the infectious agent without becoming infected themselves. Then you would also need to have mandatory vehicle tire wash stations so infected soils could not be carried into and out of this zone. Oh and they will have to stop the wind as well since dust storms can carry infected soil.
Are you still thinking your state game agency or your legislature can stop/halt CWD???
I could go on regarding the impact of CWD on the human population and livestock but you already know how CWD IS NOT affecting them despite continual challenges in the lab with ovidized, cerviedized, bovinized and humanized transgenic mice and has been for years and not just in the USA. The species barrier has been and continues to be challenged as well as 50+ years of humans consuming infected meat with no increase of VCJD in areas with CWD in game animals vs VCJD in areas with no CWD. To date there have been only 4 cases of VJCD in the USA and none related to deer or elk or CWD.
The people that will actually have an impact on CWD will be wearing white lab coats. Hunters are not a vector, nor is baiting/feeding. Baiting and feeding DID NOT start CWD nor will its absence stop/halt/slow the spread/reduce instances of CWD and there is not a single management prescription your state game agency will enact that will stop CWD nor any legislative act that will stop CWD or reduce its spread. We hold these truths to be self evident. Ive been studying this via research papers for 12 years.
By the time CWD prevalence is high enough to be detected in free ranging herds via random sampling, the environment the animals live in contains the CWD prions. The infected soil is 700% more ineffective than is deer to deer contact. That fact was presented to our group back in 2007.
Soil Particles Found to Boost Prion’s Capacity to Infect
The rogue proteins that cause chronic wasting disease (CWD) exhibit a dramatic increase in their infectious nature when bound to common soil particles, according to a new study. Writing in the journal Public Library of Science (PLoS) Pathogens, a group led by University of Wisconsin-Madison prion ex
cwd-info.org
Plants growing in that prion infected soils then uptake the infectious agent and host animals eat the plants and the soil meaning that an environmental reservoir exists that no longer requires infected host animals to spread CWD.
Grass plants bind, retain, uptake and transport infectious prions - PMC
Prions are the protein-based infectious agents responsible for prion diseases. Environmental prion contamination has been implicated in disease transmission. Here we analyzed the binding and retention of infectious prion protein (PrPSc) to plants. ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Knowing this about the soil and the plant uptake should give bait plotters (food plotters) pause, but it wont.
Some thought it a good idea to attempt to eradicate the disease by eradicating the deer. Even if you hire an occupying force to poison and shoot every single deer (which is not possible), and keep the landscape free of deer for a decade, new deer introduced to an area with an environmental reservoir of infectious agent, the new deer that are susceptible to infection (and not all deer are based in their genotype) that would be introduced to the area will eventually become infected. Even if your state makes as its goal to kill 100% of the deer in the infected area, it WILL NOT stop CWD. Your state knows this.
In the ranking of those that can or will have an impact on solving CWD. Hunters rank last so all management prescriptions placed on them are merely feel good measures tricking the public into thinking we are doing something because doing nothing is unacceptable and humans are arrogant enough to think they have a solution for everything including stopping CWD in Wild free ranging herds. The most effect and any long term solution will come from guys in white lab coats (if this ever happens at all). Lawmakers and your state game agency are and will be ineffective and they will lash out wildly with prescriptions that will actually be counter to their goals. They will think they are impactful and they may even mean well but your game commission and legislators will overreact and make the situation worse. It happens in nearly every state and there is no penalty for them acting poorly as they can fall back on "we are doing something" and "We are doing our best." and "we are acting in the best interest of the herd" There is no accountability for them getting it terribly wrong (and they will) As we found in WI, the management prescriptions levied on hunters and deer were worse for deer and deer hunting than CWD could ever be. Killing healthy deer to save the deer has been demonstrated folly as well as destroying the relationship between hunters and game agencies which lingers longer than CWD in the soil
But why think at the state wide level? Try to stop/cure CWD at the county or management unit level. Lets pick an area with enough CWD infected animals that it shows up in random testing. By this time the soil and plants have the infected environmental reservoir but magically, your state is able to kill every deer in that zone and keep out every new intruding deer. But they failed because they didnt also kill and keep out every crow, coyote and wolf and mole and vole that can transmit the infectious agent without becoming infected themselves. Then you would also need to have mandatory vehicle tire wash stations so infected soils could not be carried into and out of this zone. Oh and they will have to stop the wind as well since dust storms can carry infected soil.
Are you still thinking your state game agency or your legislature can stop/halt CWD???
I could go on regarding the impact of CWD on the human population and livestock but you already know how CWD IS NOT affecting them despite continual challenges in the lab with ovidized, cerviedized, bovinized and humanized transgenic mice and has been for years and not just in the USA. The species barrier has been and continues to be challenged as well as 50+ years of humans consuming infected meat with no increase of VCJD in areas with CWD in game animals vs VCJD in areas with no CWD. To date there have been only 4 cases of VJCD in the USA and none related to deer or elk or CWD.
