Ingham Co (where they found the infected doe) Michigan has a lot of co-ops and QDMers, small parceled hunting properties with a population with a vibrant hunting heritage as do the surrounding areas. Feel bad for many of my friends who bought and spent a lot of money on these deer camps and properties in the affected areas. Hopefully the DNR can get this under control. Sad, Sad day fore sure....
From what I've read Michigan has a pretty clear and comprehensive plan in place to begin dealing with this, which is good to see. Many states were caught off guard and didn't respond well which only made things worse. The trouble is that in spite of their best efforts there's no way to stop the spread of CWD once it's there. They may be able to slow it's spread and keep infection rates low for a time, but unless a cure is found they will never eliminate it entirely.
My thoughts when I was reading the article. I suppose their plan is containment and isolation, but CWD really, to me, is the single most worrisome threat to deer hunting. The fact that they've tried a lot of various eradication methods to no avail to really raise concern. I'm fortunate enough to not have to deal with it where I hunt, but it's most likely inevitably heading this way. I'm not sure how I will feel about hunting in an area that is CWD infected.
There seems to be more discussion about a possible cause of some of the CWD. Scientists are looking at the use of collected natural deer urine being sold as attractant scents. I recently heard this discussion from our state deer biologist. They are looking at some of the deer farms that collect urine and market it. If one of those deer is infected, urine collect and sold, the disease can spread to an area in a different area, that was never infected. The concept alone is scary! I understand that VT has banned the use of actual deer urine based scents and here in RI, the wildlife staff is recommending that hunters only use the synthetic type urine for the time being. I'm sure we will hear more about these studies as more data is collected. At the present time, RI has not had any CWD cases. Hope to keep it that way!
That's not good news. I know so many people who talked about how good Michigan hunting used to be. All the years of high bag limit, resurgence of wolves in the area, harsh winters, and now this... ^Deer urine as a cause? Interesting. I haven't thought or heard of that but I could see how it could contribute. I will have to read up on that.
Man, this truly does suck...and as a (northern edge)Hoosier I hate that it is so "close". Nature has a sick way of hitting the re-boot button at times with EHD but CWD is even worse and more harsh some say. I just hope they can keep number low if there is such a thing in a wild free ranging herd.
Unfortunately nobody really knows for 100% certain where the disease comes from or just how it's spread. Urine is a theory, but not a fact. VT has proposed legislation to ban the use of deer urine but it hasn't passed into law yet. That vote won't take place until later this year. The long term implications of CWD on our deer herds are still unknown but the forecast doesn't look good. It will never wipe out a herd completely but considering the disease is more prominent in adult males the number of bucks we see reaching full maturity (4+ years old) could greatly decline. Without those deer to chase the hunting industry as a whole will most certainly suffer.
If the county I hunt in ever gets to some of the infected levels I am seeing with other parts of the Midwest I will switch to upland/turkey/waterfowl and quit hunting deer until it is under control or reaches a level I would feel is safe. No way would I eat deer or give to family/friends that would have a high risk of having the disease and no way am I killing deer just to help the non spread of the disease unless they know 100% for sure that it is going to eliminate the disease. EHD is understood for the most part, CWD is not and it would be nice to see QDMA or the NDA step up and figure this thing out. I currently support Pope & Young and NRA, but not QDMA or the NDA, however I would write a check if they started some serious research.
welcome to our nonsense. hopefully your state dnr won't do what ours did and screw up the whole hunting system in attempts to eradicate all deer in affected areas.
Sounds like MI DNR has a good plan set up for this years hunt. Heard an actual DNR officer talk about how they are going to let the hunters do the sharpshooting and the DNR is going to be paying for the test required after a harvest. Back in 2008 MI had a captive deer with cwd just west of where they are now and EHD in the same area.
Justin - You are correct. VT will not ban urine based scents until 2016. Should have confirmed the info before I posted. You are also correct stating that they don't know the cause of the disease, but I think that it is important that the hunting community talks about this issue, compare notes and what's going on in their state and in other states.
