Wisconsin’s CWD Rate Hits Record High

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So that whole no more feeding really has not halted the spread has it.

 

Hard to be sure - since most people are still putting out food/minerals and the DNR either isn't or doesn't have a way to enforce it.

I would say failure to address the issue and reduce the herd size in CWD hot zones is contributing to the spread of the disease more than anything. Despite it's lack of public support the Illnois DNR's efforts to reduce herd size in hot zones has managed to keep infection rates at less than 1% of overall tested animals and sub 2% for adult males. Although our infection rate continues to increase, it's not doing so at anywhere near the pace that it is in WI.

 

Personally and all the hunters I personally know are the same, would consider taking in a deer to be tested if it looked questionable. but if it appears fine, we won't bother. so in reality those numbers don't show the CWD status in the herd, only the status of CWD in the testing samples. If it was a random sampling of all the deer than they could call it a good representation of the CWD status of the herd. All we hunters have to do is take in more of our healthy kills and we would make those numbers skew to show better results.

what they should do if they want a fair representation, would be to randomly select a percentage of registered kills and require them to be tested.

 

If I lived in Wisconsin my family and myself would not be eating deer meat. No way in hell.

 

Considering a deer can be infected for up to 18 months before showing any visible signs of illness that's a problem.

Then why not do that?

 

Since as of today, there is no case of a human becoming sick from a CWD infected animal, I'm not anymore concerned about the venison I eat than I am about getting MadCow from the 1/2 cow I get each year.

I plan on taking anything I get in for testing and convince those I can to also so we do get a better indication on the infection.

But I would actually need to shoot something in order to do that.

 

The firebase I work at is on a wma for a couple years they did the collection and extracted the samples to be tested. They used U of M vet students to collect the samples. In the 3 years they never found a sample that tested positive, and for some reason they quit doing the survey and collection the past 3 years.

People donate hides and drop them in the box, seems easy that the White Tail organizations or QDMA could help and facilitate collection of heads so samples could be taken.

 

What about just getting it tested? You would say no to all deer meat or untested meat?

 

Deer are herd animals and it is my belief that if CWD is in an area nothing will stop the spread. People get upset about the current state of the deer herd but honestly it is an example of evolution, the deer that do not get sick or do not die are going to be resistant to the disease thus improving the herd once it recovers.

 

I would not feel comfortable feeding friends or family untested meat. I also would not be taking any meat to a butcher unless the butcher is testing all deer coming into his place.

 

They buried the lead in this story. The take away is 90.5% of deer in the most infected area of the state DONT have CWD. In the outlying areas (the bulk of the state where testing is taking place), 99.9% of the deer DONT have CWD.

We dont get our deer tested either. We dont give CWD a 2nd thought. Writers like to gin up a story. Its a paycheck. There is money in trying scare folks.

It didnt work. The writer is a long time Walker hater.

You cant kill all the deer to keep them from dying. The super majority of the deer tested, died of lead poisoning or a severe case of broadhead disorder.

Ask the writer if this tedious story what he would do. If the anwer is "kill ervery deer in the infected area". Then what? The soil in so infected, any deer that would ever re-enter is likely to contract CWD. We cant kill all the deer (and why would you when 90+% dont have CWD) and killing them all does not elliminate CWD. Its still in the soil waiting to reinfect any that would dare enter.

Its not a problem except to writers looking to scare up an auduance to make a few bucks.

 

Deer hunters saying CWD isn't a problem is the problem. Whether you like to admit it or not the disease is spreading at a record pace throughout a good chunk of Wisconsin and other states. It may not spread fast and far enough to affect most of us in the immediate future, but what happens in 20, 30 or 40 years? What will the landscape look like when our grandkids are old enough to go hunting? All too often we look at this problem and think it's not doing enough damage today to worry about it - without thinking of the future.

These facts are not disputable:

- CWD has the highest infection rate in adult males.
- In CWD hot spots the infection rate among adult makes is increasing exponentially each year.
- Deer typically die within 18 months of contracting CWD.

Therefore it stands to reason that as infection rates continue to increase among bucks we'll begin to see fewer and fewer of them reach maturity.

These adult males are the mature bucks with large antlers that make the deer hunting industry go around. Without these animals to chase the vast majority of us wouldn't spend the time or money we do on deer hunting. While we all love hunting and enjoy the outdoor experience, camaraderie, and fresh venison what we love most is chasing big bucks. When that money we're spending dries up so too do the revenues generated from license sales, travel expenses, land sales and excise taxes on the gear we purchase. You want to kill deer hunting in the US? Kill all the mature bucks and see what happens.

In Iowa County, ground zero for CWD, infection rate was 23% of infected animals. The infection is spreading outward to surrounding areas and it is sure to increase there as well. At what point do we admit that it's an issue and urge our game & fish departments, along with other government officials, to start doing something about this? When it hits 50%? 75%? 100%?

Unfortunately due to Wisconsin's failed attempt to "eradicate" the deer when CWD was discovered the majority of hunters feel that this is the only option on the table so naturally they're against doing anything. The reality of things is that unless our voice is heard there will not be any public funds put towards research of CWD. There's a lot of theories out there but the fact is there isn't enough money to fund projects which would tell us exactly where it comes from, how it's spread or if there's a way to prevent transmission. Some say it's in the soil. Some say it's in the plants. Some say it's in the air. Right now it's a bunch of theories and guesses. The only hard data we have is that the disease always spreads and is always fatal.

Although using your analogy we shouldn't be worried about things like ebola, HIV or other fatal diseases that don't infect a larger percentage of our own population. 90% of people are healthy? Good enough for me!

 

"In the outlying areas (the bulk of the state where testing is taking place), 99.9% of the deer DONT have CWD." - False.

 

You only have to look at the data to see Im correct.

 

Your an admin, I will simply disagree rather than the long version of a reply.

 

I hunt Iowa county and was always told they won't test fawns because the disease wouldn't show up in a fawn. That data shows they tested 22 buck fawns in 2015?!?! As far as getting a deer tested. It wasn't a big deal where I registered was a CWD sample station. I would always let them test. The property I hunt has had two confirmed positive tests in the last few years. Now since you can register the deer online or phone in I'm sure a lot of guys didn't test last year myself included.


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Sadly the Dnr keeps making cuts which means not enough wardens to enforce baiting laws. I personally thinking baiting should be banned state wide but that is just my opinion.

 

I agree I'm not a fan of baiting but that's just me, however if they ever find a cure for this disease I believe baiting deer with some medication could be a good idea.

 

While I agree that baiting should be banned, I tend to believe that there are more people who don't hunt, that are 'feeding' the deer because they like to see them from the window of their living room. I believe that had a bigger impact than baiting. What has the impact of CWD been on states that have had the disease for twenty or thirty years already? Has the herd population dropped dramatically, or not? I don't know, I'm just asking. The thing that decimated the deer herd around where I hunted when they created 'eradication zones', was the fact that anyone could shoot more deer per day than geese. I know of people who were doing just that, and within a couple years, I went from seeing plenty of deer, to the sighting of a single deer to be considered a good day of hunting. When this whole thing started, I seem to remember that people who lived in states that had the disease for decades, were astonished at the DNR's response to eradicate the deer herd. How can you eradicate the deer herd in a county wide area, when you can have twenty guys do a deer drive through a small chunk of woods, and still have deer in those woods after the drive?