CWD

[Swamp Yankee]

Does anyone here on the forum know anything about CWD "Cronic Wasting Disease" ?  I have been told that it is a neurolagical illness that efects deer and elk. It's kinda like mad cow disease for deer.  I've heard it has spread to at least 12 states now.  Thank you,   Jim

[dukkillr]

It's a disease in it's infliction but it's transmitted as a prion.  Without getting too chemistry nerd on you it's not exactly alive, which mades it very difficult to kill.  It's in the same family as Crutchfeld Jakobs disease and Mad Cow.  Any google of those diseases will teach you about the science.

I ran a path lab and morgue before returning to school, and on the very first day I worked there I was asked to retrieve a brain of someone with suspected CJD.  It's not something you want to get, or even see.  You have to be very careful because of the difficulty with cleaning anything that comes into contact with infect neural or lymphatic tissue.  To me that's the scariest part.  That was several years ago when much of this was just gaining national attention.

The good news is that most scientists don't think CWD can be transfered directly to humans.  The bad news is that no one is sure.  Symptoms often arise years after exposure which makes studies difficult.

Another piece of good news is that it's easy to test.  A submandibular lymph node is all they needed when I got my elk tested in Colorado and they posted the results within just a few days.  If you hunt in an area that has it I can't think of a reason not to get it tested.

It showed up in Kansas this year for the first time ever.

[williamlayton]

Lordy, we got some smart folks here !
I read and gained from that post, well, er, I think--I know I understood the part about Kansas.
I know you made the statement that transmission was unknown, so I guess I am understanding you to be saying to have all tested as it may be a possibility.
Blessings

[Daks]

It also showed up in NYS this year. There was a "containment area", where anyone who shot a deer in that area had to get the deer tested at a state-sponsored check station. I don't know what they found after this year's deer season. I've always heard that once CWD is in the wild herd, it was there for good and people would just have to deal with it.

Don't know if that's true or not.

[rockbilly]

:shock: CWD and Bird Flu....what is this world coming to?  Take a minute to think about it, there is more NEW desiese/virus out there today than we can keep track of.  Seems like every year we hear about sonething new.

Oh well, I can survive on turnip greens and cornbread..........that is if someone will slip me a big glass of ice cold buttermilk. :roll:

[williamlayton]

Last book kinda gives a hint.
Blessings

[Daks]

Maybe, but people have been finding correlations between Revelation and the times they were living in since that book was written nearly 2000 years ago. I remember reading an account written by Ralph Glaber, around the year 1000 AD, which saw signs and portents of the end of the world in what was happening in his lifetime.

You can read it at http://www.fordham.edu/HALSALL/source/glaber-1000.html

[unspellable]

One of the problems here is that the deer population is getting out of hand.  When you have an over population disease will rear its head.  Might be this disease or that one or some combination but you will have disease.

Yesterday 16 deer went through my backyard.  They tear my back yard to pieces.  What with the bleeding heart contingent you can't thin the herd.  (I'm in the city limits.)

Out in the country all the land is posted any more and the farmers cry about the damage the deer do.

The one control we have left is the automobile, but that's an expensive way to do it.  I've had two cars bashed up in deer strikes.

I'm starting to view them as rats with antlers.

[dukkillr]

Population control.  Remember that those herds were historically kept in check by large predators that were exterminated and basically can't be re-introducted because of public policy concerns and habitat issues.  

I applaud the states that encourage doe harvests as a means of population control and urban deer hunting (Kansas and Missouri have both done a good job).  

There was a study released last week that showed the risk that baiting causes with respect to transmission of CWD.  I suspect most states (all of them except Texas?) will ban feeders in the next couple of years.

[unspellable]

It's not entirely due to lack of predators.  Probably the biggest single factor in today's large deer population is the changes in the habitat in the last 200 years.  Much of the eastern US was covered in mature climax forest which is a poor habitat for deer.  Most of that forest was cut and now we have more open country with a lot of mixed habit and secondary forest which favours the deer.  Of course if this had been done without adding the human population and allowing the predators to multiply along with the deer the numbers would be more in line with the carrying capacity.  Goes to show that ecology is rarely simple.

We do get a bit of bow hunting in the city but not nearly enough.  I figure one of these rutting seasons a crazy buck will go after a kid and attitudes might change.  The guy next to me says no, it'll be in the spring when some kid finds a fawn and the doe goes after him.

I've made the mistake of putting out cracked corn for the turkeys, now they've scratched a bare area in the back of the lawn.

To date, I've trained the dogs to tolerate the deer, maybe I should let them go bark at 'em.

[dukkillr]

Goes to show that ecology is rarely simple.

Amen.  There are no easy answers.