Wyoming deer CWD positive

[Special T]

Michigan state has done a bunch of research on CWD.  Human transportation seems to be the biggest spread. Hot spots have occured during it's spread that don't have a lot of other explanation. Yes it has a March on its own but defining in the feild is a must now.

[baldopepper]

Brother got one in Utah 3-4 years ago that tested positive..They came and picked up the meat and issued him anew permit  This stuff is nasty  It devastated the area we hunted in south central Utah.  When you see deer in the late stages it's really sad.  Skin and bone and barely able to move.  The deer he shot was a healthy looking buck when he shot it.

[dvolmer]

Thousands of people eat deer, elk, and moose every year that have CWD.  You just about didn’t get your animals checked. If you wouldn’t have, you wouldn’t be having this dilemma now.  I’m not saying what’s the right thing to do or what isn’t. I’m just stating the truth.  I’ve been hunting in Montana, and in Wyoming for 10 to 15 years and bringing animals home every year. I’m sure at least one or more of those animals had it. That just a guess.  I guess I just have bigger things to worry about.  I’ve never had a Covid test, but I’ve been sick a few times in the last three years. 

[dvolmer]

There is absolutely no proof that some healthy deer that have CWD don’t live a  long full healthy life. All testing for CWD is done on dead or super sick animals, and the couple of tests/studies that were done on live animals, the live animals were destroyed upon detection. There is so much that we don’t know about this disease. Yes, it kills animals, yes it spreads, but there’s so much to learn about animals that are healthy with the disease.

[baldopepper]

There is absolutely no proof that some healthy deer that have CWD don’t live a  long full healthy life. All testing for CWD is done on dead or super sick animals, and the couple of tests/studies that were done on live animals, the live animals were destroyed upon detection. There is so much that we don’t know about this disease. Yes, it kills animals, yes it spreads, but there’s so much to learn about animals that are healthy with the disease.

Everything I'm reading both online and printed says cwd is 100% fatal  Apparently it is 15-24 months from exposure to death. So early stage animals do appear healthy.  It is something that should certainly.worry us in Washington.  We hunted an area that 10 years ago was not uncommon to see upwards.off 100 deer a day.  Now its usual to see none.  Both the bios and local ranchers in the area blame it on cwd.  Both report it was not unusual to see numerous animals obviously suffering from it on a daily basis in the area year around. There were other factors in the decline of that herd, but cwd was the final nail in the coffin. Anyone thinking it's not a big deal is very, very naive.

[bigmacc]

There is absolutely no proof that some healthy deer that have CWD don’t live a  long full healthy life. All testing for CWD is done on dead or super sick animals, and the couple of tests/studies that were done on live animals, the live animals were destroyed upon detection. There is so much that we don’t know about this disease. Yes, it kills animals, yes it spreads, but there’s so much to learn about animals that are healthy with the disease.

Everything I'm reading both online and printed says cwd is 100% fatal  Apparently it is 15-24 months from exposure to death. So early stage animals do appear healthy.  It is something that should certainly.worry us in Washington.  We hunted an area that 10 years ago was not uncommon to see upwards.off 100 deer a day.  Now its usual to see none.  Both the bios and local ranchers in the area blame it on cwd.  Both report it was not unusual to see numerous animals obviously suffering from it on a daily basis in the area year around. There were other factors in the decline of that herd, but cwd was the final nail in the coffin. Anyone thinking it's not a big deal is very, very naive.

👍 Good post.

And I agree, it’s just a matter of time folks before it’s here. I think it’s good to be proactive and diligent about this stuff. If there’s a check station in the area and you got a deer in the back, use the check station. It’s free, let them do their thing. CWD is not good. I don’t know if you can eat it or not but I’ll tell you this, it will wreak havoc on our herds here in Washington. Does any hunter in this state want that? We have enough problems. If you bring an animal in from another state, please follow protocol, follow safety guidelines. One, just one could be the nail in the coffin for our herds in this state. Just my 

[Fidelk]

Good post, macc.

[Karl Blanchard]

There is absolutely no proof that some healthy deer that have CWD don’t live a  long full healthy life. All testing for CWD is done on dead or super sick animals, and the couple of tests/studies that were done on live animals, the live animals were destroyed upon detection. There is so much that we don’t know about this disease. Yes, it kills animals, yes it spreads, but there’s so much to learn about animals that are healthy with the disease.

Everything I'm reading both online and printed says cwd is 100% fatal  Apparently it is 15-24 months from exposure to death. So early stage animals do appear healthy.  It is something that should certainly.worry us in Washington.  We hunted an area that 10 years ago was not uncommon to see upwards.off 100 deer a day.  Now its usual to see none.  Both the bios and local ranchers in the area blame it on cwd.  Both report it was not unusual to see numerous animals obviously suffering from it on a daily basis in the area year around. There were other factors in the decline of that herd, but cwd was the final nail in the coffin. Anyone thinking it's not a big deal is very, very naive.

👍 Good post.

And I agree, it’s just a matter of time folks before it’s here. I think it’s good to be proactive and diligent about this stuff. If there’s a check station in the area and you got a deer in the back, use the check station. It’s free, let them do their thing. CWD is not good. I don’t know if you can eat it or not but I’ll tell you this, it will wreak havoc on our herds here in Washington. Does any hunter in this state want that? We have enough problems. If you bring an animal in from another state, please follow protocol, follow safety guidelines. One, just one could be the nail in the coffin for our herds in this state. Just my 

great posts both of you.

As stated, CWD has not made the jump to humans......yet. it's so ridiculously simple to get your animals tested, there's no reason not to. We don't eat an animal from cwd states until we get test results back. If they pop positive (hasn't happened yet), we are absolutely not eating it. It's very short sighted to ignore all the data out there and to act like it's not a serious issue

[bigmacc]

Good post, macc.

Well, hell, thank you. Did it freeze over?😆 seriously, thank you.

[dvolmer]

https://blog.eastmans.com/cwd-management-ask-more-questions/

[Stein]

That reminds me of why I cancelled my Eastman's subscription years ago.  We have a disease with well documented spread state by state, county by county, with multiple state agencies all saying the same thing, watching it spread from the origin in a captive herd yet he thinks it might be totally natural and no big deal?  Really? 

I guess we have the proof about his uncle dying to somehow tie the fantasy all together. 

[baldopepper]

https://blog.eastmans.com/cwd-management-ask-more-questions/

  ⅞
Yea, let's not make any pro active decisions based on best available science as well as innumerable field observations.  Let's keep asking questions and hoping there's no outbreak in the area I hunt.  Our stressed and diminishing deer herds don't have time for us to be stalling  taking action because it might inconvenience our hunting plans. Hate to see another case of figuring out what we should of done after it's to late to save a devastated herd.  Being reactive instead of pro active isn't helping save our game animals.

[jae]

You want to really get scared, read this.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful-amoeba/prions-are-forever/

WOW!

[Chesapeake]

CDC says no go

To be as safe as possible and decrease their potential risk of exposure to CWD, hunters should take the following steps when hunting in areas with CWD: Do not shoot, handle or eat meat from deer and elk that look sick or are acting strangely or are found dead (road-kill).

           I mean you already handled the meat and probably ate some tenderloin or back strap, so the big question would be..... Did they look sick or are acting strangely or are found dead (road-kill) ?

My dad killed an elk while we were there so we were enjoying the backstrap and tenderloins from that. We packaged the buck and doe without eating any, and yes we did process ourselves and did handle the meat. Neither deer was acting goofy before shot, just normal deer doing normal deer stuff.
Hard pill to swallow getting rid of some good alfalfa fed whitetail meat...

So aren’t the odds that the non-tested deer and the elk also have CWD pretty dang good?
And if they didn’t, wouldn’t butchering the animals on the same tables, in the same area, with the same knives make it so they were exposed?

You read about how easy this stuff is to spread and how hard it is to kill. It makes it seem like we have no chance of preventing spread.

I also think there is a bit of it shows up where it’s tested for going on. Meaning that most of the places that supposedly don’t have it, don’t test or test very little. As soon as states start extensive testing programs they find it.
So is it really not here, or is it just not found yet?

I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t eat the deer if I knew it had CWD. Especially with the scientists offering an easily morally justified way out.

[Stein]

It depends on the state, some test a bunch, some not so much.  I hunt MT and they have a great website showing where CWD is prevalent and where it is not and all the test results.  You can easily see if the are you want to hunt has had positive CWD results as well as how much testing ha gone on in that area.

https://fwp.mt.gov/conservation/chronic-wasting-disease/in-montana

https://mtfwp.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/ccd4d1ee5d7e47bbb16e431102468173

In contrast, I don't think WDFW publishes any data (they do have a very generic summary report from 2021-2 but nothing recent), so you don't know whether CWD is not found in XYZ unit or if there was limited or no testing done there.  When CWD shows up in WA, I would hope WDFW would enhance their website and transparency, but we'll see.  They seem to be focusing effort on the eastern part of the state, but who knows how many tests they are doing and from what units.  Are they testing other parts of the state?  Lots of questions.

There is a special draw next year for anyone that submitted a sample, I think BHA bought the actual tags to make it happen.

Like many things in WDFW, increased transparency and data availability would go a long way to helping sportsmen.