Saskatchewan CWD Threat - real or perceived?

[Guest LDB]

I was just looking over some CWD stats for Saskatchewan over the past 5 years.

2000 - 1 positive out of 1000 tested for an incidence rate of .1%.

2001 - 1 positive out of 3866 tested for an incidence rate of .03%.

2002 - 10 positive out of 6010 tested for an incidence rate of .17%.

2003 - 22 positive out of 4809 tested for an incidence rate of .46%.

2004 - 31 positive out of 6762 tested for an incidence rate of .46%.

We were all told that CWD was supposed to spread like wildfire once it got in to a deer herd. An incidence rate of .46% after 5 years doesn't suggest wildfire to me, especially given the fact that the testing has been much more selective in the last 2 years. It suggests to me that we still don't know much about this disease and it might not be as big of a threat as was earlier thought.

What do you guys think? Is CWD a real threat to the deer herd, or are we panicking over nothing?

[sureshot]

Re: Saskatchewan CWD Threat - real or perceived?

I say paniking over nothing, they are killing the herd off that has the best genetics in possable the world and for what? I see from your post that it was just .46 last year and most of those deer tested were the deer the dnr massacured in the cwd areas! In my opinion deer have no natural desease and when they become highly populated mother nature takes her course this is the desease that she has made to controal the herd,its been around for ever and not noticed earlier becouse we never tested!look at how long in CO still a great elk herd there, ok better stop now before I say soemthing abotu the stupid goverment I regret!

[Guest BeerSlayer1]

Re: Saskatchewan CWD Threat - real or perceived?

Personally, I think that not enough is known about CWD for anyone to proclaim that they have all of the right answers.

My own opinion is that since it appears to be a density-dependent disease, a population reduction program is probably the best way to approach the problem. This goes against most hunter's ideas of deer management which tend to reflect a bias toward "maximizing hunter opportunity". No one wants to have their honey-hole cleaned out that's for sure and I'm no exception.

The way that it's being carried out in Sask. seems to be causing the most problems with landowners. If it was just the government workers doing it like in Alberta, I don't think you'd be hearing as much complaining.

As far as deer diseases go, they are out there. Things like hemorrhagic diseases (something like the ebola virus), blue tongue, lyme disease, erlichiosis, Rocky mountain spotted fever, tuberculosis, anthrax, and hoof and mouth disease have all been reported in North American deer. Here's a quote from a biologist, "I've noticed among the public, and even some professional biologists, an interesting attitude: that wild animals do not get sick or have accidents. The truth is very different."

The real danger seems to lie in the possibilty of the disease jumping to domestic animals or humans. Think it can't happen? Just look at things like bird flu, ebola and some of the other nasty animal borne diseases that kept evolving until they could infect humans.

From what I've read, it usually takes 3 - 5 years for CWD to become "clinical", therefore I wouldn't expect it to spread like "wildfire".

If you have them, check the article on "Dealing With Deer Diseases" in V21 #7 of North American Whitetail and the article on CWD in the next issue. Excellent info.