muggs Posted May 20, 2005 Report Share Posted May 20, 2005 There's been a lot of convo on her lately over baiting/feeding, which eventually led to the CWD debate. What I don't understand is why people are getting so frantic. Judging by the stats, the disease has been around for 30 years, and only an extremely small percentages of deer have actually been infected?? To me it's obivious that penned deer and elk are to blame, and it's obivious that transportation of these animals is the problem. It's not like these deer run from Wisconsin to New York and spread CWD. So why isn't the DNR stopping or monitoring this transportation. And when did saliva become the explanation of how CWD can be spread, I thought that was only speculation. It seems like this would be an easy problem to contain. What I'm asking, is this, do you feel CWD is really as great of a threat as the media makes it out to be? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LDB Posted May 20, 2005 Report Share Posted May 20, 2005 Re: CWD and sensationalism I don't think it is as big of a threat as the media made it out to be. Here is a post I made on this topic a while back, but I think it pertains to this thread: 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muggs Posted May 20, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2005 Re: CWD and sensationalism Sure seems like we're panicking over nothing IMO. With proper management of penned deer, I think that .46 figure could even be eliminated?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhino Posted May 20, 2005 Report Share Posted May 20, 2005 Re: CWD and sensationalism All I can say is our state biologist consider it to potentially be a very serious threat to the resource and when it comes to protecting the resource they will side with it every time. I know the media loves to sensationalize these kind of things just like everything else. I'm also concerned about the resource so I agree with our biologist position regarding putting the resource at risk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MUDRUNNER Posted May 20, 2005 Report Share Posted May 20, 2005 Re: CWD and sensationalism I do think it has been blown out a little out of porportion,but I believe CWD does have potential to do real damage to wild deer herd numbers in areas where it is found.The DNR found a few deer with it a couple of years ago in 1 county,and through testing they have found it has spread to surrounding counties.It could be something that we have had for a long time,we just didn't have a name for it or know what it was until a few years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bond Posted May 20, 2005 Report Share Posted May 20, 2005 Re: CWD and sensationalism It was speculation that it's spread through saliva. So let's ban feeding and kill all the deer. It's speculation that it's caused by a protein deficiency - why didn't they supplement minerals??? Just as good of a solulution as banning feeding and killing everything. It's also speculation that deer will become immune to it through time in the effected areas - now we're killing all the ones that will get immune and the deer that haven't been exposed to it are moving into those areas and getting cwd. I'm not saying we should feed and not shoot any deer, all I'm saying is there were a lot of speculations and the dnr, at least in Wisconsin, just chose one speculation, without researching it and killed off all the deer and banned all baiting. They could have researched it more before jumping in and making everyone mad... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horst Posted May 21, 2005 Report Share Posted May 21, 2005 Re: CWD and sensationalism I think its been blow way out of proportion myself.Eradicating all the deer in a given area seems to me to be the biggest mistake theyre making.If a area has a serious overpopulation of deer I can see maybe giving out more deer tags to thin them out in those areas but trying to kill them all is just plain crazy. Banning baiting is a very sensible move as far as Im concerned.The reason baits used in the first place is to hold more deer in a given area.If it turns out that it is transmitted through saliva, snot, or any other bodily fluids getting that many deer in a small areas gonna spead up the spread of the desiease fasterthan if they were feeding, spread out, naturaly.If its spread by some other means then what exactly are you out? Blaming game farms is in my opinion also a mistake.Its been around for 30 years.The prions that cause it cant be killed by heat or cold.How many deer and elk have been hauled over state lines by hunters in that time frame?Now how many of those carcasses were dumped in the back 40 for the coyotes after they were cleaned?If the desiease is centerd in the brain and spinal fluid like they say and it doesnt die then its only a matter of time before one of the local deer happens to be feeding in the same area right?This is all speculation on my part but from what little they understand about it its quite possible were as much to blame for its spreading as any of the game farms. The thing that amazes me is theyve known this crap existed for 30 years and untill recently nobody made any full scale attempts to understand it.Almost everything you find on it is speculation.And it has yet to totally wipe out any large population of deer.Its yet to show up in humans.I think its not much different them rabies or distemper in other species, just natures way of keeping the population in check Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted May 21, 2005 Report Share Posted May 21, 2005 Re: CWD and sensationalism There is no publicized data that would indicate what the impact is on deer herds where the disease exists. It would seem to me that if the various game management agencies want the sportsman to support their efforts, they had better put the impacts of CWD in some kind of perspective that we can all understand. By now, there should be some measurable reaction of deer herd sizes in areas known to have CWD. I mean numbers right down to the county level so that some sense of magnitude could be arrived at. I have never seen any such numbers, or even estimates. I really don't think the PR of this fight has been handled very well at all. Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravin R10 man Posted May 21, 2005 Report Share Posted May 21, 2005 Re: CWD and sensationalism even now....all anyone can do is point fingers...we got NO answers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turkeygirl Posted May 21, 2005 Report Share Posted May 21, 2005 Re: CWD and sensationalism And maybe CWD is just nature/God's way of controlling the deer population. Animals get old/sick and die eventually. I think it needs alot more research before anything can be factual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig mack Posted May 22, 2005 Report Share Posted May 22, 2005 Re: CWD and sensationalism [ QUOTE ] even now....all anyone can do is point fingers...we got NO answers. [/ QUOTE ] Ditto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted May 23, 2005 Report Share Posted May 23, 2005 Re: CWD and sensationalism [ QUOTE ] even now....all anyone can do is point fingers...we got NO answers. [/ QUOTE ] My thoughts too. Think it has been blown way out of proportion by the media. There are other diseases like blue tongue also affecting deer herd numbers, but we dont hear much about them from the media. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaskMan Posted May 23, 2005 Report Share Posted May 23, 2005 Re: CWD and sensationalism [ QUOTE ] What do you guys think? Is CWD a real threat to the deer herd, or are we panicking over nothing? [/ QUOTE ] I think we're panicking over nothing. Us guys in Sask know what a nightmare of a job the DNR is doing to take care of it. Like has already been stated, I think it is mother nature's way of controlling things. Another point to ponder.........how long was it around before we knew what it was and started testing for it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted May 24, 2005 Report Share Posted May 24, 2005 Re: CWD and sensationalism [ QUOTE ] What I'm asking, is this, do you feel CWD is really as great of a threat as the media makes it out to be? [/ QUOTE ] Well, we've had quite a few replies to this question, and so far, I haven't seen any replies from anyone who is really qualified to supply an answer. Why? ..... because I don't think even the biologists researching the subject have clear-cut ideas on the magnitude of the threat. If they do, they certainly are keeping it to themselves. Has anybody seen any concrete numbers on the effect of CWD on any existing herds? Has anyone even seen projections or even a good ol' guess as to what percentage of the population is expected to croak from this disease? I haven't. In some states, CWD has been around for a whole bunch of years. Certainly long enough to get a pretty good read on what the impact (in real numbers) has been. One would think that if it really is a big deal, such numbers would be plastered across every outdoor column being printed at on time or another. And yet, I haven't seen a single article proclaiming that CWD is estimated to take "X"% of Wisconsin's herd this year, or any other such article about any of the other infected states. So how are we to take this threat seriously? Basically, I think we have enough different things to worry about that we know for a fact are impacting deer herds and hunting. I don't really need to start worrying about something they can't even quantify. Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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