Hunting the property I have permission with my buddy the landowner in Fayette Countty the last few days. This is the epicenter of CWD in Tennessee. 100% of the deer taken off this property since CWD has been announced has tested positive. I have reported the decimation to the herd here and folks have called BS on me but I'm telling you how bad it has impacted this piece of property is sad.
In a day and a half of hunting it has been surprising…my sighting have consisted of 0 deer and 1 bobcat (that was cool), 3 small bucks this morning, and one small buck and three does this afternoon. All three sits were non late season food sources that would normally result in 25-50 deer sightings per sit.
The really cool thing is the last couple years UT has trapped some deer on his farm and I think one other private farm as well as Ames. My buddy and another friend that hunts this farm has pics of a doe with a radio collar on it from the trapping efforts. This afternoon I watched a doe with ear tags but no collar. On the way in, my buddy called the guy running the research. The doe I watched was from the first year of the program and was too small for a radio collar when trapped so it just got ear tags.
While talking to the guy who heads up the study got these interesting tidbits of info first hand I thought was interesting…they were testing the deer for Covid/SARS virus as well as CWD…and about 10 to 15% popped positive on Covid…different rate than the northeastern study that got so much attention, but still was present in deer here. There is a rudimentary CWD test on live animals available…it's not as good as the one for dead animals but they are working on making it better. Apparently the ear canal is a means of testing for the prions.
The sad part is 60% of the deer captured for the study have expired already. 50% tested positive for CWD when captured. There were approximately 60 deer captured for the study. Trapping efforts have moved about 15 miles away. Of the remaining deer in the study still alive, the range that they have travelled, moved, and relocated has taken the researchers by surprise. The deer moved much further than anticipated.
In a day and a half of hunting it has been surprising…my sighting have consisted of 0 deer and 1 bobcat (that was cool), 3 small bucks this morning, and one small buck and three does this afternoon. All three sits were non late season food sources that would normally result in 25-50 deer sightings per sit.
The really cool thing is the last couple years UT has trapped some deer on his farm and I think one other private farm as well as Ames. My buddy and another friend that hunts this farm has pics of a doe with a radio collar on it from the trapping efforts. This afternoon I watched a doe with ear tags but no collar. On the way in, my buddy called the guy running the research. The doe I watched was from the first year of the program and was too small for a radio collar when trapped so it just got ear tags.
While talking to the guy who heads up the study got these interesting tidbits of info first hand I thought was interesting…they were testing the deer for Covid/SARS virus as well as CWD…and about 10 to 15% popped positive on Covid…different rate than the northeastern study that got so much attention, but still was present in deer here. There is a rudimentary CWD test on live animals available…it's not as good as the one for dead animals but they are working on making it better. Apparently the ear canal is a means of testing for the prions.
The sad part is 60% of the deer captured for the study have expired already. 50% tested positive for CWD when captured. There were approximately 60 deer captured for the study. Trapping efforts have moved about 15 miles away. Of the remaining deer in the study still alive, the range that they have travelled, moved, and relocated has taken the researchers by surprise. The deer moved much further than anticipated.
