mike243
Well-Known Member
I'm not saying CWD was the cause but has anybody read why the numbers dropped so much? my chart I pulled up went back to 1960, it was like ours very few deer at 1 time, not sure what a healthy # would be
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CWD a hoax?
- Thread starter Remington700
- Start date
the reason they dont report them is because they dont want you to know how many are being killed! the population has been in dramatic decline since they started pushing these permits!
MidTennFisher
Well-Known Member
This doesn't exactly show a population crash. And really it doesn't show much of anything without a legend to tell us what the blue/red means.
The chart posted several posts above yours shows quite a population growth of deer during the same years that CWD cases have continued to increase. How can that be if CWD is so deadly like we are told?
But again I still ask the question - where are all the dead deer, elk, and moose laying around in the CWD states with no sign of any physical injury? If CWD was as deadly as state agencies who benefit from federal funding to "combat CWD" say it is (see what I did there?) then surely we'd see dead deer and elk in 30+ states with no reason to be dead other than testing positive for CWD.
Wisconsin, I believe, still has the highest deer density in the country. And there are a lot of deer hunters. I think they're in the top 5 for hunting population so surely those hunters would be seeing dead deer in the woods. No?
If CWD was killing the deer like they say it is you'd have deer dying in subdivision yards as well that's running over with deer. You know some of those would be getting tested if they were dying like we're being told. It wouldn't only be where we hunt at which I've yet to see anyways.
If you're a serious hunter and get out and hunt and scout you can see the writing on the wall. It's not that difficult. It's like Faucci is running this show.
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
CWD is real.... but it takes several years to actually kill a deer. Plenty of time for deer to reproduce before they die from it. But they WILL die from it eventually. Most deer that die from it don't simply tip over on the side of the road... they are caught and killed by coyotes or hunters before end stage. Positives from hunters are easy to detect. Positives from coyote predation is next to impossible. Heck, I only find 2 or 3 skeletal remains a year on my farms.
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
The net effect is not necessarily a decline in population since it takes so long for deer to die from it... but rather a net shifting of age structure to being a couple years younger.
MidTennFisher
Well-Known Member
If that is true, which I do not believe the effect is that bad, I still think that is better than recklessly wiping out several counties worth of deer herds like many states are doing.
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
Not everything is a hoax...
And the flip side is also true...
Since CWD was discovered, there have been only 4 cases of Jacob-Crutchfield disease (the human version of CWD) in humans aged 30y or younger. And guess what... 3 out of 4 of those were heavy consumers of deer and elk meat... WAY higher than the general population of regular venison consumers. Conspiracy theory- CWD was created by Bill Gates to reduce the human population and eliminate hunting.
In reality... there is no PROVEN transmission to humans from eating CWD infected meat. And even if you got it from infected meat, it would take 10 to 30 years to show symptoms. But since other spongiform prion diseases have been proven to transmit to humans (BSE or Mad Cow disease), it would be prudent to not knowingly consume meat from CWD infected animals.
And the flip side is also true...
Since CWD was discovered, there have been only 4 cases of Jacob-Crutchfield disease (the human version of CWD) in humans aged 30y or younger. And guess what... 3 out of 4 of those were heavy consumers of deer and elk meat... WAY higher than the general population of regular venison consumers. Conspiracy theory- CWD was created by Bill Gates to reduce the human population and eliminate hunting.
In reality... there is no PROVEN transmission to humans from eating CWD infected meat. And even if you got it from infected meat, it would take 10 to 30 years to show symptoms. But since other spongiform prion diseases have been proven to transmit to humans (BSE or Mad Cow disease), it would be prudent to not knowingly consume meat from CWD infected animals.
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
Agree completely... especially since the net effect of wiping out animals accomplishes NOTHING. BUT, I'm all in favor of banning exportation of animals from CWD endemic areas to other areas without CWD.
mike243
Well-Known Member
Any lose affects the net whether it's a hunter a car old age ect. we might not detect it due to how fast a deer gets ate , also yotes will drag them off from where they found them, not sure how far but they do, tried to track a couple carcasses a few years back and had tied 1 to a tree. Sorry suckers chewed my rope lol
BSK
Well-Known Member
Mike243,
Thanks for posting the long-term data. But that sudden drop from 2007 to 2009 is certainly not CWD. Far too sudden. I would guess an EHD outbreak. We had one as well in 2007 that knocked out at least 30%, and in some places 50%, of the population in a single year. In fact, in localized pockets, I saw it knock out 80% of the population (eastern Williamson County).
BSK
Well-Known Member
I've heard this "it's the insurance companies" line ever since liberal antlerless limits began surfacing. I've also talked to many state wildlife heads and they all say they've never once received a call or contact from an insurance company. Insurance companies don't lobby for less deer, they just raise their rates in high deer density areas to cover their claims.
fairchaser
Well-Known Member
What would the approach be? It's either you kill more to slow the spread or simply continue as if it doesn't exist. I agree it's gonna spread regardless but is slower better than faster? Maybe or maybe it doesn't matter. If the cure is never found then I guess it doesn't matter. But if it is, then it does. No one knows but there's always hope in a cure. The state is taking a hands on approach which I hope is the right one.
After analyzing states where CWD has been around for decades, it seems like CWD infection rate increases to about 6% of the deer population then planes off there. So to answer your question, yes it is real.
I also believe governments have spent way to much money and have overreacted to it as human bureaucracies are prone to do. I also believe those of us that have hunted for decades and harvested/consumed many deer have probably consumed a CWD positive deer with no adverse effects.
Out of the last 20 deer I have killed and had tested, one has been CWD positive. That is 5%.
I also believe governments have spent way to much money and have overreacted to it as human bureaucracies are prone to do. I also believe those of us that have hunted for decades and harvested/consumed many deer have probably consumed a CWD positive deer with no adverse effects.
Out of the last 20 deer I have killed and had tested, one has been CWD positive. That is 5%.
fairchaser
Well-Known Member
This guy is smart but I think he's on a mission to prove his mineral deficiency theory to the world. Ames has more nutrition on their landscape than anyplace I've ever hunted. The reason is to feed the quail and the by product is the other wildlife as well. Studies have been done to measure the nutritional quality and quantity of the resource and it was found to be more than ample. It's nowhere near carrying capacity. Yet Ames has more CWD than other areas that have much less nutrition such as east TN. His claims don't pass the common sense test! Sorry Doc.
backyardtndeer
Well-Known Member
Once a deer has shed the prions, they are there, in the soil to be picked up by others in the future. At that point, killing as many deer as possible really doesn't stop it from reoccurring in that area. Further, deer that die naturally from the disease, and even those killed by hunters where carcasses are left behind, have the potential to be spread by scavengers to areas outside where those deer had been. Kind of like the science with covid and slowing the spread, may sound good initially but not so sure the science works out quite the way the scientists expect it to. Jmho.
fairchaser
Well-Known Member
You are correct that nothing stops it. Everything is designed to slow the spread. Killing more deer just keeps that deer from moving the prions around to other deer and other places. I'm no scientist either. Only time will tell if anything makes any difference. It certainly hasn't helped Ames to kill more deer imho. We killed fewer deer this season than last and last year was fewer than the year before. At the same time our infection rate continues to climb. I'm being very selective now on any deer I kill. Y'all are on your own in the rest of the state. Good luck!
