CWD a hoax?

[7mmWSM]

I think we all can agree CWD has been around a lot longer than 5 years ago when the state did the first test for it. Not including the Ames members here because for awhile they've killed the does down to where even they were hard to kill even in the 7yrs I was a member there. So their numbers are low regardless especially now with no antler restrictions and such.

So leaving them out I have a couple questions for the other hunters outside of Ames.
After the 1st positive CWD test by TWRA did your attitude change or did the deer change? If the deer changed explain how it changed in the previous say 5yrs. before the testing was started.

Another question is if the deer changed for the worst then why after say 10 years are you still hunting there? What makes it worthwhile for you?

 

[kentuckylakebuck1]

When you see a mature buck swimming in circles in a cow pond in December when it's 30 degrees, you can bet that buck has a neurological disease like CWD or maybe he just likes cold water. That buck will likely wander by a hunter or in front of a truck. But if he doesn't then the coyotes will get him. That's just one example but also found excessive numbers of dead deer and dead heads. We got a barn full of them next time you drive by our check station, stop and take a look!

fairchaser, do you work for or have a connection with TWRA?

 

[fairchaser]

fairchaser, do you work for or have a connection with TWRA?

No sir. No connection. I am only a hunter who has had a great deal of first hand experience with this disease. I am part of a hunting club of 18000 acres which is also a research facility. Part of that research has been to study this disease and its impact on the southern deer herd. Our club is at the very center of the outbreak several years ago. I've seen the good the bad and the ugly. I don't claim any expertise or any scientific education only observational knowledge. Personally I've killed about 10 deer over the past several years. Only one doe tested negative while all the others including 100% of the bucks tested positive.

 

[Solo Hunter]

I think we all can agree CWD has been around a lot longer than 5 years ago when the state did the first test for it. Not including the Ames members here because for awhile they've killed the does down to where even they were hard to kill even in the 7yrs I was a member there. So their numbers are low regardless especially now with no antler restrictions and such.

So leaving them out I have a couple questions for the other hunters outside of Ames.
After the 1st positive CWD test by TWRA did your attitude change or did the deer change? If the deer changed explain how it changed in the previous say 5yrs. before the testing was started.

Another question is if the deer changed for the worst then why after say 10 years are you still hunting there? What makes it worthwhile for you?

The first couple of years I was concerned about it then noticed I wasn't seeing any change or difference in the herd. Where I hunt we still get mature deer and sometimes several of them on camera and occasionally get fortunate enough to get one. My hunting hasn't changed any at all and my success rate has been about the same for the past 10+ years. I've yet to see any sick ones, dead ones, or buzzards flying around.
For the record I'm in Fayette county.

 

[Swampster]

I'm totally in the dark of what the excitement is about. People seem very emotional about the CWD season, harvest limits and comments about wiping out all the deer come up repeatedly. I live, hunt, and travel near the Henderson - Chester - Madison line. I see lots of deer running around still. The deer have not been hunted out. I don't think the liberalized season dramatically increases harvests. Most people do not want to field dress and process (or pay processing) five or ten deer a week for three months; or even five a year for most people. Living in this area for nearly 25 years (and I'll always be considered an outsider) my impressions are that a small majority doesn't pay any attention to those seasons or limits anyway.

 

[7mmWSM]

I think we all can agree CWD has been around a lot longer than 5 years ago when the state did the first test for it. Not including the Ames members here because for awhile they've killed the does down to where even they were hard to kill even in the 7yrs I was a member there. So their numbers are low regardless especially now with no antler restrictions and such.

So leaving them out I have a couple questions for the other hunters outside of Ames.
After the 1st positive CWD test by TWRA did your attitude change or did the deer change? If the deer changed explain how it changed in the previous say 5yrs. before the testing was started.

Another question is if the deer changed for the worst then why after say 10 years are you still hunting there? What makes it worthwhile for you?

I was hoping someone would chime in and help us understand their thinking on this so maybe we'd get a better understanding of why they feel like they do.

 

[shirtshirt]

The worry about CWD is less about the deer and more about transmission to humans.

To date, there is no known case of CWD transmission to humans.

 

[270 Joe]

I don't think it's a total hoax but I do think it is quite exaggerated or states like Wisconsin would have very few deer. They have horrible CWD issues, and have for over 20 years. Deer farms all over the place exacerbate the issue. Yet they have one of the highest deer densities in the US. Despite extreme hunting pressure as well.

My opinion is still the same. Extended, liberal limits rifle seasons in "CWD zones" are worse for the deer than CWD is.

I am from WI. And you are 100% correct.

 

[mike243]

I am from WI. And you are 100% correct.

Why are the harvest #'s down so much ? I didn't take the time to look but others posted them in a earlier thread

 

[Jcalder]

Why are the harvest #'s down so much ? I didn't take the time to look but others posted them in a earlier thread

My understanding is the harvest numbers in Wisconsin are down in the northern section, which doesn't have near the cwd numbers. Where cwd is much more prevalent, the herd numbers are still way too high. The bigger issue in the north is wolves. I seen something the other day about Wisconsin not allowing hunting for 4-5 years to allow the herd to rebuild. Whether that's true or not I don't know. For Tennessee, midtennfisher said it best, twra is doing much more damage to the herd than cwd is.

 

[Omega]

Why are the harvest #'s down so much ? I didn't take the time to look but others posted them in a earlier thread

I'd say that it's from hunters that are meat hunters, why take deer in high CWD areas when its a good chance you will discard the venison.

 

[270 Joe]

I have hunted in Northern WI. for 20 years from 1984 to 2004. '84 they introduced wolves in the general area we hunted in. We have taken some nice bucks in the earlier years. Plus we used to see elk tracks.Then It was fewer and fewer deer, and no more elk tracks as wolves moved in. There is also a good number of black bears, and they are hard on the fawn crop. What we noticed is that wolves spread out about a 100 yds. apart, and sweep through the woods looking for deer. After they go through you won't see anything for 3 days. It got to the point that you wouldn't even see 1 deer for the season. Now I hunt around home in central WI. And it's starting to get the same way with the wolves around here. The northern area dose have less deer density than the rest of the state. So it will have less CWD. And the 3-4 year closing is just talk right now. I think our numbers were down mostly because of the unseasonably warm weather. And no snow for opening weekend. Plus we had the biggest acorn crop I have ever seen.

 

[mike243]

Where is the data or link to prove what is causing the drops there and in Tn? maybe a little of everything effecting the numbers? I surely don't know but the folks living and hunting there should know a lot more, not sure somebody that comes in a couple times a year has as much info as a resident. I will be the first to say I don't have a clue but posting stuff without looking any farther than the article makes me wonder lol. We can speculate and argue all day and neither of us will be correct, I really hate that there is not much that can be done at this time anywhere. keeping the numbers high might seem to be a answer but if they are going to die in a certain number of years, the numbers will crash at some point I would think. hope we all live long enough to see a cure of some sort,

 

[7mm08]

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.

3-4 hunters die in tree stand accidents every year

3-4 hunters die from driving to and from hunts

3-4 hunters freeze to death from being lost

3-4 hunters die from accidental shootings a year

3-4 hunters die every year in ATV accidents

3-4 hunters die from wives catching their husbands with a girlfriend instead of hunting…..Ha!

Let's just stop hunting all together…. Wait that's what the LEFT wants!!!
…, and how many humans die from mad cow disease every year?

 

[Dr. K]

I've been reading this discussion and it got me to looking. The thread started with Wisconsin statewide information and I looked it up. I did some cherry picking and found two charts on the WI DNR site and one in a publication. Iowa County, WI is what no one wants-see the charts. Some of those from Fayette County may relate more to this than others. Just to add one more thing to think about...the overall WI deer pop is increasing, so every county in WI cannot be like the charts here. I wasn't able to find specific prevalence #s for other WI counties, but most are pretty low (0-3%). Looking over some other numbers, folks in WI are taking somewhere around 15-25% of their deer each year (at least for some counties-I only ran the numbers for a few counties) so the population is bound to increase overall. Just some observations I wanted to put out there.

 

[kaizen leader]

View attachment 212627View attachment 212628By no means am I a CWD expert but my question would be that if CWD is contagious, spreading by deer to deer contact then how does WI have more deer now than they did back in 2008 with half the state showing some form of CWD detection..I would expect a decline in population due to exponential spreading and the harvest numbers..

Can't argue with data. Good point. Thx.

 

[kaizen leader]

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.

Sounds like since I'm 74 it's not a problem for me. I'm already going to die of old age. Sorry young people.

 

[mike243]

Have they let it run it's coarse or did they do some reduction? that might change some numbers.

 

[BigAl]

Does anyone remember when Unit L was established?

 

[fairchaser]

My understanding is the harvest numbers in Wisconsin are down in the northern section, which doesn't have near the cwd numbers. Where cwd is much more prevalent, the herd numbers are still way too high. The bigger issue in the north is wolves. I seen something the other day about Wisconsin not allowing hunting for 4-5 years to allow the herd to rebuild. Whether that's true or not I don't know. For Tennessee, midtennfisher said it best, twra is doing much more damage to the herd than cwd is.

If the state is doing more damage to the herd than CWD, why are the harvest numbers down now for several years? This is in spite of the more liberal limits and longer seasons.