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CWD progression

I have no clue how important carcass importation laws are to "slowing the spread". However, the little scrolling on social media and you tube I participate in, I'm amazed at how many people bring fully intake heads back home. They are completely ignorant to those specific laws.
 
I don't believe dead deer carcasses had much to to with the spread.
The spread was more about the transport of infected live deer (initially).
Then, dispersing & rutting bucks spreading it further, and further.

One thing that may spread it more than hunters' transporting their carcasses is the spread of prions by vultures that consume the deer killed by CWD. Vultures are migratory and "hunt" both sides of major rivers.

Are most deer that die by CWD (year round) just consumed by vultures & coyotes, then the prions are spread far & wide by, vultures & coyotes?
A TWRA biologist told (at one of the meetings) the coyotes and buzzards could spread CWD through their poop after eating from an infected animal. He then told us that eagles and hawks could not spread it. If coyotes and buzzards can spread it, eagles and hawks can also. I follow the law, but stopping transport of dead animals does basically nothing to slow CWD.
 
I don't believe dead deer carcasses had much to to with the spread.
The spread was more about the transport of infected live deer (initially).
Then, dispersing & rutting bucks spreading it further, and further.

One thing that may spread it more than hunters' transporting their carcasses is the spread of prions by vultures that consume the deer killed by CWD. Vultures are migratory and "hunt" both sides of major rivers.

Are most deer that die by CWD (year round) just consumed by vultures & coyotes, then the prions are spread far & wide by, vultures & coyotes?
I have thought the same thing. The prions can be spread/carried a long ways by other carriers. Vultures a prime carrier.
 
Interesting strategy on the transportation of CWD zone deer. I stopped hunting CWD positive counties because I didn't want to de-bone, to bring back to my county. Last year I noticed my county was in the CWD management (green) zone so it's now ok to go kill CWD positive zone deer and as many bucks as I want too and can bring the deer back to my home county that didn't have a single case of CWD yet. I generally gut them in the field, cut the heads off the does and fawns and drop in the testing sample freezer and process myself later taking hide and bones to the landfill.
 
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They're doing research into this now and it appears to differ based on soil types.





I demand that the government, CDC, WHO, make it law that all deer wear masks, get COVID & Booster shots every 2 months, and shut down all scrape and bedding areas to deer! 🤣 🤣
 
Exactly. But why? Let's get on with it and let Nature take her course. Immune deer will develop. That's the way Nature works when it comes to transmissible diseases.
Prions are a bit different that most other pathogens. This isn't a short term issue like EHD, its a long term problem as the prions proliferate in the environment. This is one big reason that is allowing folks to downplay the significance of the issue, since the danger isn't really occurring in the present. You aren't really going to see the real effects for decades, and nature will ultimately take her course. The question is when will this course be taken and what does that look like. Right now they don't really know the answer to what its going to look like. The worst case is complete population collapse, and the best case is likely a much younger herd, with life expectancies of only a few years. Researchers want to improve the likelihood of a best case scenario, and possibly improve the possible outcome, but until they have solutions they are simply implementing containment and delay strategies to the extent the have control. Like others have mentioned, you can't prohibit a coyote from dragging a carcass across state lines, but you can prohibit a hunter. It may take 20 years for coyotes to bring CWD from one part of a state to another, but a hunter can do it in an afternoon so we have restrictions. But ultimately it will be what it will be and the only plausible hope at this point is that the genetic makeup of some cervids makes them less likely to contract CWD and to survive longer once contracted. They have already identified some genetic markers which are promising but, again, any solution would take time to research and implement (if possible) hence the contain and delay strategy.
 
Got a link to a deer that was found to be immune ?
Not immune but resistant.

Comparison of the allelic frequencies in the CWD-positive and CWD-negative deer suggested that G96S and a Q95H polymorphism were linked to a reduced susceptibility to CWD. The G96S allele did not, however, provide complete resistance, as a CWD-positive G96S/G96S deer was identified. The G96S allele was also linked to slower progression of the disease in CWD-positive deer based on the deposition of PrPCWD in the obex region of the medulla oblongata. Although the reduced susceptibility of deer with at least one copy of the Q95H or G96S allele is insufficient to serve as a genetic barrier, the presence of these alleles may modulate the impact of CWD on white-tailed deer populations.

 
lol,

I completely agree that CWD and any prion-based disease is a whole new ballgame, unlike most pathogens. However, Nature WILL find a way. It's been doing so for about 3.8 billion years. Now will it happen fast? Absolutely not. Nature will not work this out in my lifetime or the lifetime of anyone alive today. But it will work it out.

Now that doesn't mean I'm opposed to common sense measures to help slow the spread of the disease. Transportation bans are a pain, but they are a common sense measure, considering the prions are contained in many parts of a deer. However, trying to slow the spread - via physical contact and fluid interactions - by decreasing the deer densities to very low levels is a terrible idea. That is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. No matter how low the deer density, deer are still going to use their primary means of social interaction - interactions bodily fluids - to communicate and maintain social cohesion. And that is the primary way the disease is spreading. You can't stop deer from being deer, no matter how low the density.
 
As a liberal I demand that all does be allowed to have abortions and the government pay for it! 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

I do hope you realize that I detest liberals.
 
lol,

I completely agree that CWD and any prion-based disease is a whole new ballgame, unlike most pathogens. However, Nature WILL find a way. It's been doing so for about 3.8 billion years. Now will it happen fast? Absolutely not. Nature will not work this out in my lifetime or the lifetime of anyone alive today. But it will work it out.

Now that doesn't mean I'm opposed to common sense measures to help slow the spread of the disease. Transportation bans are a pain, but they are a common sense measure, considering the prions are contained in many parts of a deer. However, trying to slow the spread - via physical contact and fluid interactions - by decreasing the deer densities to very low levels is a terrible idea. That is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. No matter how low the deer density, deer are still going to use their primary means of social interaction - interactions bodily fluids - to communicate and maintain social cohesion. And that is the primary way the disease is spreading. You can't stop deer from being deer, no matter how low the density.
I think part of the problem is the first infection were in deer farms where its possible to cull a herd and start over and this may have skewed the "best practices" for containment. This is pure speculation but I don't disagree that herd culling is distasteful and likely to only have situational effectiveness.
 
I think part of the problem is the first infection were in deer farms where its possible to cull a herd and start over and this may have skewed the "best practices" for containment. This is pure speculation but I don't disagree that herd culling is distasteful and likely to only have situational effectiveness.
The problem is the one study every game agency is sighting. They took data about disease spread rates from other parts of the country, and without knowing the disease spread rate in the study area, conducted a herd reduction program. Then looked at the post-cull spread rate and showed it was slower than in other parts of the country that were not conducting a herd reduction program. Then jumped to the conclusion their herd reduction program caused the slower spread rate. Yet they had no idea what the original spread rate was in the area. It may have been exactly the same pre- and post-treatment. Bad study. bad conclusions.
 
The problem is the one study every game agency is sighting. They took data about disease spread rates from other parts of the country, and without knowing the disease spread rate in the study area, conducted a herd reduction program. Then looked at the post-cull spread rate and showed it was slower than in other parts of the country that were not conducting a herd reduction program. Then jumped to the conclusion their herd reduction program caused the slower spread rate. Yet they had no idea what the original spread rate was in the area. It may have been exactly the same pre- and post-treatment. Bad study. bad conclusions.
I've only taken a cursory look at the research, just enough to be somewhat informed, but even with that limited inquiry it seems that these studies are being serially misrepresented and misapplied. I'm not sure if its because universities have dropped research requirements so that consumers of research aren't able to properly interpret and weigh findings versus some variation of malice and incompetence. There may also be folks operating under the misimpression that studies are supposed to be followed as opposed to considered in informed decision making. Whatever it may be, the efforts to date haven't exactly inspired confidence.
 
They have some Muslims and Chinese at the University of Calgary that are doing studies that it can be transferred to humans, it's called MAD DEER DISEASE. 🤣
Cardiologist told me years ago, if your going to eat red meat, no bigger than the size of your hand, so I went to the stadium and bought one of those #1 hands🤣. Just funnin' ya'll. But he did say that eating deer and elk were much healthier.
So like always, everything that comes out of a government institution, I take with a grain of salt, Then I throw the salt in the garbage.
 
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