NOPE!

You probably should educate yourself a bit more about prions.

We are also gathering meat samples and ear tips as part of a whitetail genetics study that is underway. What I've learned about this research is that maybe certain whitetail subspecies may harbor some CWD resistance.

In the 50s, 60s, and 70s, Georgia DNR brought deer in from anywhere they could get them for restocking. CWD may well have been brought here then.

We've seen elk and mule deer both in the end stages, not pretty at all.

There was a Meateater podcast a few weeks ago discussing CWD in Arkansas and SE US and what the ongoing studies show.

I believe this is the podcast: https://www.themeateater.com/listen/meateater/ep-766-the-truth-about-chronic-wasting-disease

So these samples don’t have to go to a lab? Just drop in a mixture of some sort and look for changing colors like drugs? We’ve had some deer tested before and was told 6-8 months for results.

What?

There in one lab and its at UGA. Currently, priority is Berrien, Lanier, and Lowndes counties (the CWD zone). Been getting results back from these counties in a couple weeks. And counties that border these counties in less than a month. Samples from other counties will have a longer wait...until its found there.

Georgia hunters that provide sample will be called if their sample is positive. The negative status is posted on Georgia DNR WRD website in the CWD dashboard.

It being in the area we hunt in KY stopped us from hunting in KY this year. Decided I was not going through the work of processing and packaging deer and keeping them separate just to throw them away if they came back positive.

Luckily spouse works in the state vet lab building here, we got results in 36 hrs on our deer.
I guess it pays to know someone, and it shouldn't for things like cwd testing.

So what i have heard is its transfered by saliva. What about breeding? Doesn't get passed from one to the other? And weeks to get results back?

I have a question. You folks close to the lab people could you ask them point blank if any deer or elk have died from CWD? Not just testing positive. Also where is the funding coming from? Swamp is right it did originate in a research place in CO.

My big question is does it matter to the end predator. I certainly don’t want to see any disease that negatively affects a populace of wildlife. But there’s bound to have been thousands (or more) of these animals consumed. Is all this testing for nothing relative to the hunter at the end of the day?

I appreciate the science, but has that showed us anything yet? I’m more concerned with other deer contracting it than I am myself right now and I’d like to ensure that my thought process isn’t flawed.

Been on Colorado for decades and we were notified in WI in the 90's. I'd worry more about trichinosis from bear a lot more than cwd from a deer.

Yes....transmission by saliva, urine, and feces. But does take repeated exposure. And that will happen with deer as they are social critters.

Yes...transmission by breeding is possible and proven to transmit from doe to fawn at birth.

Yes...weeks for results in most states as very limited labs doing the testing.



Yes...deer have died. At least one here in Georgia (a few weeks ago) was fresh dead enough for lymph nodes to be extracted. It was found in edge of ag field....It was positive.

Pittman-Roberson funds are probably being used as it relates to wildlife research and management. Some states have received a budget boost thru their state legislatures.


GUNNLEG,
It won't matter much to humans until a human is confirmed to have contracted CWD from consuming venison. The testing that is occurring in most states is simply to learn the location and prevalence of CWD. Decisions beyond that are based on varying factors and every state is handling it differently. Here in Georgia, baiting/feeding is not being stopped...yet. And sharpshooters are not being used to eradicate the local deer population. We are encouraging eliminating gravity and trough feeders and moving spin feeders & feed locations frequently. We also highly recommend that the hunters in the CWD areas do the deer population management thru hunting.

Lower deer population means less deer to deer contact. Less deer to deer contact lowers the probability of deer to deer transmission of prions. What deer population level is acceptable to hunters & and landowners is the million dollar question.

from my reading, it can also be transmitted to deer from them eating "infected" vegetation...plants take up the mis-folded proteins (which can remain viable in the soil for up to twenty years).

now, how PREVALENT that mode of transmission is, I don't know...

Cwd is scare is a joke.

Yes...you are correct. Hence the reason for not being legally allowed to bring bones amd certain other carcass parts across state lines or in some states outside of the county of harvest. Dumping an infected carcass could lead to what you described above.

Repeated exposure/browsing at that carcass dump "hotspot" would have to occur to infect a browsing deer. But, this is an obvious way CWD is/has been being brought from state to state/area to area...so the laws were changed to limit this.

I won't go into the likelihood of pen-raised deer transmission by nose to nose - thru the fence contact with wild deer or the escaped deer transmission to wild deer. We all know this is the most likely way for rapid transmission to a new area.

The most knowledgeable person on Tman speaks again!