My hunting club is now in a CWD zone. I usually take my deer to a processor. I hate to pay the packaging cost for meat I can’t use if it later tests positive.

What do you do?

My county is not designated a zone yet but two neighboring counties are. I process my own deer and do not test them.

yes been in a zone since 2004

… if you’re scared go to church

Here in Georgia.....the state pays the processor if the deer comes back positive. Also re-instates that tag for the hunter.

Only three adjoining counties in South Georgia currently are in a CWD zone.

Also, testing is free here in Georgia. Numerous freezer drop-off locations in South Georgia for the heads.

If testing is free in your state and it's not far to drive to drop off for testing.....and you don't take advantage of this ....then it's all on you.

Any venison I consume will be tested as long as it is free and convenient. I'll have a decision to make if that changes. I know the seriousness of this. If you think this is all BS...then good luck.

CWD zone for about 6 years. I'm 75 and on my 3rd pacemaker. CWD isn't on the list of things to worry about.

For you...probably not.

Is it something you worry about, Swamp? I talked to a wildlife biologist friend here in my state and he says he's cooked and eaten deer known to have it. He did not seem concerned.....

…ol prophet of doom here

…. I’ll mix the stem cells out of a positive deer into a shot of wild turkey

… that crap can’t hurt you

I quit deer hunting because of it. Ive heard they might carry covid too. Then throw on the risk of dying in a car wreck getting to the hunting spot, it just seemed the risk was to high.

Not a single state reccomends consuming a known positive deer.

CWD is in the same grouping of diseases as mad cow disease & scrapie in sheep. It has not yet made a jump to humans but all research shows it has the potential.

Most people take that as an "all OK". Every person will have to decide on their own.

Without going into too much technical info...this group of diseases is related to Alzhiemer's and dementia.

No doom and gloom....just facts anyone can research on their own. Just have to be able to seperate the wheat from the chaff.

Because many people don't/haven't seen it affecting deer they say it's all BS. And then those that say "I've eaten venison all my life with no problems"......OK. Me too. But, intentionally disregarding facts is just stupid.

Well, I suppose the Marlboros and whiskey will likely take me out first...

Your joking right??? Surely you have read the warning labels on those...

Research is moving slower on this that we'd like for sure.

If it ever makes a confirmed jump to humans it'll be a sad day.

Plain and simple.

Wildlife scientists have no idea how long prion diseases have been in the wild. Prion disease (CWD) cannot be killed easily and is immune to fire.

It is in the soil and in the plants deer can consume.

There is no telling how many deer have been consumed that were positive.

Best bet is to never consume brain or spinal cord as that is where prions live.

The human equivalent to CWD is CJD. Look it up.

Science doesn't know what it doesn't know.

All facts^^^^^

Don't wait for the government to tell you yes or no about consuming venison. Find out the info on your own and make a decision you can live with or live without.

Every state is already telling folks DO NOT EAT A POSITIVE DEER and we see how that's going.

Where are you going to get the info you believe? From Ol'Bubba?

In that map you posted Swamp, see those three counties in MS that hang down below the rest in the gray? I'm in the white butted right up to them on the right so I am almost sure CWD must be here as well. Imagine like me most just don't bother to get em tested.

Not to argue, but it will be a sad day as the entire North American continent will be unable to deliver consumable wild meat from cervids. Imagine the devastation to crops and cars. If hunting cervids is outlawed and deer elk and moose are slaughtered and buried because of some possible link to a Human disease, it will be a sad and utterly stupid day indeed.

The CWD human equivalent, Creutzfeld Jacob disease, ALREADY EXISTS. And they know next to nothing about that disease either.

CWD is a HUGE boogie man.

Again Uncle Swamp, my rant is directed at scientists and researchers in the wildlife filed. Not at you at all.

Angela,
It's the same all over the Country. Most folks are not taking it serious. Here in Southern Georgia we had freezers at dozens of locations in about 15 counties or more. Each week, last season, I made pickups of the heads and relayed them to DNR personnel. Most weeks there were zero heads dropped off by hunters. Most weeks it was only one or two per freezer and I covered 4 counties and about 8 freezers and processors.

My grandmother used to tell us kids that "it's all fun & games until somebody gets their eye poked out." Sorta the way I feel about this crap...waiting for the first human case that is a confirmed jump from CWD.

It may already have happened but is being called CJD...but that is another topic.

bowhunter27295,
You are putting out facts. I agree with all you're saying. You've done some research and are getting out of it what I have got from it.

^^^^ scaredy cat

Or from wildlife scientists who don't know what they don't know?

Again, it's a boogie man. I have no idea why they are blowing this up.

Reminds me of covid.

I think it's the great "unknown." Wildlife agencies don't know what to do.

It is a no-win for wildlife agencies......if they do nothing the public will blame them for it. If they do what many of them are doing (herd reduction, health warnings, etc) the public distrusts them.

Is CWD the same as mad cow disease?
Mad cow disease came from our northern neighbors if I remember right?

Sure do. I'm about as scared of CWD as I am COVID.

Look up Rack Junkies with Stephen Ziegler.

I'm not saying that it don't exist, but it's everywhere and has been for a long time.

I'm in southwest WI. Crawford county. Just had a deer farm in the county have a positive test. It's been here for years in the wild. I've never had a deer tested and probably won't either. The DNR has drop boxes out that aren't refrigerated so the heads sit there for who knows how long. How accurate is a test on that?

If I shoot a sick looking deer I won't eat it or bring it home. As was stated above it's in the soil so it's never going to be stopped. Guess we all should quit hunting then.

I remember when mad cow disease was in that cow that came from Canada. Did anyone here quit eating beef? Why not?

good song

Made my home co a CWD area last year. Found 1 positive case out of thousands of test. Money racquet for state to bleed federal funds. Ok you found one case. Now what? No vaccine to stop the spread. Wiping out the herd accomplished nothing in other states. NO KNOWN CASES IN HUMANS.
Known fact likelihood of a deer dying from car accident or lead projectiles are 1000’s times greater than CWD. Guy that had his tested sure wishes he hadn’t done it. State quarantine his farm. Rumor is they wanted to or did kill every deer on it. But idiots never mentioned deer crossing or leaving that farm.
But no more gravity feeders. Can still pour out on the ground
But interesting question. These processing shops. How do they keep contamination of one deer to another. You get jerky or deer hot dogs made chances are it didn’t come from one precise deer. You order 15lbs of jerky they grab some up they have made They have no clue which deer it came from

Should I get it from the state government or the federal government? They told me that I had to work from home for 2 years cause I never bowed to their mask mandate nor did I inject myself with RNA altering test chemicals that impacted thousands of lives. They told me covid could not be transferred through your eyes and stopped at 6 feet. They told me injected people would not transmit nor get covid. How many native americans died from eating cwd infected deer? Take the money out of CWD and see how much fear disappears.

My home state, Arkansas, completed a five year cwd study in 2025. The study consisted of three sites at or near the location of the first cwd documented deer found in the state, back in 2016. When cwd was found - as typical in most states, season length was extended and bag limits were increased in an effort to decrease deer density. In this case, mg season went from three to four weeks, and doe limit went from two to three with modern gun.

During the five year study, deer were literally almost wiped out - going from 20 deer per square mile, down to one or two. And yes, many of the collared deer actually died of cwd. Unlike EHD, where folks find many unscavenged dead deer, cwd deer are consumed by scavengers. AR followed the examples set by most states - reduce deer density

One of the main take aways the biologists found from the AR study, was if you want to have a deer left, you need to protect your does. So this year, in that area, there are now two days of MG doe season with a bag limit of one. No where else had experienced a total extirpation of the deer herd because of relaxed cwd regulations.
.

Everywhere is not the same - hunting has long been liberalized in other cwd areas and the deer population did not get wiped out - in fact - in some areas the deer population increased. This is a case of scientists finding out what scientists did not know. Scientists do not know - until it happens. People ate beef for years without getting mad cow disease - until one day they did.

We have had one cwd positive in my county - at the other end of the county from where I hunt. I dont get our deer checked, but I also would not eat a sick looking deer. Problem with that is, deer do not show clinical cwd conditions until they have had the disease for some time. When cwd gets more prevalent in my area, I will get them checked and I will not knowingly eat a cwd positive deer.

If cwd don't scare you the tick will.


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John Reagan’s case serves as a stark reminder that even brief outdoor exposure can lead to serious illness, highlighting the importance of vigilance and early medical attention following tick bites americanalmanac.comamericanalmanac.com+1.

The county where I hunt will experience it's first season in CWD Zone. Limits were reduced, not increased but antler restrictions are no longer in place. For those who have been in these zones, what is the wait time on having the head tested for CWD?

The reduction in bag limit was a direct response to the results of the five year cwd study.

Remember the headlines, Zombie Deer? It's part of the plan
You will eat Lab grown meat and bug's and you will enjoy it
Crazy how some of you trapper's that can read nature and her signs
Can't see that this is a fabricated boogie man to help them end hunting
Sorry Swamp, but you are way off base with your fears

Grant county produces a lot of deer, going to be interesting season this year.

They don't need a boogie man to end hunting, they just need activist in the Game and Fish commission and the metropolitan vote.

My point was, those activist are leading many game and fish departments around the country
And scientists are not any better, they produce results for the ones funding them

Yes, we hunt right across the fence from where CWD was brought into Wyoming, supposedly from Colorado.
Been hunting this area for 35 + years now.

There has never been a case of CWD crossing over to humans, ever.
Husband worked with some of the best known scientist studying this disease for years here in Wyoming.
Oddly they almost all ate their animals without testing or even if they were positive, humm....
We have taken about 3-4 animals over the years that tested positive, ate them all but did not share that meat.

Testing now is showing our areas has lower prevalence on CWD than other areas in the state.
Researchers are finding some deer develop an allele that is resistant to cwd.

In many cases, as when our G&F Dept conducted the five year cwd program, they paid a group of other scientists to conduct the research. And in this case, the results of the study were not what the G&F thought they were going to be - in fact - proved their management efforts had been in conflict with what was really happening.

It is odd to me that many hunters, just because they personally have never seen a deer die of cwd, believe that deer dont die of cwd. And yet they believe a deer biologist who has telemetry collars on hundreds of deer tracking them night and day for years, doesnt know what they are talking about.

If you eat them after they test positive for cwd, why do you bother to test them?

I have no fear of CWD either. I just don't stick my head in the sand and act like it doesn't exist. Do your research if deer, deer hunting, and eating venison is important to you. If you rarely deer hunt, don't care if deer exist for future generations, and eat deer meat only occasionally.....Odds are on on your side....no worries.

I have serious concerns about the future of whitetail deer, especially in high prevalence areas (research NW Arkansas CWD and read WhiteCliff's post in this thread.....he has done his research.) How far in the future? Maybe not even in our lifetime....but there will be population effects in more areas as time goes on. You and I just may not see it near us.

I'm currently not in a CWD zone. Next counties to my north and west are.

Testing is free and convenient here. It is just dumb not to take advantage of this when it is readily available. It would be bad to bring deer meat home, feed your family, and one of them becomes the first human case.

BTW.....I did not and will not ever take the Covid vaccine. I'll be long dead by the time that experimental concoction is thoroughly tested. I did my research on this.

Swamp, what's the average wait time on testing? I usually donate a deer to my churches food bank so at the very least I would like to have that deer tested.

The mindset of so many folks about CWD is it is a big hoax....."I dont see dead deer" " No human has ever contracted CWD" "It's all about the money".......

Would be nice if this were all true.

Thanks WhiteCliffs for your points of view.

When I muzzleloaded a deer or two. I would check deer by phone. Once ok and I would butcher were it fell. Put head in back of truck and put meat in 96 quart cooler and haul home after I went. To CWD check. Knew all the checkers back then. They ask me it I wanted head I told them no so they disposed of it so I would not take into this county. Regulations have changed so check your code book. I do not keep up with changes anymore. Most all of them are retired now or dead.

Here in Georgia, DNR is using a lab at the University of Georgia. During firearms season last year they were making weekly transports from the 3-county zone to Athens, Ga. Those samples were put first. Got those back in a week to 10 days.

Samples from counties that border the 3 zone counties were expedited, too. Got those back in 2 or 3 weeks.

Rest of the state was about a month to 6 weeks.

I'm sure every state is different and there are other labs across the Country.

As I mentioned earlier in this thread....Geogia has made it free and convenient. If it wasn't like this...and testing cost $$ and/or a deer head had to be transported by the hunter more than 30 min or so drive to drop off......I'd have some decisions to make...that I'd rather not have to make.

I truly don't understand some people. It's a strange world we live in.

Going to be a lot of people here in SE MN. that will have troubles if it jumps the fence I eat very little venison but know people that almost live on it , Most say by the time it does make the jump we will be Nuked or extinct.We have a lot of CWD and no one has become ill to this point.

My approach would be to kill them down to as close to zero as possible then start over after a waiting period

Snowpa,
How do we kill the deer population down close to zero?

Reckon DNR agencies would get an attaboy for implementing that?

Im not but a county away is. I read enough to make me conserned. I didnt go on my out of state youth hunting last year becust that area was in a zone.

Deer can be infected for 2 years and not show symptoms, fawns can be born with it. We eat 8 to 12 deer a year but im geting less interested in doing so.

It looks like testing droo off spots are not located within an hour of me, and it will take up to 10 weeks to get results back.

So that means I go throught the trouble of processing and packaging, labeling and keeping each deer separate untill test come back. Then if positive figure out how to dispose of it without contaminating my farm. Apparently tossing it in the wood burner wont kill it. So how to get rid of it safety.

So with all that I can say deer hunting just may not continue to be worth the time.

Just becuse there is not a known positive linked to a human yet is not the same as there has not been. Also how long before it shows up. May be fine for years untill we are not.

I plan on having the deer tested and keeping them separated but I subspect that may be more trouble than its worth.

But it is not in plants we eat? No one testing veges for CWD? No telling how many potatoes have been consumed that were positive.

Why can't you use it?

PF has done some research....

Send it to WI Outdoors......he'll eat it. He ain't skeered!

Many unknowns yet. There is a connection between prion diseases and Alzheimer's.

Been dealing with it here since 1996. No problems.

Swamp… before my grandma died …. She thought I was Robert E Lee

.. are you saying she had cwd?

The prions that cause CWD are in the soil so it's never going away. I guess the solution is cut all the trees and take a few feet of soil off the land and start over. The WI DNR had that brilliant idea to kill all the deer off when it first was detected. It failed miserably and the only thing it succeeded in doing was screw up deer hunting for a few years until the herd recovered. It's not possible to kill all the deer off in an area because too many landowners won't allow anything or very few to be shot on their land.

That YOU know of.....

I'm not a doctor and didn't stay a Holiday Inn Express last night, so....

Anyone test their boots for cwd in the zones that they shot deer that tested positive in? Their tires? Missouri still wants to kill off more does in the zones with cwd. AR shows nature will take its course......Wisconsin has 25 years of history and shows recovery. Plant tissues grow in contaminated soils. Anything else eat those like cattle? Testing your beef every time you butcher or sell a cow at sale barn? What about when you take that steer 2 counties away to sale barn that is off that co-mingled infected cwd prion soil that those plants grew on and the cattle grazed off. Did you just transport that infected livestock several counties away? What about the elk? Testing them - well NO that brings in too much money and can't. Guess no one cares about the elk......all science. Again, take the federal money out and start having state agencies look at recovery times of what the Lord knew 200 years ago.....
ps - don't forget to put your mask on and make sure you get your boosters and stay 6' away in your deer blinds when taking a youth hunting. Shoot copper only cause lead will kill you and don't lick the skillet or drink the water cause you might get pfos and pfoa. Don't forget your umbrella when the acid rain starts and just crawl under your desk to shield you from the nuclear bomb fallout......good luck out there. You can either trust man or God.

You're right.

Been there since 1966, that we know of!

Swamp,


You wore a mask, didnt you?

… you got him Boone lol

You worry too much. Stop drinking the kool-aid.

I wouldnt waste my time on these folks Swamp. Folks living in states where the buck infection rate in some townships are over 50% and saying no problem. That would be a problem for me. While I dont have mine tested now, I would if the infection rate was that high and I wouldnt knowingly be eating three or four deer a year that I know have cwd. While I dont believe there is much likelyhood of the prion spreading to humans - I am not going to risk it or knowingly feed my grand daughters infected meat. However, CWD is not BSE

I dont believe the sky is falling - but it is something to worry about. And I hope the studies keep happening - like the one in AR where they learned a lot. I have conversed with guys who hunt near that study area and they barely can find a deer track. I dont want that in my hunting ground.

Swamp, probably someone like these guys who bury their head in the sand and disregard deer carcass transportation regs and threw out an infected carcass from another state and got it started in your area

Wi Outdoors it may be kool-aid but what if its not? Could be its a cumulative thing or something that takes a few decades to show its effects. Could be its no big deal at all. Or could be something only a rare % of the population is susceptible to and they could become break out cases.

Myself I was blowing it off untill I did some reading and though about what I read. So for me deer will be geting tested out of caution. Its a bit of inconvenience for piece of mind for my family.

Im not so worried about me im 46 with debilitating progressive disease. One day my legs just wouldn't work right. Then I started loosing my balance, being exhausted, and more and mor symptoms kicked off. They hit in different intensity and randomly now. changed my life and plans pretty quickly. My life is likey more than half over and shortened due to additional health risk that happen with MS. Not the ms itself but things that increase due to limitations caused by ms like heart disease .



Now im not willing to risk feeding my kids something that may turn them into a zombie in 30 years regardless of how unlikely it seems. I have also buried one of my son's already. Maybe I'm to cautious but whats making an hour dive each way and keeping deer together tell test results come back really cost me. Its way less than the piece of mind. Doing so brings.

Seems like science fiction kind of had been predicting the future. May be something to all the zombie shows in a few decades;)

PF, my opinions are from what I've dealt with, have seen, and from what a warden had to say.

And not a single thing wrong with them. I may well have the same opinions if I had your experience. This is all new to me and my area and I dont habe that experience. I was just laying out my personal thoughts and why I had them. Not that im correct or trying to change any minds but rather to give a rational hopefully articulate ( at least understandable with all my typos) reasoning of why other people may have more concern than you do.

At the end of the day none of us have any definitive answers. My way is evolving becuse I have some concern. Are they logical or unfounded? Im not sure. But its what im going to try for now. It can be subject to chang at any time from more info becoming available or personal experience. Im not locked into anything one way or another. Just taking some precautions that only require some minor effort.

I respect your opinions.

The map for Tennessee is off it has cross the Tennessee river on interstate 40 on the western part of the state now .

Only when I scuba dive in my local river looking for arrowheads.



Not quite. Dismissing facts is idiotic.

Again guys.

Deer get CWD

Sheep and goats get Scrapie.

Humans get CJD.

There is no crossing over that is gonna happen. IT ALREADY EXISTS AS A DISEASE IN HUMANS!!!

And yes, mad cow disease, BSE (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy) exists in cows already also.

Pigs can contract a prion disease from CWD and BSE. But pigs eat brain and spinal cord.

And again, FIRE DOES NOT ELIMINATE PRIONS. It is endemic and omnipresent in nature. Absolutely NOTHING we can do about it. Nothing, NOTHING, kills it. So if you do have deer that has it, what can be done about that deer or the property it came from? NOTHING!!

Strongly recommended not to eat the brain or spinal cord of any animal. I do keep the neck roast but I cut out the neck bones as that has spinal cord in it.

It is the new wildlife boogie man.

And uncle Swamp, I hear you on the danged if you do or don't thing. If the GDNR wants respect, just tell this truth. The truth will set you free. John 8:32. Getting technical and foolish and not telling the whole 100% truth is a 100% sure way to get disrespected and seen as fools. It's pretty simple if you ask me.

CDC recommends not grazing cattle in areas known to harbor cwd positive animals. Is this being followed? Proven the prions can live in plants and the soil for years.

There was another disease the government hid the truth about that I recall.

They didn't tell the whole 100% truth and tricked people purposely by omitting what was part of that 100% truth. They didn't lie. They just didn't tell the 100% truth. Kind of like lawyers.

This caused the public to distrust the whole medical lot and vaccination system. Where as if they would have told the 100% truth this would have never happened.

My dad taught me at 6 years old not to lie. I remember that "conversation" well.

A lie will ALWAYS catch up to you. ALWAYS!!!

If state DNRs will JUST TELL THE TRUTH, they will eliminate the public distrusting them.

GOOD LORD how simple can it get!! Again nothing against you at all Swamp. It just frustrate the crap out of me how government entities will lie and expect it not to come back on them. Then they wonder why people don't respect them! Utter and complete foolishness!!

Just tell the truth for goodness sake.

Well, that would include, well, EVERYWHERE!!!

The reason they have to say such foolish things is because they don't want to be liable for not saying it. Wonder who we can blame for that?

What is the truth???

Your going to die.

… the prophet has spoken

I prefer philosopher.
You know like Gus.
"It aint dying im talking about, its living"

I won't from eating a CWD positive deer.

No and no one else will either!!!

Careful there fish man. You might be speaking with a lack of knowledge.

You always post facts with any claim you make which is great. Post where some person died from EATING A CWD infected deer.
I’ll be up another 30 minutes but I’ll check back in the morning to see when and where it happened

Folks educated more than me (and in the medical research field) says it is possible.

I tend to somewhat agree with Bowhunter27295 about the species-specific names for these prion diseases. CWD (cervids) & CJD (humans) is physically the same thing. Think about that for a minute.....maybe the "jump" has already been made...years ago...decades ago...centuries ago...from cervids to humans or humans to cervids. And the only difference is in the name. Maybe the prion diseases have always been out there and isn't species specific at all. The scientists just named them different based on the affected species.

Research has shown it is slow moving in wild deer populations, but the prevalence can increase to a level that the deer population cannot handle another mortality cause.

For those of you that have read up on CWD....does any of this info on CJD sound familiar?

Sporadic is the most common CJD......no clue how those folks got it.

Question: could it be same causation as CWD in deer? Some that have died from CJD consumed venison. Some did not. What about environmental contamination from soil/plants? Too many unknowns to just deny, deny, deny, but to each their own.

I think micro plastic in your food and water are far worse than CWD.

One key feature missing if you are posting this article in response to my comment about no one dying from eating a n infected deer is demographic. Where are these cases? What type of person contracted this disease? Might been vegan. It states most cases were in persons over 60. At that age anything can show up. Like cancer cells in humans. Dogs get it as well so should people get rid of their dogs because it MIGHT be spreading cancer from one species to the other.
I posted on here for years that 90 percent of store bought food comes in aplastic container and that can’t be good. Another thing deodorant has been linked to Alzheimer’s. Maybe cjd is already in people but dormant until some thing triggers it to manifest

I personally have seen one doe in my lifetime I suspected had CWD. I didn’t report it because what could be done?Honestly? Animal couldn’t be treated. Prions were flying off it in millions and they will survive a nuclear bomb according to the experts and self proclaimed Dr faucis of the world.

I guess, having read all this, my question is.... wouldn't a person be just as likely to get one of these prion diseases by eating beef, veal or mutton? Is every single one of those animals we eat being tested for these diseases before hitting the supermarket shelves?

Exactly!!
But beef industry is big business and political leaders can’t skim money like the red herring CWD. They made it illegal to transport a deer across state lines but They don’t have an issue truck and cows goats or sheep all over the United States

So we know if we want to share the meat or not. Also WG&F likes to get data from mule deer in out area and we like to share it. We take only mature bucks, 4+ years old and when the G&F says we have no mature bucks because of CWD we have data that says otherwise.
We also push for tooth aging for tested bucks so they know the ages and not just taking a guess. We have about 30 years of tooth aged bucks from this area and only 2 deer that have tested positive.

Swamp there still has been no known transmission of CWD to humans, none.

This is what Goggle says....

There is a research paper that list every CJD death in the US amd where they lived and a brief life history, but youll have to search for it if interested....it.s out there.(it was published as a medical research paper)

..yes....I know that.

We may be missing the details in big picture.

Is CWD and CJD the exact same thing?

Just named differently (by a scientist) because it was also found in deer?

If I develop cancer it's not a type called SwampWolf's cancer. It's just cancer.

I overthink most stuff.

I Googled this question....




Take it from there.....

Well, from everything you have posted Swamp, I actually think I feel MORE comfortable continuing to not get my deer tested. Seems I am incredibly more likely to die by being struck by lightening while hunting for the deer, than by eating it........

You are correct, but it's still good to know for sure. Why play roulette?

My training is in wildlife biology and I go to sleep a lot of nights reading some type of wildlife or fish related research. But to be honest, I am in the middle on this. I would not eat a known cwd positive deer - but I dont eat any fish or wildlife that I know is diseased or appears to be unhealthy.

I believe there is a lot of mis-information and a lot of hunters who are not very open minded. I also believe - at least the biologists with my state’s game dept generally have the wildlife’s best interest in mind (woudnt say that about the commissioners). No, they are not always right, but as in the case with the latest cwd study - they admitted where they were wrong and changed the regulations in favor of the deer.

I am in a cwd county and dont get my deer checked. If infection rates start climbing, I will. I dont believe it is very likely that cwd makes the jump to humans. There has probably been thousands and thousands of infected deer eaten by humans, processed by ungloved hands. In other words, there has been ample opportunity.

In regard to BSE - the mad cow disease - I dont know if 100% of human deaths were attributed to the single UK outbreak - but at least most were. And BSE didnt just finally make the jump after years of eating beef. People basically created the most infectious form by grinding up rendered beef parts - from already infected cows - and feeding it to other cows - which greatly accelerated the whole infectious process. So, I dont think BSE is really comparable to CWD as far as making the jump to humans

And as far as saying we dont test all cows and sheep - that is not comparable to deer. By far the majority of livestock does not live its entire life in the wild, unobserved by humans. Entire populations of domesticated animals are de-populated when just a few animals are found to be sick. That doesnt happen with wildlife.

I do worry about the future of deer hunting. I dont believe deer will befome extinct - but densities may become a lot lower than we like. That has already happened in AR. Most hunters would not be satisfied hunting an area with one deer per square mile - like it was in local areas of NW AR. And many folks seem to think what they see or experience in their area is the same everywhere. It is not. I own two pieces of property eight miles apart in the same river bottoms and they manage nothing alike.

No, the sky is not falling, but if your hunting area has infection rates of 25% - or more - everything aint rosy, either.

Hey wolf Here's a question. Is CWD 100% fatal? Plus how many deer have gotten it and lived that biologist have no knowledge of?

I dont mean to displace Swamp from the conversation. He is knowledgeable and spot on about cwd and a host of other topics.

No deer is known to have recovered from cwd. A lot of deer, who would otherwise die from cwd, are predated when they become slow and incapacitated. But in the AR study, something like 20% of the collared deer actually died of cwd. Because of the radio collars, the researchers were able to recover the deer before predators got on it.

There have been alleles identified in deer and elk that show resistance to cwd infection but it does not prevent infection.
I do know every animal that can get cwd in the pens at Sybille Research Center dies from it.
They do have a cow elk that has lived many years after testing positive.
I'll have to ask if she is still alive or how long she lived.

They also did a study at Sybille with cattle. They placed them in the pens that held cwd positive animals for about 20 years, no cattle tested positive.
We have some areas in Wyoming with 30% prevalence for deer and some areas very near Sybille with much lower rates. Those deer seem to have the resistant allele.

Oddly our elk area has a high prevalence rate for cwd but we have also only had 2 test positive and only seen 1 live elk in the end stages of the disease. We do have a very large mt lion and coyote population too so predators may be getting the sickly ones before we see them.

WhiteCliffs is 100% correct.

I've read this research and will add that the "genetic resistance" that was discovered only means the cervid could live longer with the infection. As you stated....it will not stop/reduce the cervid's chances of becoming infected.

And here is the negative to that so-called "resistance"........the longer an infected cervid lives the more chances that particular cervid is spreading the disease....shedding prions, if you will.

This was discussed at length at the Georgia Deer Mgmt meeting last spring. Dr. Marcello Jorge was on video conference at this meeting. He is the UGA researcher that conducted the NW Arkansas CWD study.

Colorado has had it since probably the 50's. We in WI have had it for 3 decades that we've known about, so probably 10 years or more longer. It's real but has been blown way out of proportion.

WI Outdoors,
If you're truly interested in learning what CWD is capable of look up the NW Arkansas study. It is the most recent field (published) research on CWD that was able to factor in what is known thus far about CWD in wild deer.

If you'd rather smoke cigars and play golf...please disregard.

I hunt in a state with it. If you you came up and drove around a half hour before dark, you wouldn't t believe we have CWD and for as long as we've had it. Our herd is large and doing well.

[/quote]
I hunt in a state with it. If you you came up and drove around a half hour before dark, you wouldn't t believe we have CWD and for as long as we've had it. Our herd is large and doing well.[/quote]

You wouldnt think the same thing if you hunted in NW AR cwd areas. Everywhere is not WI, believe it or not

You wouldnt think the same thing if you hunted in NW AR cwd areas. Everywhere is not WI, believe it or not[/quote]


I wonder if the temperature difference between different parts of the country has an effect on how the animals and viruse respond? I have not seen anything referring to that or if studes consider it a factor to look into.

CWD Is neurological and So is MS and heat and humidity have a profound impact with my MS symptoms. Stands to reason hotter areas my have a more profound impact from CWD. Maybe not but I thin it may be a factor worth looking into.

Edit to add. The heat has been enough for me to start thinking about moving to a cooler climate.

This is all just discussion so don't take it as arguments.... First I'd like to know what's got swamp wolf rattled and worried about? When it comes to the trapping, I believe most of what you guys say here vs a dnr or any other resource as you guys all have experience. I also am on a hunting forum much like T-man and from all the talk over the years from people from a whole bunch of states, there isn't much to worry about. These guys are die hard hunters that spend lots of time in the woods. Cwd was an excuse here to slaughter the herd for a while. Many said it was dnr and car insurance companies. We spent millions on studies and nothing really came of it but wasted money. Any of you can believe what you want, but my mind won't be changed from my experience in the woods and all the other hunters time in the woods and what they saw, or didn't see. Everything will be ok. You'll all see. Good luck this fall Swamp Buck. I hope you bag a nice buck. Nothing I've written is personal. Just sharing my thoughts like all of you.