CWD found in MS delta.

[dukluk]

Soooo, let me get this straight.....they gonna kill 900 deer within a 25 mile radius, i.e., removal and testing of 300 deer within 5 miles, 300 within 10 miles, and 300 within 25 miles. .....jmho, but they're gonna kill more deer than the day'um CWD will kill !!!.

[Gant]

Dukluk,
That is exactly what I was thinking. I also wonder who will let them come on their land and just kill multiple deer for testing. This may get interesting fast.

[stang67]

A 5 mile radius is about 50k acres. That’s not a huge number of animals. That’s a good December weekend in that area.

This disease has the ability to wipe out the herd. That would be devastating for MS. A scorched earth policy may be what’s needed. I haven’t researched success of other similar attempts though.

[DanP]

300 deer within 5miles? I’d like to know the particulars on how they will accomplish this.

Me too....

DanP,
Have you heard how they intend to target certain deer. I am interested since our family farm is within the 25 mile zone at Onward.

I have not, but expect to know more in the next couple of days. We're in that zone too at Fitler.

Soooo, let me get this straight.....they gonna kill 900 deer within a 25 mile radius, i.e., removal and testing of 300 deer within 5 miles, 300 within 10 miles, and 300 within 25 miles. .....jmho, but they're gonna kill more deer than the day'um CWD will kill !!!.

From what I'm told that's in the response plan. The 25 mile zone equates to roughly 1.25 million acres. Just as an example assume 1 deer per 20 acres and you have a population of 62,500 deer. Also take into account the area where the infected deer was found has a MUCH higher deer density, I'm guessing more like a deer per 3-5 acres. As long as they are able to spread the removal out equally over the area I expect the overall effects to be minimal, although we are subject to loose some bucks we've been passing on which is going to hurt.

[dukluk]

Being the devil's advocate, here.....they're going to kill off more deer than the CWD will kill.....more common-sense thought needs to go into their plan of removal, rather than nearly decimating a deer herd within a 25 mile area because of one dead animal that tested positive.....not saying this is the case, but CWD tests are relatively new, and are NOT infallible, and sometimes even yield a false positive, especially on a dead animal carcass, rather than on a living animal, which is suspected to have been exposed to CWD.

Anthrax is a much more contagious and deadly disease, and even EHD can decimate deer populations.....but, have you ever heard of a govt. agency intentionally killing off hundreds of deer for simply testing those diseases ???....no, and I'll tell you why.....there's nothing that can be done about those diseases in wild deer.....deer movement and physical contact within a herd can't be controlled.....there's no vaccines for wild deer, so the disease has to run it's course, and the healthiest and fittest animals will survive.....Mother Nature can handle things pretty dang good without any outside interference.

Lastly, the driving negative stigma about CWD is the public's mental association with Mad Cow disease, and the "possibility" of crossing the specie borderline, and infecting humans.....btw, there's never been a confirmed case of that happening, but that idea still lurks in the back of the general public's mind.

[stang67]

Pretty sure CWD is NOT natural. It was introduced to wild animals from livestock.

EHD is not 100% fatal. It is natural.

At one time, there was no confirmed case of Mad Cow crossing over.

[Gant]

I am with duckluk on this issue. I just don't think killing all of those deer will accomplish much. Hopefully those in charge will really think through their plan before randomly killing a lot of deer.

[DanP]

My perspective goes back to decision making. As the state agency or down to a state biologist charged with managing the resource, how do you know what to do if you don’t know the extent of the problem? How do we know it’s only 1 dead deer due to CWD? Harvesting less than 2% of the population in a 1.2 million acre are is not going to decimate a deer herd, UNLESS efforts are concentrated. The biologists will NOT want concentrated removal efforts, although it’s probably going to happen some just from a practical standpoint. Ideal situation would be a well distributed sample that doesn’t place an unfair share on any one land holding.

What’s the alternative? Do nothing and let “nature” take it’s course? It’s a damned if you do and damned if you don’t situation. What if we have another flood and all those deer are concentrated even further? That’s a scary proposition.

[Odis]

DanP,
I agree with you, I’m as concerned about this as anyone, I’d suspect, right now, all MDWFP is trying to find out us how wide spread this is, sampling 300 deer within the somewhat immediate area, if more deer are shown with CWD, then they will expand the area until nothing shows up, at this point we’re all concerned about this but first thing the agency has to find out is how widespread, maybe-hopefully, it’s very isolated, if not, how big of a deal is it, they can’t find out until they now if it’s isolated or not, I don’t know where I read this but the deer are not the landowners property (most people wouldn’t agree), think they’re the state’s responsibility, I don’t agree with what the state did about the baiting stuff, I don’t do it, neither does my son, but if the state needs to sample the herd in the area where the deer was found, it will happen, doubt there’s a whole lot anyone can do about it, think a game warden can go most places he wants, whenever and however he sees fit (not a lawyer but that’s what I think), 300 deer in a 5 mike radius in Issaquena County is a drop in the bucket, I know we’re all concerned about this, but until we know how widespread this is, there’s not much any of us can do about it, let’s let MDWFP do their job, I’m sure they will, their biologist, I’ve always found, are reasonable and will make a good recommendation, whether or not the board agrees with it is up to us as sportsmen,? If the board choose to ignore the biologist, we can at least raise ten kinds of #### About it an express the concerns, I’m not a biologist by any means but deal with this type of real estate almost every day, the consequences of this could mean very little or a whole lot but none of us will now till those 1st 300 are collected and tested!

[gps4]

If all these deer are killed and cwd is present in a statistically significant number of carcasses, what is the proposed course of action then?

Whatever it is, why not just do take that course of action to begin with?

If the choices are to do nothing and to do something to contain or suppress the spread of the disease,why not just do the something to begin with?

[stang67]

Some good reading here. We are at year zero and are already hearing the same.

https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/wildlifehabita ... usions.pdf

[Bercy]

I can’t really tell from that map, but it looks like it is in the area that has flooded a couple times in the last few years. Add to that that the deer was 4.5 years old and CWD has incubation of multiple years - it has already been further concentrated due to the flooding, maybe a couple times.

[mshunter77]

Yeah 300 deer on 49k acres in that area may Have a small effect for maybe a year or two at most. When you move it out to the 10 and 25 mile radius you are talking minute numbers. Heck I always hear they kill hundreds every year after the season on the WMA right there every year. Not sure if that is true or not. My place is just outside the 25 mile radius. I am about 4 miles from Satartia so still too close for comfort as far as the disease spreading. I guess one positive is that research has shown it does not spread as much in areas with lots of open timber and ag fields. Stays more in the thick areas. I am more interested in what happens if it becomes clear that it is more wide spread. Will the deer test positive if the disease is in the incubation period. If I remember correctly it’s a minimum of 16 month incubation period. I bet CWD is the number one google search in our state right now.

[mshunter77]

Pretty sure CWD is NOT natural. It was introduced to wild animals from livestock.

EHD is not 100% fatal. It is natural.

At one time, there was no confirmed case of Mad Cow crossing over.

Very good points.

[DuckBoat]

Why do they say it is the first time in ms? Maybe first time in open land but it has been found in high fences before.