Deer wasting disease

JimP said:

Most of the states are not banning deer parts but they are banning any spinal columns and or brain tissue. Even if you cap your trophy elk or deer all the brain matter must be scraped from it to bring it into a number of states. They still allow the meat either processed or boned.

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You are correct, Sir.

I live in the epicenter of CWD and have been very involved with meetings and stakeholder groups. CWD was first detected in the 1960s at the Foothills Research Campus that is run by the Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Colorado State University near Fort Collins, CO but nobody knew what it was. At this facility, there are all the wild big game species found in CO as well as all the domestic animals. A similar prion disease in domestic sheep is called scrapies and it has been around for hundreds of years. It is believed that scrapies jumped a species barrier into mule deer and later, elk at the facility. Since nobody knew what was going on, excess deer and elk were sold into the private game ranch market from this facility as well as traded with the Sybille Research Unit in Wyoming. In addition, wild mule deer bucks were captured and brought in to breed the captive females and then later released back into the wild. Additionally, sick deer were even knowingly released back into the wild near Fort Collins because it was believed that maybe they were lacking something in their diet at the facility and that they would hopefully get well out in the wild where they could eat their native foods. All these factors led to the spread of the disease from Northern Colorado and Southern Wyoming to other states with the aid of the private game ranching market.

As for humans, the disease has NOT been shown to jump to humans as far as anyone knows. As the largest outfitter in the epicenter of this disease, my guides and I have probably handled more infected animals than almost anyone. We have been in business since 1991. Not only do none of us have any symptoms, but actually, Colorado has one of the lowest infection rates in the USA (1 in 1 million) for CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakobs Disease), the human form of prion diseases.

Seems like once a year one of these crazy articles comes out and gets everyone in a dither. Learn the facts. Journalists love to incite buzz around their stories with wild claims and quotes from people that have an uniformed opinion or an axe to grind.

Killing off your wild deer herds will do nothing but delay the inevitable outcome of the disease. A genetic strain of deer exists with a lower susceptibility and a slower incubation period. In Colorado, research has shown that it is difficult, but not impossible, for this strain of deer to get the disease, especially in the wild. They can get it if bombarded with the infection in pens or if it is injected directly into their brains but in the wild, most never get it. A study right here where I hunt showed of twelve infected deer, only one was of the healthier genetic strain. This genetic strain was about 10% of our mule deer. In some infected areas, it has grown to 25% already. Shooting off herds of deer slows this natural selection and is a political band-aid.

Scott, very interesting info. I mostly hunt in the the north eastern quadrant of Colorado. Of the deer and elk I have had tested, I have yet to have one with CWD.
Thanks for that interesting info!

The county I deer hunt has been cleared this year. Unfortunately that means we go back to the stupid 4 points on a side rule

Ridgewalker said:

The fact that there is no positive proof whether humans can or cannot contract it according to the Colorado DOW, you now have to pay to have the brain tested. I understand they will replace your license if it is found positive. That may or may not have changed this year. I haven’t checked the regs.

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If the deer are in a MANDATORY testing game unit, the test is free. We have always submitted are deer AND elk heads for testing. I think it's $25.00 for the test, but well worth the peace of mind.