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DNR extends deer hunting season to test for deadly disease

4K views 25 replies 14 participants last post by  terry 
#1 ·
http://woodtv.com/2017/12/21/dnr-extends-deer-hunting-season-to-test-for-deadly-disease/

BELDING, Mich. (WOOD) — In just a few days, hunters in Montcalm and Ionia counties will get another chance to bag a buck.

24 Hour News 8 broke the news Wednesday that the Michigan Department of Natural Resources is opening two extended firearm deer seasons in January.

The two seasons run from Jan. 4 to Jan. 7 and Jan. 11 to Jan. 14 on public and private land in the following townships: Easton, Ionia, Keene, Lyons, North Plains, Orleans, Otisco and Ronald in Ionia County and Bloomer, Bushnell, Crystal, Day, Evergreen and Ferris in Montcalm County.

All rules and regulations for firearm and deer season apply and no baiting is allowed.

Thursday, 24 Hour News 8 learned just how critical the hunts are for tracking chronic wasting disease, which is a fatal disease in deer.

The hunts are part of a targeted effort by the DNR to understand just how widespread chronic wasting disease is and to combat the problem in Michigan.

Hunting season in Michigan is the real deal. Crouching in the wilderness for the kill is something many Michiganders take part in every year.

“Some of our stations have to deal with over 200 deer in a day,” said John Neiwoonder, a Michigan DNR wildlife biologist. “It’s not just checking them, we do check the deer, we age them, we measure antlers, things like that but we are also doing a lot of cutting.”

Hunters are required to bring in the head of a bagged deer during these two extended seasons, according to Niewoonder.



“This special season in January is designed to get more samples for us to test so that we can see exactly where the disease is and how prevalent it is,” he said. “This disease doesn’t go away. Once you get it in an area, it really doesn’t go away.”

The disease could cause a shortage down the road.

“In some places in Wyoming (state) they’ve noticed drastic declines in the deer population,” Neiwoonder said. “It takes a long time for that to happen.”

Right now, the DNR says Michigan has plenty of deer. But models may suggest an uncertain future for deer populations, which is why the DNR is being proactive in testing for chronic wasting.

And for gun shop owners, the additional hunts extend business. Gary Hosmer, the owner of the Sparta Sport Shop, says during the peak of the season, he sees thousands enter his store.

“It’s quite a business and you know you don’t want to see that go because you want to be able to sell guns and ammo, and people like to hunt,” he said.

But Hosmer says it could hurt business if chronic wasting disease becomes widespread.

Since 2015, the Michigan DNR says it’s tested more than 27,000 deer. Twenty-nine of them tested positive.

“It’s always fatal. If a deer gets this disease, they will die from it,” Neiwoonder said.

Bob Vandenberg, a hunter who frequents the Sparta Sport Shop, says he’s seen this happen before and is worried what the disease could mean for the future of deer hunting in Michigan.

“I don’t like to see animals die like that, so I am concerned,” he said. “A lot of the states that I hunt in — they have problems as well.”

The Flat River State Game Area Office at 6640 Long Lake Road near Belding will be open to check deer from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Jan. 4 through Jan. 17. Hunters can also drop off heads for testing through Jan. 17 at:
For more information about CWD, visit mi.gov/cwd.
 
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#5 ·
Sorry..... But to late. This will do nothing.

Just a panic button till this disease becomes the norm in the next decade. Funding will stop and it will slip to the back burner as it spreads across the state. Hunter numbers will drop. Deer numbers will increase.
 
#16 ·
The first discovery of CWD was in deer kept in a pasture, that previously held Scappie infected sheep.

Later they stripped the vegetation and topsoil from that pasture and reintroduced deer...who then became infected.
So if the soil wasnt the issue something else in that facility must have been. Either that or a deer that was re introduced after the fact had the disease when it was brought there. From what I read they brought wild deer in to study. There isn't a test today for live deer and there surely wasnt back then to know. They were getting the CWD from something.
 
#20 ·
The first discovery of CWD was in deer kept in a pasture, that previously held Scappie infected sheep.

Later they stripped the vegetation and topsoil from that pasture and reintroduced deer...who then became infected.
Um, you're making a lot of biased assumptions here. The researchers are clear in that they don't how or where CWD originated. Since the deer used in the original research facilities in both Colorado and Wyoming were wild deer brought into the facilities, it's just as likely that wild deer that were already infected brought CWD into the facilities, not the other way around.

The experts in Arkansas believe, due to the prevalence rates in area's with re-located elk, that CWD was brought into Arkansas when the state brought in elk from out West for re-introduction.

Here's what the experts think they know. If from sheep, why didn't it show up in all the 1000's of other places where sheep and deer grazed together?

http://cwd-info.org/cwd-overview/
The origin of CWD is not known and it may never be possible to definitively determine how or when CWD arose. Though of academic interest, determining the origin is probably not very important from a management perspective; nonetheless, speculation continues. Scrapie, a TSE of domestic sheep, has been recognized in the United States since 1947, and it is possible that CWD was derived from scrapie. Arguments can be made both for and against this hypothesis. It is possible, though never proven, that deer came into contact with scrapie agent either on shared pastures or in captivity somewhere along the front range of the Rocky Mountains, where high levels of sheep grazing occurred in the early 1900s. In addition, in vitro models suggest there is less of a species barrier to interspecies TSE transmission between deer, elk, and sheep than between these cervids and either cattle or humans. However, CWD has never been identified in other areas of North America or other parts of the world where cervids and domestic sheep with scrapie must have co-mingled. Strain typing experiments determined that CWD is not like known scrapie strains, though direct comparisons with North American scrapie strains has not been conducted. Experimental transmission of CWD to a domestic goat by intracerebral inoculation had a prolonged incubation; shorter incubation would be expected with scrapie strains in goats. Experimental scrapie in cattle and lesions of CWD in cattle are quite different.

It may be possible that CWD is a spontaneous TSE that arose in deer in the wild or in captivity and has biological features promoting transmission to other deer and elk.





http://www.stopcwd.org/library/cwd_paper2d.pdf

According to Miller (2000) the current distribution of wild CWD cases suggests that the most plausible scenario was the occurrence some 30 years ago of more or less spontaneous CWD in free-ranging deer of North-central Colorado or southeastern Wyoming, spreading via species contact and normal migration routes to the situational scenario now found today. Such a finding is grounded upon the wider distribution of CWD and a higher prevalence rate in south Wyoming.


Historically, a recurrent chronic emaciating disease was first recognized in the late 1960’s in wild mule deer held captive at the Colorado Fish and Game Department facilities and the nearby Colorado State University Wildlife Disease Research Center, both at Ft. Collins, Colorado (Williams and Miller 2002). Williams (1982) places the first case in 1967 based upon research personnel observational data. Deer at these facilities originated from free ranging populations and were maintained with routine animal exchanges from Wyoming Fish and Game facilities at Sybille Canyon, Wyoming and the Denver Wildlife Research Center (DWRC) initially controlled by the Colorado Fish and Game Department (pre-Colorado Division of Wildlife), but later turned over to the U.S. Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife (USBSFW), a predecessor to the current U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.



Williams (1992) noted that CWD was found in the wild deer population within approximately 50 kilometers of the Ft Collins facilities, and was found in two wild elk but no deer within 50 kilometers of the Wyoming facility. However, Williams also noted that virtually all the Colorado cases were within 5 kilometers of the Ft Collin’s facilities. Most certainly, this is compelling evidence of disease “leakage” dissemination via animal release, escape or other mechanism, if not of disease origination itself. To date, the question still remains whether the disease originated at those facilities or was perhaps brought into those facilities from the wild population.


Miller (2000) speculated that due to surveillance data and epidemiological modeling, CWD might have been present for 30 years or more before being detected. Nonetheless, since the wild and captive animals disease appears to be identical, it is not possible to determined whether CWD arose in captive or free-ranging populations first (Williams, 2002)
 
#22 ·
Um, you're making a lot of biased assumptions here. The researchers are clear in that they don't how or where CWD originated. Since the deer used in the original research facilities in both Colorado and Wyoming were wild deer brought into the facilities, it's just as likely that wild deer that were already infected brought CWD into the facilities, not the other way around.

The experts in Arkansas believe, due to the prevalence rates in area's with re-located elk, that CWD was brought into Arkansas when the state brought in elk from out West for re-introduction.

Here's what the experts think they know. If from sheep, why didn't it show up in all the 1000's of other places where sheep and deer grazed together?

http://cwd-info.org/cwd-overview/
The origin of CWD is not known and it may never be possible to definitively determine how or when CWD arose. Though of academic interest, determining the origin is probably not very important from a management perspective; nonetheless, speculation continues. Scrapie, a TSE of domestic sheep, has been recognized in the United States since 1947, and it is possible that CWD was derived from scrapie. Arguments can be made both for and against this hypothesis. It is possible, though never proven, that deer came into contact with scrapie agent either on shared pastures or in captivity somewhere along the front range of the Rocky Mountains, where high levels of sheep grazing occurred in the early 1900s. In addition, in vitro models suggest there is less of a species barrier to interspecies TSE transmission between deer, elk, and sheep than between these cervids and either cattle or humans. However, CWD has never been identified in other areas of North America or other parts of the world where cervids and domestic sheep with scrapie must have co-mingled. Strain typing experiments determined that CWD is not like known scrapie strains, though direct comparisons with North American scrapie strains has not been conducted. Experimental transmission of CWD to a domestic goat by intracerebral inoculation had a prolonged incubation; shorter incubation would be expected with scrapie strains in goats. Experimental scrapie in cattle and lesions of CWD in cattle are quite different.

It may be possible that CWD is a spontaneous TSE that arose in deer in the wild or in captivity and has biological features promoting transmission to other deer and elk.





http://www.stopcwd.org/library/cwd_paper2d.pdf

According to Miller (2000) the current distribution of wild CWD cases suggests that the most plausible scenario was the occurrence some 30 years ago of more or less spontaneous CWD in free-ranging deer of North-central Colorado or southeastern Wyoming, spreading via species contact and normal migration routes to the situational scenario now found today. Such a finding is grounded upon the wider distribution of CWD and a higher prevalence rate in south Wyoming.


Historically, a recurrent chronic emaciating disease was first recognized in the late 1960’s in wild mule deer held captive at the Colorado Fish and Game Department facilities and the nearby Colorado State University Wildlife Disease Research Center, both at Ft. Collins, Colorado (Williams and Miller 2002). Williams (1982) places the first case in 1967 based upon research personnel observational data. Deer at these facilities originated from free ranging populations and were maintained with routine animal exchanges from Wyoming Fish and Game facilities at Sybille Canyon, Wyoming and the Denver Wildlife Research Center (DWRC) initially controlled by the Colorado Fish and Game Department (pre-Colorado Division of Wildlife), but later turned over to the U.S. Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife (USBSFW), a predecessor to the current U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.



Williams (1992) noted that CWD was found in the wild deer population within approximately 50 kilometers of the Ft Collins facilities, and was found in two wild elk but no deer within 50 kilometers of the Wyoming facility. However, Williams also noted that virtually all the Colorado cases were within 5 kilometers of the Ft Collin’s facilities. Most certainly, this is compelling evidence of disease “leakage” dissemination via animal release, escape or other mechanism, if not of disease origination itself. To date, the question still remains whether the disease originated at those facilities or was perhaps brought into those facilities from the wild population.


Miller (2000) speculated that due to surveillance data and epidemiological modeling, CWD might have been present for 30 years or more before being detected. Nonetheless, since the wild and captive animals disease appears to be identical, it is not possible to determined whether CWD arose in captive or free-ranging populations first (Williams, 2002)
Honest question. Everything you posted is at least 15 years old. Is this where everything still stands?
 
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