CWD research funding included in FY23 omnibus budget bill

[marksjeep]

70 mil/year through FY28.

https://www.trcp.org/2022/12/23/hou...-wasting-disease-legislation-presidents-desk/

 

[Treeshark]

Hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent over decades “researching and managing” CWD.

I’m not sure more of the same is going to lead to any better results than it has in the past, but we’ve spent $70mil on worse things in the past I suppose.

 

[brocksw]

Hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent over decades “researching and managing” CWD.

I’m not sure more of the same is going to lead to any better results than it has in the past, but we’ve spent $70mil on worse things in the past I suppose.

I think of it as an investment in deer and deer hunting.

"Deer are the most popular game animals in the United States. In 2016, 8.1 million hunters (70% of all hunters) pursued deer [5]. These same hunters contributed $20.9 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product and generated $5 billion in taxes through spending on travel, lodging, meals, equipment, animal processing, guiding, land access, and other amenities [6]. Elk hunters, though fewer in number than deer hunters, (0.7 million in 2016; [5]) tend to spend more per hunting trip than other cervid hunters and are often strong economic contributors at local and regional scales [7]."

"Beyond spending on hunting-related travel and expenditures, deer hunters drive the bulk of hunting license sales in the United States [5]. Because these license sales contribute significantly to natural resources agency budgets [16], deer hunting can have a strong influence on agency operations and the management of resources beyond deer [2]."

The economic costs of chronic wasting disease in the United States

Cervids are economically important to a wide range of stakeholders and rights holders in the United States. The continued expansion of chronic wasting disease (CWD), a fatal neurodegenerative disease affecting wild and farmed cervids, poses a direct and indirect threat to state and federal...

journals.plos.org

 

[Sytes]

Now that's a convincing take to something I was initially viewing from Treeshark's pov.

 

[Hunting Wife]

I think of it as an investment in deer and deer hunting.

"Deer are the most popular game animals in the United States. In 2016, 8.1 million hunters (70% of all hunters) pursued deer [5]. These same hunters contributed $20.9 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product and generated $5 billion in taxes through spending on travel, lodging, meals, equipment, animal processing, guiding, land access, and other amenities [6]. Elk hunters, though fewer in number than deer hunters, (0.7 million in 2016; [5]) tend to spend more per hunting trip than other cervid hunters and are often strong economic contributors at local and regional scales [7]."

"Beyond spending on hunting-related travel and expenditures, deer hunters drive the bulk of hunting license sales in the United States [5]. Because these license sales contribute significantly to natural resources agency budgets [16], deer hunting can have a strong influence on agency operations and the management of resources beyond deer [2]."

The economic costs of chronic wasting disease in the United States

Cervids are economically important to a wide range of stakeholders and rights holders in the United States. The continued expansion of chronic wasting disease (CWD), a fatal neurodegenerative disease affecting wild and farmed cervids, poses a direct and indirect threat to state and federal...

journals.plos.org

Not to mention that the vast majority of the funding thus far has been directed towards the game farm industry via USDA “researching” all the ways game farms are not the problem and how to manage CWD in ways that limit the impacts to said industry. Very little has gone to research or managing CWD in wild populations. This bill, if it passes, would be the most funding by far we’ve ever seen towards that end.

 

[Sytes]

Not to mention that the vast majority of the funding thus far has been directed towards the game farm industry via USDA “researching” all the ways game farms are not the problem and how to manage CWD in ways that limit the impacts to said industry. Very little has gone to research or managing CWD in wild populations. This bill, if it passes, would be the most funding by far we’ve ever seen towards that end.

Is this the $9.6 million APHIS you're referring to?

From what I've read, it does not appear the vast majority of the funding, unless it drastically changed this past year, is directed towards the game farm industry.

As far as I can tell, it's based upon who applies and then evaluated from there for funding(?) Least from what the release for 2022 funding was set towards

APHIS Provides Over $9 Million in Funding to Control and Prevent Chronic Wasting Disease | Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

Contact: [email protected], October 12, 2022 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is providing $9.4 million to 27 States and 6 Tribes or Tribal organizations to further develop and implement Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) management...

www.aphis.usda.gov

Wild Cervid Chronic Wasting Disease
Management
Total $ 4,074,788.38

Farmed Cervid Chronic Wasting Disease Management
Total $ 4,788,668.20

 

[Treeshark]

I think of it as an investment in deer and deer hunting.

I do think of it as an investment, I’m just not sure it’s a good one- the last few hundred million$ over decades led to the place we are at now. Hoping for much better results moving forward obviously.

I hate this stupid “CWD is fake” movement, but it is absolutely appropriate to start asking some tough questions and expecting more progress than we’ve seen.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Is this the $9.6 million APHIS you're referring to?

From what I've read, it does not appear the vast majority of the funding, unless it drastically changed this past year, is directed towards the game farm industry.

As far as I can tell, it's based upon who applies and then evaluated from there for funding(?) Least from what the release for 2022 funding was set towards

APHIS Provides Over $9 Million in Funding to Control and Prevent Chronic Wasting Disease | Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

Contact: [email protected], October 12, 2022 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is providing $9.4 million to 27 States and 6 Tribes or Tribal organizations to further develop and implement Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) management...

www.aphis.usda.gov

Wild Cervid Chronic Wasting Disease
Management
Total $ 4,074,788.38

Farmed Cervid Chronic Wasting Disease Management
Total $ 4,788,668.20

Yes. And as I pointed out in another thread recently, that is almost all eaten up by monitoring, which has a strong bent towards interstate commerce for the farmed cervid industry. Have to do testing to know where we can and can’t ship farmed cervids to/from. Monitoring does nothing to advance our knowledge of solutions to CWD at this point. Very, very little goes towards research. APHIS is not concerned about wildlife resources in the slightest.

 

[marksjeep]

Funding looks like a done deal.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...n-passage-of-the-bipartisan-year-end-omnibus/

 

[Sytes]

Yes. And as I pointed out in another thread recently, that is almost all eaten up by monitoring, which has a strong bent towards interstate commerce for the farmed cervid industry. Have to do testing to know where we can and can’t ship farmed cervids to/from. Monitoring does nothing to advance our knowledge of solutions to CWD at this point. Very, very little goes towards research. APHIS is not concerned about wildlife resources in the slightest.

I know this is your niche - Maybe the funding via APHIS mentioned above is not the same as you're referencing, considering your response?

The $9.6 million states the following for Wild CWD and the same language for Farm:
It's not $ spent directly by APHIS / USDA.
"USDA APHIS WS is awarding $4.075 million through Cooperative Agreements to twenty-one State Departments of wildlife. These projects will allow recipients to further develop and implement CWD management, response, and research activities in wild cervids, including surveillance and testing. Funded projects are listed below."

<Revised Edit added> for any who did not view the APHIS link or the .pdf's (Used snip vs copy/paste)

FARM Funding:




WILD Funding:

 

[Treeshark]

farmed cervid industry.

I would guess I’m preaching to the choir HW, but it sure would be nice to see this farmed cervid industry cease to exist at all (for many other reasons as well).

The fact that they still exist, largely as they always have, does serve to further deteriorate public support in battling CWD in my opinion. It’s hard for some people to take it seriously when the one main bad actor is left largely unchecked.

 

[Hunting Wife]

I know this is your niche - Maybe the funding via APHIS mentioned above is not the same as you're referencing, considering your response?

The $9.6 million states the following for Wild CWD and the same language for Farm:
It's not $ spent directly by APHIS / USDA.
"USDA APHIS WS is awarding $4.075 million through Cooperative Agreements to twenty-one State Departments of wildlife. These projects will allow recipients to further develop and implement CWD management, response, and research activities in wild cervids, including surveillance and testing. Funded projects are listed below."

<Revised Edit added> for any who did not view the APHIS link or the .pdf's (Used snip vs copy/paste)

FARM Funding:

View attachment 257439
View attachment 257440

WILD Funding:

View attachment 257441
View attachment 257442

Nope, that’s it. But look at the list. The vast majority are surveillance and human dimensions/public relations. A few risk assessments. A couple of analyses or evaluations of existing testing methods. A couple of environmental oriented projects, which IMO don’t have a lot of application in a wild environment due to scale. But I don’t see anything really novel or solution-oriented (with regard to wildlife) on that list.

As an example, the surveillance funding doesn’t even cover surveillance costs in most states. That’s why so many states use rolling regional surveillance strategies and hunters have to pay their own testing costs in many places. These are small dollar projects and, again IMO, don’t really have much potential to move the needle with regard to our understanding of the pathogen or ways to control it.

I am glad to see that the CWD funding has perhaps gone through. TRCP did a lot of heavy lifting on getting that passed. I am hopeful that will get some money flowing that will actually pay off in new technologies or improved understanding of how to effectively manage this disease in the wild.

 

[Muledeerchaser]

In 2019 I lost my brother-in-law to CJD ( the human version of CWD). He had been hunting in an area of Wyoming that had recently discovered CWD in elk and deer populations. While field dressing an elk he had cut his hand, this was 2 years prior to his death…. Needless to say transmission of CWD has not been proven yet, but please be careful get your animals tested prior to consumption. A good article to read is listed below……..