MT to pay for CWD testing statewide.

I am not sure where you are getting your information, but in Wyoming there is only one "captive herd" and CWD was an issue in the southeast part of the state long before it got close to that captive herd which is in the north central part of the state.

CWD was first identified in a research herd of deer at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, CO in the late 1960's. Nobody knows if the prion that leads to CWD existed prior to that.

ClearCreek

Use a little logic and it helps. NOBODY has identified a source for the disease. No one cared, until it showed up in the captive herds and then it was given a name. If you read my post, I did not identify anything specific. NO ONE has proven that the disease has not always been there. They just gave it a name, so that some biologist could make some extra money studying it. If you wring your hands and worry about it, then DON'T HUNT! If you want game and fish departments to kill all the animals and HOPE that gets rid of it, then by all means get on your soap box, and help the antis.

In the mean time, I am going to hunt my deer and laugh at all of this hog wash that has proven NOTHING. LMAO! An old guide in Colorado once said that he had seen what was probably this so-called disease, for over 40 years and no one ever even mentioned the occasional sick animal. Amazing what happens when someone can obtain some funding to study a particular disease, or whatever.

Show me some proof and change my mind. SMDH
 
Use a little logic and it helps. NOBODY has identified a source for the disease. No one cared, until it showed up in the captive herds and then it was given a name. If you read my post, I did not identify anything specific. NO ONE has proven that the disease has not always been there. They just gave it a name, so that some biologist could make some extra money studying it. If you wring your hands and worry about it, then DON'T HUNT! If you want game and fish departments to kill all the animals and HOPE that gets rid of it, then by all means get on your soap box, and help the antis.

In the mean time, I am going to hunt my deer and laugh at all of this hog wash that has proven NOTHING. LMAO! An old guide in Colorado once said that he had seen what was probably this so-called disease, for over 40 years and no one ever even mentioned the occasional sick animal. Amazing what happens when someone can obtain some funding to study a particular disease, or whatever.

Show me some proof and change my mind. SMDH

Pretty sure you aren’t open to “changing your mind.”
 
Use a little logic and it helps. NOBODY has identified a source for the disease. No one cared, until it showed up in the captive herds and then it was given a name. If you read my post, I did not identify anything specific. NO ONE has proven that the disease has not always been there. They just gave it a name, so that some biologist could make some extra money studying it. If you wring your hands and worry about it, then DON'T HUNT! If you want game and fish departments to kill all the animals and HOPE that gets rid of it, then by all means get on your soap box, and help the antis.

In the mean time, I am going to hunt my deer and laugh at all of this hog wash that has proven NOTHING. LMAO! An old guide in Colorado once said that he had seen what was probably this so-called disease, for over 40 years and no one ever even mentioned the occasional sick animal. Amazing what happens when someone can obtain some funding to study a particular disease, or whatever.

Show me some proof and change my mind. SMDH

sbhooper:

Would you be concerned if half the deer your family has killed the last few years have tested positive for CWD?

ClearCreek
 
sbhooper:

Would you be concerned if half the deer your family has killed the last few years have tested positive for CWD?

ClearCreek
Why? CWD has been identified and is information hunters have. I'm betting any of us that hunt and kill have taken home an animal afflicted with it. mtmuley
 
sbhooper:

Would you be concerned if half the deer your family has killed the last few years have tested positive for CWD?

ClearCreek

Nope. If I did not kill deer for the city and town (which mandates I submit 100% of the heads for CWD testing) I would not bother getting my deer tested. In fact, I dont get any of my deer tested for CWD when I use my own tags.

 
sbhooper:

Would you be concerned if half the deer your family has killed the last few years have tested positive for CWD?

ClearCreek

This question becomes even more interesting if/when the disease is first transmitted to humans.

I might be a fool, but I have all my deer and elk tested and wouldn’t eat a positive one (haven’t shot a positive yet). Just not worth it.
 
This question becomes even more interesting if/when the disease is first transmitted to humans.

I might be a fool, but I have all my deer and elk tested and wouldn’t eat a positive one (haven’t shot a positive yet). Just not worth it.

The species barrier is being tested even single day and not only in the USA but every country that has CWD. Cervids to human causing VCJD has been tested every way it can be.
 
This question becomes even more interesting if/when the disease is first transmitted to humans.

I might be a fool, but I have all my deer and elk tested and wouldn’t eat a positive one (haven’t shot a positive yet). Just not worth it.

Agree with you 100% madtom; I will not allow any of my family to eat a known CWD positive critter. Others can call me an alarmist if they want, that's fine. I am just going to take the safe path.

ClearCreek
 
Show me what they are going to accomplish by doing this. Nobody has ever figured out a way to control this nonsense. It is here and they just have to live with it. Pissing away more money "testing" for it, is a useless waste of funds. If someone specifically asks for it, then do it, but it will accomplish NOTHING to spend money on widespread testing.

People need to quit panicking over something that is not a big deal. Nature does, what nature does. It used to be, that when a deer, or whatever, looked sick, a person just avoided it. Now, it has a name, so everybody wants to panic about it. Until it got into captive herds, it was never an issue, although, I would bet 100 percent, that the disease has always been around.

I used to believe exactly this. Unfortunately, there is considerable evidence that the disease is new. It won’t take much reading on the subject to determine that. As far not eating a sick looking deer, the deer is producing and shedding infectious prions for 12-24 months before any clinical signs of infection appear. Additionally, mad cow was once thought not to effect humans. Currently over 200 people have come down with it. Further, it seems that the probability of getting it is related to the number of infectious prions consumed. Most people don’t eat an entire cow. They eat a steak from one cow today, and a burger from a different cow tomorrow. This increases your odds of being exposed to a few prions, but decrease the number of prions you’re exposed to. On the other hand, if you eat an entire deer yourself, you are exposed to an awful lot of prions if that deer had CWD.

One final thought. Mad cow was not contagious from cow to cow through casual contact. Transmission occurred when a healthy cow ate a sick cow. CWD, like scrapple, is infectious from deer to deer when a healthy deer comes into contact with prions that we’re shed by another deer in feces, saliva, rubbing noses, etc. scientists have transmitted CWD to other species by feeding them infected brain matter, and once it makes the jump, it changes form, and becomes infectious through casual contact. If it ever it jumps to humans will we be giving it to each other when we cough and sneeze? Will we walk around spreading it for years before we know we’re sick?
 
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Use a little logic and it helps. NOBODY has identified a source for the disease. No one cared, until it showed up in the captive herds and then it was given a name. If you read my post, I did not identify anything specific. NO ONE has proven that the disease has not always been there. They just gave it a name, so that some biologist could make some extra money studying it. If you wring your hands and worry about it, then DON'T HUNT! If you want game and fish departments to kill all the animals and HOPE that gets rid of it, then by all means get on your soap box, and help the antis.

In the mean time, I am going to hunt my deer and laugh at all of this hog wash that has proven NOTHING. LMAO! An old guide in Colorado once said that he had seen what was probably this so-called disease, for over 40 years and no one ever even mentioned the occasional sick animal. Amazing what happens when someone can obtain some funding to study a particular disease, or whatever.

Show me some proof and change my mind. SMDH

One guide told you he saw something that he thought was CWD. That doesn’t change three things.

1. It was first identified when deer being researched in a pen kept dying. That pen had previously been used to study scrapie in sheep. It wasn’t used just to study a handful of sheep either. It was used extensively. CWD and scrapie are the only TSEs I’m aware of that are transmitted via casual contact. While it’s not CERTAIN that CWD is the result of scrapie jumping from sheep to mule deer, it is likely.

2. Overall populations of well established herds have decreased significantly in areas where it has had a high prevalence for many years. If it had always existed there, then those populations would have already been at stable levels and the disease would not have been able to cause a reduction.

3. If CWD has always been with us, then it would have shown up all over as soon as we started testing for it. Sure, not all states have been testing for it widely for a long time, BUT even in the states that do test a lot of animals, and have done so for a long time, it doesn’t show up over the whole state. It shows up in a relatively small area and begins to spread. This is not what you would expect from a disease that has been here forever.
 
The species barrier is being tested even single day and not only in the USA but every country that has CWD. Cervids to human causing VCJD has been tested every way it can be.

I guess at my age I am not willing to be an experiment and eat meat from a CWD infected animal. Once I am over 50 I guess I'll roll the dice and eat it no matter what....

Too bad you don't get your deer tested, if one has an understanding of statistics and wildlife management you would know that the more data the better....
 
Im close to 60 years old. While I dont have my deer tested I did shoot 10 with a bow for the city and I had all of them tested per the mandates os the culling program so Ive likely have more deer tested and several other hunters combined.
 
Big issue here in Wisconsin too
Good to see other places working ideas
 
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