CWD update

[shedcrazy]

Looks like some more cases have shown up. http://www.srd.gov.ab.ca/fishwildlif...WDPositive.pdf
The spread seems greater this year with a positive into WMU 163 and with 3 of the 4 in new areas but old WMUs.

Would be nice if there was some funding for extensive monitoring further into Alberta. A person would think it could spread really quickly up the River Valleys (especially with the deer densities in the South Saskatchewan River Basin). At least it doesn't seem like an epidemic as of yet. Still concerning. Thanks for the link.

[rugatika]

Shed. Is the government thinking of opening up a widespread cull of deer before this gets spread out too much into the whole deer heard. Seems it might be a good idea to wipe out all the deer in this whole area (year round wide open season in those areas) I'd hate to see this get into all the deer in all areas of the province. Then it really could be hard to control.

[shedcrazy]

Rug your not looking for the government to help are you??? Not sure what the game plan is now. I am very interested in what the plan will be at our next meeting. I know that funding for the project has not been good. Just a fraction of the funding for the Pine Beetle. I know personnally I have and will be donating some of my time to help out.

From the info I have gotten, it will only get worse as more results come in. When you look at the total amount of heads that have been tested (1700) and the amount left (3000).

The bigger area will also be harder to manage and now there are positives in 4 WMUs as of right now. I have heard of another positive in another WMU as well.

We do not want it to spread any farther and increase in concentration. Some counties in the states (Colorado) have 60% positives in their deer herd!!!

Thanks for the update shed...scary stuff!

[NS Beagler]

Refresh my memory, what does CWD do to people?

Originally Posted by NS Beagler

Refresh my memory, what does CWD do to people?

Nothing conclusive! Similar to mad cow disease.

Originally Posted by NS Beagler

Refresh my memory, what does CWD do to people?

NS, I can't remember either

[NS Beagler]

Originally Posted by SNIPER

NS, I can't remember either

Must be CWD in your zone too!

[Don Meredith]

As sheep stated, there is no substantiated connection between CWD and human disease. There are some questionable cases but no direct evidence. However, there is a connection between mad cow disease and a similar human disease. Both mad cow and CWD are caused by a similar agent (prion, a sub-protein). So, the concern is there.

One CWD researcher I know regularly hunts elk in a CWD area in the States. When butchering game, he uses gloves and stays away from the spinal cord and brain--where the prion is found. He doesn't feel he is at risk, but the disease may not show up for 30 years or more.

[AbAngler]

I submitted a skull from 163 in ealry November. I called F and W the other day to see if they have the results, but it hasn't even shown up in the system yet. They are WAY behind. Like shedcracy said, it will probably get worse as results come in.

Hopefully it's a negative as I've already eaten some.....

[Chet]

I was really disappointed to see the pending positive in 163 as well as the additional positves in the other WMUs. This is a real tragedy in my mind and it looks like it is only getting worse. I'm no Dr. Val Geist but I can't help but wonder why more isn't being done to eliminate the threat of CWD from what I believe to be the most likely original source of it: Game Farms.

It has spread so far now that it is going to be very difficult to control via culling, especially as it spreads in to areas with more natural cover. The deer herds and deer hunting will never be the same in those areas and probably a lot more in this province.

This really sucks.

Chet

[packhuntr]

I gotta agree with ya Chet. If the piping in the house froze and broke, id be found repairing the leak first thing. Immediatly after, youd find me working on clean-up. No time to waste.....

keep a strain on er.

[Reeves1]

most likely original source of it: Game Farms.

For one, I'd like to see the data on that.

[CNP]

Originally Posted by Don Meredith

As sheep stated, there is no substantiated connection between CWD and human disease. There are some questionable cases but no direct evidence. However, there is a connection between mad cow disease and a similar human disease. Both mad cow and CWD are caused by a similar agent (prion, a sub-protein). So, the concern is there.

One CWD researcher I know regularly hunts elk in a CWD area in the States. When butchering game, he uses gloves and stays away from the spinal cord and brain--where the prion is found. He doesn't feel he is at risk, but the disease may not show up for 30 years or more.

CJD is the "similar human disease".

[Chet]

Originally Posted by Reeves

For one, I'd like to see the data on that.

There is no hard data that I know of that proves CWD in Alberta and Sask originated from game farms, but from what I've learned on the subject, they certainly are a high risk environment for the spread of disease. Like I said in my post, it's just what I personally suspect.

Now that it is somewhat common in wild populations here, I am very worried about being able to contain or eliminate it.

[Copidosoma]

There may not be a conclusive link to human disease but CWD certainly does bad things to deer. Enough of a reason to try to keep it out of the populations here.

[shedcrazy]

For a visual project..map out the positive game farms in Sask and then map out all the wild positives. You will see a pattern, I did. Sask data is better to work with due to the fact that they test through out the province. Is it scientific? No, but it is a start.

There is CJD in humans, CWD in cervids, Scrapie in sheep and BSE in cattle. All are similar but similar is not the same.

[Bushmaster]

Shed, do you have such a map??...that would be very interesting.

Just got 2 letters back saying my #3 and #4 were negative....

[droptine]

Had a friend that was at CWD meetings in Buffalo AB, He suggested that instead of culling deer out of the zones that have proven cases of CWD start in the zones surrounding CWD positive zones so possibly infected deer dont get pushed into neighbuoring zones. He said on the map they showed where the first case was found, the zone with the positive case was then culled hard, the next year infected deer were found in most neighbouring zones. Guess what i am trying to say is that they should start culling around infected zones to see how widespread the disease is, making the circle bigger or smaller depending on CWD results found. If no cases are found make your circle smaller containing the spread. Just my 2 cents.

[2 Tollers]

Originally Posted by shedcrazy

For a visual project..map out the positive game farms in Sask and then map out all the wild positives. You will see a pattern, I did. Sask data is better to work with due to the fact that they test through out the province. Is it scientific? No, but it is a start.

Shed I spoke with a few hunters at dog trials in Sk the last few years and they had had the CWD zone extra tag hunt culls going for sometime. Do you know if this has had any benifit in reducing the numbers of positives or is Sask still on an increase?

As culling seems the only option if this has been on-going in Sask for a number of years is this a losing proposition?

[shedcrazy]

There are many ideas of how to do the cull or how to manage the CWD quote hunt. Many options are looked at, many ideas come to the table. We must remember there is no perfect pill to get rid of CWD.
If you focus on the perimeter of the infestion you will spend a lot more money in a bigger area than concentrating at the infestion point. If you spend millions and kill thousands of deer and get no positives in the buffer area many citizens will be in an uproar of all the waste. They will say why didn't you cull where you knew the disease was???? You then knowingly let CWD spread for an addition year and those deer could then go outside your buffer, etc.....
Most methods of control come down to resources and funding. You want to concentrate on the best bang for the buck.

The last info I had on the Sask side was early fall and they had over 150 cases. http://www.environment.gov.sk.ca/adx...ing+Effort.pdfThey have gone past the point that any government cull can occur...They just don't have the funds. It has also shown that hunters alone have don't been able to control CWD. They are getting new positives in new areas as well if I recall correctly. The only good news is that I have not heard of a deer that has looked positive like Alberta's first wild positive. You hope that means that the disease is still new in most areas.

The map is easy to produce. You just need to get the info from the sask site. Like this site. I just can't find the farmed positives.
http://www.environment.gov.sk.ca/adx...rogram+Map.pdf

[Rob Miskosky]

I wrote a piece about the correlation between game farms and cwd a little while back. Here is the link, including the map that shows the correlation.

http://www.albertaoutdoorsmen.ca/arc...ts-oct-07.html

[rugatika]

Why not just have a wide open season in these zones? The only cost to gov't would be head testing. At the very least it would thin out the herds. I think that now is the time to contain this, not after 5 years of study groups etc. There is no real downside to wiping out all the deer in this area as the habitat will be re-populated with healthy deer in fairly short order. The larger the CWD area is allowed to grow the more deer will have to eventually be culled and the longer the time it will be to re-pop this area.

Maybe we need to look at installing a fence high enough to at least limit the mobility of deer across provincial borders. (at least from sask)

Just some thoughts

[shedcrazy]

I have several points to the hunters do all the work harvesting comment:
1. Access and permission would become an issue. There are lots of landowners that don't like an endless amount of hunters on their land for an endless amount of time.

2. Not everyone allows hunting or wants hunting..what about those areas? What about the landowners that want the deer for themselves to hunt for trophy quality? What about outfitters in the area that harvest low amounts of deer in large areas?

3. You run the risk of making pockets of deer and you might just promote CWD in an area.

4. Endless amount of tags doesn't work...Many hunters do no shoot antlerless deer or small bucks.

5. Sask has been giving away free tags and they still have it.

6. Hunters don't always turn in the head or write down location.

It is tough to come up with the prefect plan. I will continue to write down some of the ideas to share though.

Keep the rats and the deer out?

[Bushmaster]

Thanks, Rob.

[CNR]

The root of the problem needs to be taken care of !!!! GAME FARMS!!!

When I can go down to a local farm here in the Lloyd area and watch mule deer jump the fence on a daily bases. Then feed on the hay bales and then just jump on over again. I think the disease is not going to just stop when these game farms transport elk from farm to farm.

These farmers say its in the wild deer population naturally. B.S. If this was so CWD deer would have showen up in at least one deer in Camp Wainwright by now. They have been testing deer for awhile in this uninfected area.

The part that really hurts is the farms get compinsated for CWD infected elk and all we get is a kick in the......Nobody compinsates me if I make a bad investment on the stock market?????

Take care of the source of the problem. Then clean up the mess!

[shedcrazy]

Another positive is confirmed in WMU 236 about 10-15 miles SW of Lloyd. The map should be updated this week.

Another update on the website is:Chronic Wasting Disease - Hunters can check AlbertaRelm website for results on deer heads they have submitted for CWD testing; visit https://www.albertarelm.com/wc.user.Login.page

SC

[WTBooner]

Shed,

I can't see where we can check CWD head results on the RELM site. Is this actually set up?

[shedcrazy]

Just click the link I posted and enter your login info. My reults pop up right away.