Are you spreading CWD

[Vollmer]

Chris Brackett Has it Wrong on CWD

by Will Brantley

Last week, Chris Brackett, host of Fear No Evilon the Outdoor Channel, told a reporter for thePittsburg Post-Gazette that, “There has never been an animal die of CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease).”

Links to the article spread quickly on social media, hunting talk forums, and in other outdoor media outlets. It followed the usual progression of all things controversial in today’s online hunting community.

People who don’t like Chris Brackett attacked him personally and called him names.

People who do like Chris Brackett attacked the non-Brackett fans personally and called them names.

Lost in all that is the fact that a TV hunter used his influence to spread a false message about a disease that threatens the future of deer hunting. That is frightening enough, but what’s even scarier is how many people are buying it. A writer for Wide Open Spaces wrote, “Brackett’s opinion is one that’s fresh, unique, and perhaps based on different information than what the public has gotten.” He went on to say, “Research continues to be done to find out more about the disease, but this latest statement from Brackett may turn the tables.”

I sure hope it takes a little more than this to "turn the tables."

Before I get any further, I’ll make it clear that I do know Chris Brackett, and I like him just fine. I’ve worked with him a bit in the past, and in fact, I called him for input on an article only a few months ago. The guy is a knowledgeable hunter and a hell of an archer. He’s entertaining on camera. He frequently takes kids hunting. Those are all good things—but they don’t make him an expert on deer diseases.

“What Chris said is absolutely false,” says Kip Adams, a biologist and director of education and outreach with the Quality Deer Management Association. “It can take several months—or even years—for an infected deer to show symptoms of CWD, but the disease is always fatal. That fact is well-documented.”

A recent study conducted on a mule deer herd in Wyoming showed that CWD is responsible for a 19 percent annual reduction in the herd. At that rate, the researcher predicted that CWD could cause that herd to go virtually extinct in just 41 years.

How many shares from hunters did that CWD article get online?

Brackett’s claims were in the context of a conversation about Pennsylvania—a CWD-positive state—banning the use of deer urine. Since CWD prions can be found in urine, some managers believe its use can spread the disease—but there isn’t conclusive proof of that yet. That's the big problem game managers face with CWD. So little is known about it that implementing policy to keep it from spreading is difficult—and at times, extremely unpopular with hunters. I certainly haven't agreed with all of it. But that doesn't mean the problem isn't still real—and it certainly doesn't mean we should ignore the real experts who are telling us this disease is a threat to deer and hunting. Finding a solution absolutely requires more attention and research—and we can't let false claims from an entertainer distract us from that.

 

[gst]

http://wisconsinwatch.org/2013/09/prions-in-plants-new-concern-for-chronic-wasting-disease/

Prions — the infectious, deformed proteins that cause chronic wasting disease in deer — can be taken up by plants such as alfalfa, corn and tomatoes, according to new research from the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison.

Johnson is scheduled to present his research at the annual meeting of The Wildlife Society in Milwaukee in October. Johnson studies CWD at the federal wildlife disease center, which is run by the U.S. Geological Survey. His earlier work found CWD prions can linger in and be amplified and transmitted by soil.

“That is very disconcerting,” George Meyer, executive director of the nonprofit Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, said of the research.

Dean Nelson is right. The funding has dried up from the fed/gov and the only way to get more funding for CWD research is fear. Never let a good crisis go to waste.

Whoa, wait a minute johnny, back the hell up, you mean a food plot could spread disease? :;:stirthepot

 

[dean nelson]

As for over reaction on CWD most states have some level of it this state included. But the grand prize winner has to be WI and their whole nuke 25,000 deer move. http://www.rense.com/general31/hunt.htm that was in the early 2000's this was ten years later. Do you see a difference in how the two DNR's reacted?http://news.psu.edu/story/144732/2012/11/09/experts-advise-hunters-not-overreact-cwd-discovery-pa

ND over reaction has more to do with lack of funds but deals with the insane amount of doe tags they give out for 3f1 and 3f2.

 

[KDM]

Let's see....EHD whacked lots of deer all across the midwest that were clinically verified and I see no regulatory interventions being demanded to combat that disease. Conversely, CWD has been DETECTED....let me say that again....DETECTED in several states, but has yet to be determined to be the cause of any significant wild deer mortality. IMO people killed more deer because CWD was detected than CWD would have killed if it was left alone to run its course. There are STILL lots of deer in the areas where CWD was found. IF and I mean IF, CWD is the Armageddon of the deer herd some people want to make it out to be, how can deer survive???? Couple this with the indeterminate scientific data where even the researchers admit that even they, don't understand this ailment and it's causal agent (the prion), let alone it's short term or long term impact on a deer herd and I fail to understand why people scream that drastic control measures need to be taken to control this condition and it's spread. This, to me, is nothing more than a POLITICAL agenda push based on fear and emotion rather than scientific fact. I smell another anti baiting and anti hunting thrust from the usual suspects that failed in their previous attempts. Until I see peer reviewed, repeatable, and reproducible scientific data defining the causative agent (prion), it's biological mode of action, methods of spread, and effects on a dynamic deer herd, CWD will remain a chicken little "The Sky is Falling" excuse to try to push a political agenda.

 

[Kentucky Windage]

To the OP. NO I don't.

Next question.

 

[dean nelson]

Some of the stuff I've read if true means have nothing we can do to stop it. The reports were some game farms went as far a bleaching the soil and still didn't fix the problem. Not quite sure how anything can survive bleach but if it can we have no chance.

 

[svnmag]

Freaky shi'ite. Puts to mind aliens and CIA.

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Like that red rain in India.

 

[PrairieGhost]

Some of the stuff I've read if true means have nothing we can do to stop it.

If that is true, and it may be, then what will the future look like? I don't know, but people who study disease are taking it serious. Unfortunately it appears to have become political like global warming. That in itself will exacerbate the problem if it is real. I hope people are ok with more research because we do need to know what the threat actually is. Burying our head in the sand will work sometimes and sometimes not. How big of a gamble do we want to take? I think that is why we are seeing urine bans. Perhaps they can heat treat urine like pasteurizing milk.
After reading that article if I ever do use urine again I'm looking for the light colored and not the dark brown liquid crap.

 

[SDMF]

Prions — the infectious, deformed proteins that cause chronic wasting disease in deer — can be taken up by plants such as alfalfa, corn and tomatoes, according to new research from the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison.

That's the LAST STRAW DAMNIT!!!!!!!!!!!! Let's get together and ban all corn, alfalfa, tomatoes, and all dirt. It's for the children.

 

[Fritz the Cat]

Chronic Wasting Disease was first diagnosed in government pens doing nutritional studies for deer in 1967 at four facilities Wyoming and Colorado. Everybody knows that. Lesser known is that when the deer began dying they limed the pens and started over. Restocked it and the deer began dying again. So they gave some to zoo's, traded some to deer farmers in exchange for red deer to get rid of red deer or red deer hybrids and the remaining deer where turned loose into the wild. Not entirely their fault, they didn't know what they had.

Fast forward to today. The University of Madison Wisconsin asked Wyoming for some infected brain tissue to experiment on lab rats and mice. They also kept deer at the facility and they escaped. The authorities went through their paperwork trying to find out if they had used the infected material on the deer and all paperwork was conveniently lost. How did CWD get to Wisconsin?

In the middle of all this a lady died from Creutzfeldt Jakob disease. Her son Terry Singeltary jr. has gone on a crusade to gather everything he can about CWD and post it on the web.

He posts on Quality Deer Management Association blogs and tries to get the sportsmen spun up against the deer farmers. It's copy and paste and the articles are huge. He even posted on nodakoutdoors once but nobody commented so he deleted it.

Here is one, from dubbed the citizen prion expert:

http://www.alzheimers-prions.com/pdf/PRIONSINPLANTSChristopherJohnson.pdf

The first paragraph is from the US Geological Survey about plants up taking prions.

I made it to page 10 where it says:

This project was supported by The Joyce Foundation. The
nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative
Journalism (
www.WisconsinWatch.org
) collaborates with Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Public
Television, other news media and the UW
-
Madison School of Journalism
and Mass Communication.
All works created, published, posted or disseminated by the Center do not necessarily reflect the views or
opinions of UW
-
Madison or any of its affiliates.

What that means is the information you are reading went through the spin cycle first before it was disseminated to you via television or print. I've written about the Joyce Foundation on other threads like Armed Protest. They canvass the Chicago area mostly. Obama used to be on their board of Directors. They gave $18 million dollars to anti gun orgs, according to the NRA, and when they plant information in the media saying that most people favor gun control, we immediately recognize their propaganda.

Anyway, How many can remember in one of George Bush's State of the Union speeches he said they were going to spend $50 million on CWD research. The money has been used up and the researchers need another infusion. Ramp up the rhetoric.

Quietly, in the background, the elk and deer growers of the US and Canada are getting very close to a live animal test for CWD.

 

[dean nelson]

The problem is you can't inoculate for it you can't treat the soil you can't treat shit. Until we can actually figure out something that we can do there's not much reason for debate because all of it is a moot point anyways. If the urine has it in there and it's transmissible through there then its going to have to be shut down because slowing the spread is the only thing we 'might' be able to do.

 

[KDM]

The problem is that nobody knows much about prions or CWD. Every and I mean every paper I've read on the subject is fraught with words like: Suspected, Suggests, Might, Perhaps, Could, Maybe, Unknown, Uncertain, and many more similar words. Even the piece in this thread states they only suspect prions could ​be found in urine. This sure seems to me to be concrete evidence to start making policy decisions and banning stuff..............NOT!!!! Now is someone can show me the data supporting these claims and document the results, I would be forced to reconsider my position. Until then, it's fear mongering, money pandering, and political grand standing and nothing more.

 

[Enslow]

Is Prairie ghost really plainsman?

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EHD seems to be the disease that really takes its toll on the deer. Why is CWD always the focus of attention?

 

[gst]

The cattle industry has dealt with their CWD issue. Part of the cause of spread in cattle was using bone meal (and accompanying spinal tissues) in feeds as a source of calcium. Steps were taken to end certain practices and the instances in hundreds of millions of cattle are extremely low, (1 or 2 cases)

In England there is a higher instance of the Human form varient CjD that has been linked back to the consumption of animal brains and spinal cord tissues in traditional foods.

It is now thought CWD and it's various forms in other animals and humans have always been around and just unknown. There is a line of experimentation that suggests these prions are spontaneous in their formations as well.

The bottom line is in wild game populations they will not be eradicated just as TB has not been eradicated or EHD or other natural occuring diseases.

Do we need to learn more about these diseases? Try to minimize them? Indeed, but lets leave the political agendas such as a history of ballot initiatives against HFH or agendas against the "unfair" practice of baiting out of the process.

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Is Prairie ghost really plainsman?

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EHD seems to be the disease that really takes its toll on the deer. Why is CWD always the focus of attention?

you can;t be that slow enslow...........:;:

HFH ballot initiatives.

 

[Enslow]

I should have known...

 

[Kurtr]

Is Prairie ghost really plainsman?

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EHD seems to be the disease that really takes its toll on the deer. Why is CWD always the focus of attention?

That's exactly what I was thinking

 

[Fritz the Cat]

Dean Nelson and KDM are correct. Wisconsin is an example of what can happen. The DNR targeted 3 counties where they went in to kill every deer. It wasn't a popular idea. Non-profits such as the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism cherry pick data from responsible researchers etc. and filter it for public consumption. It's education and the Joyce Foundation gets to write it off as philanthropy.

The people read it the papers and heard it on the news that this eradication of deer is moving forward. The people ate the pablum got on the bus and nobody was brave or stupid enough to step in front of it.

Instead of reading and accepting their version of events, let's talk to people living at ground zero. The former President of the Wisconsin elk breeders lived there and I visited with him. He said it was a war zone. The DNR had brand new pickups, rifles and looked like a swat team. They were everywhere. If it's brown it's down.

But deer are much like coyotes. Eradicate every coyote in an area and it creates a vacuum. Today there is more deer in that 3 county area then before. But.......the prions live in the soil.

The DNR wanted to depopulate his private herd and he said no. They said fine, you are now quarantined. Nothing moves in or out. To my knowledge, he is still raising elk, never got the disease, but can only sell a few for meat. The meat market is a little soft because fear of varient CjD.



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And of course there is (EHD) or Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease.

As of now, there is no cure. It kills 100 times more deer than CWD but it is not a political disease like CWD.

Deer are very susceptible, elk less and cattle not so much. The last several years though, farmed elk and cattle from Nebraska south we hit pretty hard. They had drought and a lot of stagnant water could be the culprit. The midge likes that.

During those droughts down south a lot of cattle were brought to ND to graze on reservation lands. GST isn't going to like this but cattle are a vector for the EHD midge.

So what is the answer? Shut down movement of livestock, shut down movement of hay because it may have prions, shut down everything? Why is it that people who produce things are always under attack?




[h=2][/h]

 

[gst]

Livestock/cattle are vectors for a number of diseases some which can transmit back and forth to wildlife and vice versa. That is why we have a state vet department to use sound science to help prevent transmissions across state lines and outbreaks within our state. Despite their hard work and highly successful efforts some wish to manufacture and twist to fit agendas.

 

[deleted_account]

move to politics please. another plainsman, gst, and fritz 3 way is about to ensue

 

[gst]

Wags, wife gave me some silk long johns for Christmas, you should get some they are really neat and don;t chaff at all. Been thru this with old plains enough so I think you're safe.