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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BrockW" data-source="post: 413412" data-attributes="member: 5910">I watch deer quite a bit.  I’ve never seen them making out or “swapping spit”….unless they’re eating at a bait pile or feeder.Does it happen once in a while?  I’m sure it does.  Do they get exposed naturally? Sure.  Will there be some natural spread? For sure.But the research paints a pretty clear picture that deer aren’t likely getting infected based on a single contact with an infected deer, or by licking a branch an infected deer licked.  It’s repeated and prolonged exposure to infected animals and infected sites(like baiting sites) that is resulting in positives.They can infect deer with low doses of infected saliva, no Frankenstein inoculation, just taking saliva from an end stage positive animal and giving it to a naive animal.  A couple months later that animal tests positive.But, if they just throw naive, uninfected animals into infected pens or with other infected animals, it can take a year or more to start making other animals positive.  Again, it’s that repeated and prolonged exposure that results in entire study groups becoming infected and subsequently dying of clinical end stage CWD.This is why wildlife management agencies want to ban baiting, and in many cases feeding as well.  Because when they run these studies, bringing infected animals into an area and have them eat out of the same feeder or out of the same bait pile, and repeatedly exposing them to infectious materials, it results in more positive animals.  So why throw gas on the fire?Besides, look at Saskatchewan, Kansas, Texas, basically the only 3 states/provinces that have not followed best management practices when it comes to baiting, and over the same amount of time, all 3 have seen significantly more geographic spread and significantly higher prevalence rates than states that have followed the best management practices.Eventually, every state ends up with higher prevalence.  But wouldn’t you rather have 40 years of a healthy deer herd, where most of the state is low in prevalence,  versus 70-80% prevalence in 20 years and its exploding? That’s exactly what’s happened in Saskatchewan, and what’s happening in Kansas and Texas.If you think this is all just made up hooey, then I can’t help you and good luck in whatever you do.  No reason to continue the conversation.But deer hunters should be taking this seriously and we should be doing what we can to help the department manage this disease as best we can.  We should do it for the good of the resource, we should do it for future generations. Any reasonable and logical person should be able to look at the evidence and come to that conclusion.  It’s not a coincidence that the folks mad about losing baiting are the ones up in arms about this, and claiming a new conspiracy theory every month.  Those guys are reacting based on emotion and not reason, logic, or objective thinking. And hey, I’ve hunted over bait.  I have absolutely zero against anyone who hunts over bait.  Couldn’t care less.This argument that baiting is a property right is straight up horseshit.  Wildlife belong to North Dakota residents, all of us.  That has been settled in federal courts time and time again.  We all own the wildlife, and landowners who want to bait don’t get to just do whatever they want to the public’s wildlife because they own the land the wildlife are on.  This has been settled in Supreme Court and is the law of the land.  It’s what separates us from Europe.  And who would say hunting is better in Europe than it is here?No one, that’s who.So yeah, put our big boy pants on and do the right thing.  Damn straight.</blockquote>

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