CWD

[whi52873]

Back in 1981, volunteers hauled the first load of elk from Colorado/Nebraska to the Ozark mountains in Arkansas. They say we have roughly 700 elk living in the state as of 2018.

In February of 2016, CWD was discovered in Arkansas for the first time in Whitetail deer and the blame was immediately put on the elk herd which I believe to be true. The Elk herd is concentrated in only 4 counties within Arkansas.

Here is where it gets insane in my opinion:
• Since 2016, only 748 deer have tested positive for CWD in Arkansas.
• 700 (94%) of the 748 have come from the 4 counties I mentioned above that contain our elk herd.
• The Arkansas Game and Fish have listed a total of 19 surrounding counties (the entire NW portion of Arkansas) as "CWD Management Zones" - This means you can't use natural scents/lures, No antler restrictions, bag limits have been increased, & you cannot bait deer with corn, etc.
• For those 19 counties, deer harvest have totaled 271,721 since 2016.
• A total of 23,050 deer have been tested for CWD since 2016 which is roughly 9% of total harvest in these CWD zones - a pretty dang good sample size if you ask me.

If I did my math correctly, this means that .28% of deer harvested in the "CWD Management Zones" have tested positive for CWD.....emphasis on the decimal in front of the 2. Not even half of one percent.

So for just under half of the state, the Arkansas Game and Fish is saying we can't use any natural scents/lures, they have taken away all antler restrictions, increased the bag limits, and made it illegal to bait deer. Because 748 deer have tested positive since 2016.......

The Arkansas Game and Fish started this hysteria back in 2016 and have pretty brainwashed the public saying it's a crisis and our deer herd is in jeopardy. That's all you hear about.....people asking why are the harvest numbers down this year? "It has to be CWD"......no it's not CWD....not even close. CWD is so over-hyped and people believe what they hear in the media but refuse to look at the actual data.

All of these BS rules are put in place by the AGFC saying it will help the deer herd but it's only going to hurt the age structure of bucks, decrease deer populations, and hurt hunter participation.

Anybody else agree that this is insane? Do any of you have similar issues in your state?

[Jrdeerhuntr]

I have looked at the numbers for MN and thought the same thing. They tested 8000 deer last year and only 34 positives so .4%. This year 24 positives on 13,197 tests so .1%. I am no biologists but if 99.9% of the population does not have it, is it worth spending millions on?

[Findian]

Scientists have discovered that fear creates money.

[KS27]

Certain counties in Missouri are in the same boat. Of the seven counties that are in a CWD zone bordering Arkansas there have been three (3) deer confirmed with CWD this year. I don't have the number of deer tested but that's a very small percentage that have it in the area.
If I remember correctly, the reason these counties were changed to a CWD zone a few years ago is because neighboring counties in Arkansas had confirmed CWD tests.

[Dewey]

Scientists have discovered that fear creates money.

I was just going to make a comment similar to this. Somewhere somebody is getting rich off all this CWD stuff. As long as there is money to be made off it the propaganda will support it and spread the fear.

[whi52873]

Certain counties in Missouri are in the same boat. Of the seven counties that are in a CWD zone bordering Arkansas there have been three (3) deer confirmed with CWD this year. I don't have the number of deer tested but that's a very small percentage that have it in the area.
If I remember correctly, the reason these counties were changed to a CWD zone a few years ago is because neighboring counties in Arkansas had confirmed CWD tests.

You are correct. If a deer is confirmed to have CWD and is X miles away from a county line then that bordering county is now considered a "CWD Zone".....I don't remember exactly how many miles it has to be but it's a load of BS.

[Dewey]

Certain counties in Missouri are in the same boat. Of the seven counties that are in a CWD zone bordering Arkansas there have been three (3) deer confirmed with CWD this year. I don't have the number of deer tested but that's a very small percentage that have it in the area.
If I remember correctly, the reason these counties were changed to a CWD zone a few years ago is because neighboring counties in Arkansas had confirmed CWD tests.

You are correct. If a deer is confirmed to have CWD and is X miles away from a county line then that bordering county is now considered a "CWD Zone".....I don't remember exactly how many miles it has to be but it's a load of BS.

It’s the same in WI. Worst part is many areas are affected by the rules when a positive was found in a fenced in game farm even though CWD has never been found in the wild herd.

[whi52873]

Certain counties in Missouri are in the same boat. Of the seven counties that are in a CWD zone bordering Arkansas there have been three (3) deer confirmed with CWD this year. I don't have the number of deer tested but that's a very small percentage that have it in the area.
If I remember correctly, the reason these counties were changed to a CWD zone a few years ago is because neighboring counties in Arkansas had confirmed CWD tests.

You are correct. If a deer is confirmed to have CWD and is X miles away from a county line then that bordering county is now considered a "CWD Zone".....I don't remember exactly how many miles it has to be but it's a load of BS.

It’s the same in WI. Worst part is many areas are affected by the rules when a positive was found in a fenced in game farm even though CWD has never been found in the wild herd.

That's even more ridiculous that they've put laws in place to "prevent" CWD and it hasn't even been found in a wild herd. The biggest joke of it all is the Game and Fish are telling us that natural scents/lures & baiting are contributing to the spread of the disease.

I hunt public land and never use scents/lures & bait deer so this doesn't affect me. However, their logic is that private land owners feeding deer will spread the disease through saliva, urine, etc. but I haven't heard one word on how they are going to prevent deer from eating under the lone oak tree dropping acorns, browsing on the same bushes/shrubs, licking the same branches, pissing in the same scrape, etc. Deer are social animals and are constantly surrounded by other deer. A corn pile will do nothing to contribute to the "spread" of CWD.

[KS27]

Certain counties in Missouri are in the same boat. Of the seven counties that are in a CWD zone bordering Arkansas there have been three (3) deer confirmed with CWD this year. I don't have the number of deer tested but that's a very small percentage that have it in the area.
If I remember correctly, the reason these counties were changed to a CWD zone a few years ago is because neighboring counties in Arkansas had confirmed CWD tests.

You are correct. If a deer is confirmed to have CWD and is X miles away from a county line then that bordering county is now considered a "CWD Zone".....I don't remember exactly how many miles it has to be but it's a load of BS.

It’s the same in WI. Worst part is many areas are affected by the rules when a positive was found in a fenced in game farm even though CWD has never been found in the wild herd.

That's even more ridiculous that they've put laws in place to "prevent" CWD and it hasn't even been found in a wild herd. The biggest joke of it all is the Game and Fish are telling us that natural scents/lures & baiting are contributing to the spread of the disease.

I hunt public land and never use scents/lures & bait deer so this doesn't affect me. However, their logic is that private land owners feeding deer will spread the disease through saliva, urine, etc. but I haven't heard one word on how they are going to prevent deer from eating under the lone oak tree dropping acorns, browsing on the same bushes/shrubs, licking the same branches, pissing in the same scrape, etc. Deer are social animals and are constantly surrounded by other deer. A corn pile will do nothing to contribute to the "spread" of CWD.

I agree. I live in one of the counties bordering Arkansas and I would guarantee a corn pile has nothing to do with spreading it or we would have it everywhere. Every Wal-mart around has and sells pallets of "Deer Corn" every year and we aren't allowed to put it out in these counties any time throughout the year. I haven't sat and watched but I'm betting it's not the local farmers buying the Deer Corn for their cows.

[crankn101]

There will be a CWD tax in the near future.

[HBTim]

Scientists have discovered that fear creates money.

I was just going to make a comment similar to this. Somewhere somebody is getting rich off all this CWD stuff. As long as there is money to be made off it the propaganda will support it and spread the fear.

Oh, so it's just a conspiracy? I thought we were beyond that by now. Who is the somebody? Where is the somewhere? Why are people trying to make up fantastic stories to explain all of this when the probable explanation is so much simpler? I hunt in the worst-affected areas of Wyoming, and there is nothing fantastic about this.

[Dewey]

Scientists have discovered that fear creates money.

I was just going to make a comment similar to this. Somewhere somebody is getting rich off all this CWD stuff. As long as there is money to be made off it the propaganda will support it and spread the fear.

Oh, so it's just a conspiracy? I thought we were beyond that by now. Who is the somebody? Where is the somewhere? Why are people trying to make up fantastic stories to explain all of this when the probable explanation is so much simpler? I hunt in the worst-affected areas of Wyoming, and there is nothing fantastic about this.

Where did I say it’s fantastic?

Fact is CWD has been around much longer than most of us. Facts also show there is really nothing we can do to stop it yet deer are still thriving in pretty much every place it has been found. My point was that much like the health care industry there are always certain groups that don’t want to see a cure because huge amounts of profit would be eliminated. Wether or not this applies in the case of CWD research remains to be seen but I can bet there are more than a few money grabbers out there trying to take advantage of the fear.

[HBTim]

Propaganda makes it sound like there is some other element at work in the story. The deer aren't thriving in Wyoming where I hunt. The population has been down every year in recent years. The deer my brother in law shot last year had it and his friend's deer had it the previous year. We're looking for new areas to hunt.

[Dewey]

Propaganda makes it sound like there is some other element at work in the story. The deer aren't thriving in Wyoming where I hunt. The population has been down every year in recent years. The deer my brother in law shot last year had it and his friend's deer had it the previous year. We're looking for new areas to hunt.

If you read articles there is a lot of propaganda out there that is not at all supported by science. I’m not doubting your population is down and can’t speak for your situation but here in WI our deer herd has had much more damage done to it due to CWD regulations since 2001 than the disease ever would have done itself. The kill em all mentality has not worked well for us.

[Tennhunter3]

Back in 1981, volunteers hauled the first load of elk from Colorado/Nebraska to the Ozark mountains in Arkansas. They say we have roughly 700 elk living in the state as of 2018.

In February of 2016, CWD was discovered in Arkansas for the first time in Whitetail deer and the blame was immediately put on the elk herd which I believe to be true. The Elk herd is concentrated in only 4 counties within Arkansas.

Here is where it gets insane in my opinion:
• Since 2016, only 748 deer have tested positive for CWD in Arkansas.
• 700 (94%) of the 748 have come from the 4 counties I mentioned above that contain our elk herd.
• The Arkansas Game and Fish have listed a total of 19 surrounding counties (the entire NW portion of Arkansas) as "CWD Management Zones" - This means you can't use natural scents/lures, No antler restrictions, bag limits have been increased, & you cannot bait deer with corn, etc.
• For those 19 counties, deer harvest have totaled 271,721 since 2016.
• A total of 23,050 deer have been tested for CWD since 2016 which is roughly 9% of total harvest in these CWD zones - a pretty dang good sample size if you ask me.

If I did my math correctly, this means that .28% of deer harvested in the "CWD Management Zones" have tested positive for CWD.....emphasis on the decimal in front of the 2. Not even half of one percent.

So for just under half of the state, the Arkansas Game and Fish is saying we can't use any natural scents/lures, they have taken away all antler restrictions, increased the bag limits, and made it illegal to bait deer. Because 748 deer have tested positive since 2016.......

The Arkansas Game and Fish started this hysteria back in 2016 and have pretty brainwashed the public saying it's a crisis and our deer herd is in jeopardy. That's all you hear about.....people asking why are the harvest numbers down this year? "It has to be CWD"......no it's not CWD....not even close. CWD is so over-hyped and people believe what they hear in the media but refuse to look at the actual data.

All of these BS rules are put in place by the AGFC saying it will help the deer herd but it's only going to hurt the age structure of bucks, decrease deer populations, and hurt hunter participation.

Anybody else agree that this is insane? Do any of you have similar issues in your state?

Evil created cwd to reduce food sources in time of hardship.
Control the food sources control the people.
The same reason cwd was first tested in Colorado was because it was a state with many game species. This may seem tinfoil hat but cwd was made to be a weapon.

Plus insurance companies would pay huge bucks for less auto accidents. I think your right though that they infected elk and shipped them to many states.

They are not interested in saving wildlife at all or they would be taking a different direction. Cwd virus was made in a laboratory I'd bet on it.

Notice states could have put the cwd infected into incinerator and put ashes in giant sealed boxes burying it deep in the earth to try to reduce spread. But instead they choose to kill the entire population without trying other steps.

Funny that cwd had never existed before the 1960s. Its human made just like the aids virus.