CWD in Louisiana

[The_Fit_Ness_Monster]

Gents, this past season they found a few deer in Tensas here and a couple other places I can’t remember with the dreaded CWD. My question is mainly for guys in states where this outbreak has happened amongst their deer populations how does this affect numbers? Eatability?

 

[MSbowhunter48]

It’s here in MS too, I don’t worry about one single bit. The only way it affects numbers is if the state goes in and wipes out a pile of deer to try and stop the spread which is the dumbest thing in my opinion, but that’s another story for another day.

 

[LtMoe66]

EHD is harder on the population than CWD. It will never go away and conservation departments still do major kill offs in areas where there have been CWD. Common sense comes into play as far as conditions to eat. If you feel something isn’t right then don’t take a chance.

 

[St.CroixArcher]

Where I hunt in SE Minnesota it’s considered a high cwd area. Before cwd showed up you could get a either sex tag and one maybe two antlerless bonus tags per year, now it’s a either sex tag and unlimited antlerless tags. There was also a 4 point rule meaning a buck had to have at least 4 1” points on one side to be legal which definitely increased the number of mature bucks being taken. That is now gone. I don’t think it has effected overall deer numbers but it has reduced the number of hunters in the area. Zero worries about eating any of the meat. If the dnr requires me to test them I do if not I don’t. Eat it all. Cwd has been out west in elk and mule deer for decades and as far as I know there has never been a case of it being passed onto humans.

 

[TooheyBirdie]

Where I hunt in SE Minnesota it’s considered a high cwd area. Before cwd showed up you could get a either sex tag and one maybe two antlerless bonus tags per year, now it’s a either sex tag and unlimited antlerless tags. There was also a 4 point rule meaning a buck had to have at least 4 1” points on one side to be legal which definitely increased the number of mature bucks being taken. That is now gone. I don’t think it has effected overall deer numbers but it has reduced the number of hunters in the area. Zero worries about eating any of the meat. If the dnr requires me to test them I do if not I don’t. Eat it all. Cwd has been out west in elk and mule deer for decades and as far as I know there has never been a case of it being passed onto humans.

All true information listed above, but it's the same type of disease as mad cow which made the species jump... it's a matter of time before that happens with CWD... but even here in SE MN where we're considered a high density there's less than 2% previlency based on this year's testing results.... so odds are ur ok even if u don't test... and if it was just me, I may view it differently, but I am not going to feed a deer that tests positive to my kids.

 

[Fl Canopy Stalker]

Y’all keep it there and out of Florida please
We have enough issues with tiny deer… we don’t need tiny zombie deer

 

[NMSbowhunter]

As stated above by MSbowhunter48, I think EHD is much more of a problem than CWD so far. EHD seems to get less press and acknowledgment from the game department. I believe a bout of EHD came through on that lease I was in over near Carrolton and the deer numbers dropped dramatically in just a year or two. I found four deer skeletons in a dense thicket and another member found several also. However, about this same time we had a couple of new members who joined the club and brought their whole families to live at camp for 2 and 1/2 months and they had the "brown it's down criteria" to decide if a deer was a shooter so that could have been a contributing factor. I also think the state just doesn't have any good answers to stop the spread, so they just said, "hey let's ban supplemental feeding in CWD counties". I think that was just a PR band aide since I doubt the state biologists forgot that deer are social animals and groom one another regularly and they also feed in close proximity under red and white oak trees every fall and drink out of the same creeks and puddles. Banning corn feeding doesn't bother me a bit hunting wise, but I do have issues with the state telling people what they can do on their own land, and if they are going to ban feeding then that should mean all supplemental feeding, including food plots. In banning corn, they are stopping the guy who can afford a few hundred dollars in corn a year but not stopping the guy who can plant $30,000 in food plots every fall.

I also got the feeling they were playing it up to get funding.

 

[BTaylor]

I agree that EHD is more serious threat for short term population cycles but EHD and CWD are 2 entirely different things. My stance is that if the animal appears sick, I am not eating it, period, with no regard to the cause of sickness. If it appears healthy, which a very high percentage of CWD positive deer can, I am going to process and eat as normal. Not sure they will ever figure out a way to combat either as EHD is typically a result from dry or drought conditions and CWD is a prion that can remain viable in plant tissue or soil for years. Wide spread native habitat improvement might help to some extent in spreading feeding pressure in areas that have had limited food sources but it certainly doesnt appear to be a reliable remedy.

 

[Fl Canopy Stalker]

I agree that EHD is more serious threat for short term population cycles but EHD and CWD are 2 entirely different things. My stance is that if the animal appears sick, I am not eating it, period, with no regard to the cause of sickness. If it appears healthy, which a very high percentage of CWD positive deer can, I am going to process and eat as normal. Not sure they will ever figure out a way to combat either as EHD is typically a result from dry or drought conditions and CWD is a prion that can remain viable in plant tissue or soil for years. Wide spread native habitat improvement might help to some extent in spreading feeding pressure in areas that have had limited food sources but it certainly doesnt appear to be a reliable remedy.

I thought EHD was a virus that was spread by gnats and mosquitoes? How do drought conditions cause or help spread that? I am only asking so I can learn from you guys that have to deal with it. We don’t have either down here (yet) but we have some out of state hunts coming this year and I would like to learn more myself

 

[THill202]

I hunt in the epicenter of PA's CWD region. CWD itself won't really hurt the numbers, there's potential it could affect trophy-age deer but we don't have a whole lot of them where I come from. The way your state's game managers try to manage CWD is what can affect the population. I've been hunting in this area for 5 or 6 years and CWD was just starting to come to light within a couple years prior to that. As the years have passed they've changed certain rules and allocations to jack up the antlerless harvest. It took several years but they are starting to succeed. This particular area has a lot of posted land and a good bit of public as well. Lots of old or absent landowners that don't hunt or don't hunt hard so I suspect there will always been a relatively healthy herd size but it's not what it was 5 years ago. It was/is cool that I can kill essentially as many deer as I am physically capable of killing, but it's relatively big woodsy with somewhat low deeer densities so that's easier said than done. Our game commission also offers free CWD testing so I get all my deer tested before grinding it up and feeding to the family. Our camp of 3-5 guys has had one test positive the last 5 years and we kill anywhere from 8 to 12+ a year.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

I thought EHD was a virus that was spread by gnats and mosquitoes? How do drought conditions cause or help spread that? I am only asking so I can learn from you guys that have to deal with it. We don’t have either down here (yet) but we have some out of state hunts coming this year and I would like to learn more myself

This is off the top of my head, but I seem to remember that if you have dry conditions then what surface water there is stagnant and not flowing and therefore has lots of mosquitos and gnats, etc. Flowing water is not as bad?

 

[tmhaz1]

We had a pretty significant EHD outbreak in parts of Orange County NY in the fall of 2020. We were finding several dead deer in certain areas. It was explained that the midges were responsible and I want to say it was stated that the midges traveled on birds. The only thing that kills the midge is a hard frost that we didn't have until late November. I was very surprised how much the heard seemed to rebound this past season but we are fortunate that we live in a high density deer area. It seemed to be more of an issue in low lying lands as one of the areas I hunt that is more of a mountain area didn't locate any deceased deer from it

 

[BTaylor]

I thought EHD was a virus that was spread by gnats and mosquitoes? How do drought conditions cause or help spread that? I am only asking so I can learn from you guys that have to deal with it. We don’t have either down here (yet) but we have some out of state hunts coming this year and I would like to learn more myself

The midge responsible for EHD makes a home in the muddy surfaces from receding water lines. From talking to biologist here, we have some amount of EHD virtually every year. We dont typically see the wide spread kills that the midwestern states have seen in somewhat recent years.

 

[Phopkins]

This is off the top of my head, but I seem to remember that if you have dry conditions then what surface water there is stagnant and not flowing and therefore has lots of mosquitos and gnats, etc. Flowing water is not as bad?

The midge lays its eggs in the mud just above water level in puddles, stream banks and ponds. When it's dry they hatch, if it rains the eggs get submerged and don't hatch. So drought conditions create good breeding conditions for the midge. Deer come to drink at the water and get bitten in the nostrils by said bugs. If the deer has EHD (naturally occurring disease in deer) the bug passes it to the next deer that waters there.
This means that in drought conditions there are more midges at less and less area for deer to get a drink from. More deer are exposed to the disease and you have a noticeable outbreak. The only thing that stops it is enough rain often enough to snuff out the eggs or frost kills off the midges for the season.
That's how I understand it.

CWD on the other hand, once it's in the area you'll likely see it in some of the deer population forever.

 

[The_Fit_Ness_Monster]

The midge lays its eggs in the mud just above water level in puddles, stream banks and ponds. When it's dry they hatch, if it rains the eggs get submerged and don't hatch. So drought conditions create good breeding conditions for the midge. Deer come to drink at the water and get bitten in the nostrils by said bugs. If the deer has EHD (naturally occurring disease in deer) the bug passes it to the next deer that waters there.
This means that in drought conditions there are more midges at less and less area for deer to get a drink from. More deer are exposed to the disease and you have a noticeable outbreak. The only thing that stops it is enough rain often enough to snuff out the eggs or frost kills off the midges for the season.
That's how I understand it.

CWD on the other hand, once it's in the area you'll likely see it in some of the deer population forever.

Good thing it rains a lot in Louisiana I guess lol

 

[Fuse Dude]

All true information listed above, but it's the same type of disease as mad cow which made the species jump... it's a matter of time before that happens with CWD... but even here in SE MN where we're considered a high density there's less than 2% previlency based on this year's testing results.... so odds are ur ok even if u don't test... and if it was just me, I may view it differently, but I am not going to feed a deer that tests positive to my kids.

To this point cattle are fed with animal protein, ground up nerve and brain matter, a simple alternative is to debone and not eat brain matter.
Unless you raise, know the farmer who raised, and butcher yourself all commercially available fresh animal proteins are subject to these prion diseases.
Wild fare is the most nutritious variety of sustenance we have.

Happy Monday ya'll

 

[BuckTown]

Southern Outdoorsmen just released what I found to be a very informational podcast on the subject. Never really had any interest in the subject, which is sad considering CWD is lingering just a few counties to the northwest of me.

 

[TooheyBirdie]

To this point cattle are fed with animal protein, ground up nerve and brain matter, a simple alternative is to debone and not eat brain matter.
Unless you raise, know the farmer who raised, and butcher yourself all commercially available fresh animal proteins are subject to these prion diseases.
Wild fare is the most nutritious variety of sustenance we have.

Happy Monday ya'll

I'm definitely in agreement that wild game on the whole is MUCH better for you than processed meat. I'm not a epigeneticist but I'm not sure consuming spinal or brain matter is the only way to pass a prion disease. I mean.. deer pass it through one another through saliva, so I'm not exactly sure how it works. Also, it's not passed to humans yet so... if it does, I'm not sure through medium would be required to transmit.

 

[THill202]

As far as I can tell there have been 4 confirmed casesof vCJD from mad cow in the united states, 2 of which came from the UK outbreak. The chances seem to be astronomically low but seemingly possible all the same. My parents had a friend that lived in the UK during the outbreak and died of CJD as well, though I don't know that they were able to make the connection. Either way I'm a little sketched out by it and generally won't feed it to my kids until I get the results. The only sketchy part about getting it tested is you've got to cut the head off and therefore have direct exposure to spinal fluid.

 

[gumby]

I have researched, read up, and went to cwd meetings, it's a bad boy for sure and needs a lot of caution. What I have not seen is, does it affect other animals, like Racoons, Rabbits Yotes etc. which are in close contact with Deer most of the time. Rabbits have a short life span in the wild but could be infected and not known.