MDC reports halfway mark on results of deer samples being tested for CWD

[Phil Lilley]

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) reports it has received results for more than half of approximately 19,200 tissue samples being tested for chronic wasting disease (CWD) collected during the Department’s mandatory sampling of deer harvested on Nov. 12 and 13 in 29 counties in northeast, central, and east-central Missouri.

From those test results, MDC has confirmed that two deer tested positive for CWD; a yearling male harvested in southeast Jefferson County and a mature buck harvested in northern Franklin County.  

MDC expects to receive results in the next few weeks from the remaining tissue samples being tested from mandatory sampling and early sampling in southwest Missouri. Testing is being done by Colorado State University at an independent laboratory that specializes in wildlife-disease testing.

“This has been a huge undertaking and we greatly appreciate the help from participating hunters and businesses,” said MDC Wildlife Disease Coordinator Jasmine Batten. “As we get the final test results back in the coming weeks, we will have a better understanding of where this wildlife disease is on the Missouri landscape. This will help us in evaluating the next steps in our ongoing CWD management efforts, including future testing efforts in the CWD management zone and around the state.”

The department also received test results for about 80 percent of the nearly 550 tissue samples collected for CWD testing in seven counties in southwest Missouri. The target counties are close to where more than 100 cases of CWD have been found in Northwest Arkansas. No deer from southern Missouri have tested positive for the disease.

The Department is also testing additional tissue samples taken by taxidermists and collected at MDC offices and other sampling locations throughout the deer-hunting season.

MDC encourages hunters who harvest deer throughout the rest of the hunting season in northeast, central, and east central Missouri to have their deer tested for the disease. MDC also encourages hunters who harvest deer throughout the rest of the hunting season in Barry, Christian, Douglas, McDonald, Ozark, Stone, and Taney counties in southwest Missouri to have their animals tested for CWD. Find sampling locations online at mdc.mo.gov/cwdsamplinglocations.

For more information on the Department’s CWD sampling efforts and testing results, visit mdc.mo.gov/cwd and look under “CWD Surveillance Summary.”

Hunters who participated in the Department’s CWD sampling efforts can get test results for their harvested deer online at mdc.mo.gov/cwdtestresults.

Chronic Wasting Disease infects only deer and other members of the deer family by causing degeneration of the brain. The disease has no vaccine or cure and is 100‐percent fatal. For more information on CWD, visit mdc.mo.gov/cwd. For information on processing and consuming meat from deer with CWD, visit the Department of Health and Senior Services at health.mo.gov/cwd.

[Old plug]

We seen 5,or 6 in a cornfield along Hwy 94.comongvback from Hermann today. They were so skinny they awerecas thin as any I have eve seen. I had to wonder if they all had that stuff. 

[fishinwrench]

Once they spend all this time/money learning where some deer infected with CWD are.....What are they going to do about it ?   Surely there is a plan in the works, but I can't imagine anything other than killing off nearly every deer in the state, and I can't imagine them going that route.

[Gavin]

They cant do anything significant about CWD even if they wanted too. I'm sure that they will keep some folks with meaningless non-cash generating jobs busy with it though. Some Deer die, lots by vehicle, lots by lead poisoning, Darwin already explained that.

[fishinwrench]

Seems to me that if there was a genuine concern about diseased deer then the logical thing to do is to thin the herd substantially.   Yet they'll arrest ya pronto for killing an extra untagged deer.  

They make no sense to me.    The MDC has become too much of a business IMO.  Greed rules.

[Old plug]

If you could have seen those deer in that cornfield this morning you might have thought they were going to be dead before the day was over.

[fishinwrench]

I see alot of deer that appear healthy but there is obviously something wrong with them.  They are either deaf, dumb, or blind.  Maybe just overly tame, but they are annoying and they need to be thinned out.

[snagged in outlet 3]

I live in a subdivision and a couple nights ago my daughter opens the front door to let her friend out and a huge doe is standing about 8' from the door.  She yells at me to come see and the thing just stands there staring at us.  There were 3 more small with her.  We used to see them occasionally because they like the persimmons in the backyard but now they are everywhere.  The guy next door had to fence off two trees because a buck has been rubbing them literally to death.  I bet these are good eating too.   Flower fed!

[SpoonDog]

'course starvation and car wrecks aren't communicable. 

Prion diseases like CWD are, and their symptoms don't appear for decades.  We don't know the effects of CWD on human health, but I guess I can imagine why a hunter would want to know whether a disease linked to dementia was present in his venison before feeding it to his kids.  

I reckon there's a cost to paying some coed eight bucks an hour scooping brains out of a deer.  There's a cost to long-term care of folks losing their minds, too.   If you guys are saying you want to kick the can down the road, or better yet- that you want to be among the first signatories of some document forking over your income to care for sickened folks in the event CWD can be passed to humans, that should be brought up at a Commission meeting. 

If you're just upset a state agency is being proactive in notifying sportsmen whether the deer they killed is diseased, I'll have to find a smaller violin. 

[fishinwrench]

No, I'm just wondering why, if there is a potentially unhealthy disease being passed around, then why not "be proactive" and get the herd thinned out ASAP ?  

By spotlight or whatever means.

 

Because of all the past projects the MDC has given themselves, it makes me wonder if the whole CWD thing isn't just their way of justifying regulations on deer farming.