MDC reports 33 CWD positives out of nearly 24,500 samples tested

[Phil Lilley]

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) reports 33 news cases of chronic wasting disease (CWD) have been found following the testing of 24,486 free-ranging Missouri deer through its 2017-2018 sampling and testing efforts. 

The new cases were from the following counties: Adair (3), Cedar (1), Franklin (4), Jefferson (1), Linn (7), Macon (3), Perry (1), Polk (3), St. Clair (4), and Ste. Genevieve (6).

Of the 33 new cases, 16 were from hunter-harvested deer, one was from a road-killed deer, and 16 were from MDC’s post-season targeted culling efforts in the immediate areas around where previous cases have been found.

This year’s findings bring the total number of free-ranging deer in Missouri confirmed to have CWD to 75. For more information, visit mdc.mo.gov/cwd under “CWD in Missouri.”

“For a third year in a row, we found no CWD-positive deer in central Missouri, where a single case was confirmed in early 2015,” said MDC Wildlife Disease Coordinator Jasmine Batten. “Additionally, we found no cases of CWD on the Missouri-Arkansas border, despite the high level of CWD in northwest Arkansas.”

Batten added that where CWD has been found in Missouri, the numbers of positives remain relatively low.

“It is encouraging that cases of CWD are still pretty low overall, and MDC remains committed to monitoring the disease and taking actions to limit its spread,” she said. “We encourage hunters and landowners to continue participating in our CWD monitoring and management efforts.”

Batten added that these efforts are vital in limiting the spread of the disease.

“If we do nothing, areas affected by CWD will increase in size and many more deer will become infected by the disease,” she explained. “Over time, this would lead to significant long-term population declines.”

MDC will continue CWD sampling this fall and winter

MDC will again require mandatory sampling of deer harvested during the opening weekend of the fall firearms deer season, Nov. 10 and 11, in and around counties where the disease has been recently found. MDC will again also offer voluntary CWD sampling during the entire fall and winter hunting season of deer harvested in and around counties where the disease has been recently found.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend hunters in areas known to have CWD test their deer before consuming the meat.

More information on specific counties, sampling locations, and requirements will be published in MDC’s “2018 Fall Deer & Turkey Hunting Regulations and Information” booklet, and online at mdc.mo.gov/cwd, starting in July.

More on targeted culling

After the close of deer season, MDC staff work with landowners on a voluntary basis to cull additional deer within an area of 1 to 5 miles of where recent cases of CWD have been found. Collecting additional samples helps MDC scientists better understand how many deer in the area may be infected and where they are in the area. Targeted culling also helps limit the spread of CWD by removing potentially infected deer from an area.

“Targeted culling has proven to be very useful in finding cases of CWD and in reducing the spread of the disease by removing additional CWD-infected animals,” explained Batten. “We found about half of the new CWD cases this year through targeted culling. Without targeted culling, those 16 infected deer would have continued to spread the disease.”

She added that targeted culling is the only tested method of slowing the growth of CWD in a local deer population.

“The state of Illinois has been successful in stabilizing levels of CWD through the use of a sustained targeted culling program over many years,” Batten said. “In contrast, states such as Wisconsin that have not used targeted culling, or that have only implemented targeted culling for a short period of time, have seen levels of CWD climb steadily.”

Of the more than 101,000 deer MDC has tested for CWD since 2001, about 4,500 have been harvested through targeted culling, including 1,485 from the past season.

“This accounts for about 4% of all CWD samples collected so far, but has resulted in finding about 49% of CWD cases in Missouri,” Batten explained.

Learn more about targeted culling through this video: youtube.com/watch?v=7VitIahG5Do

For more information on CWD, visit mdc.mo.gov/cwd.

[Ketchup]

Polk County. Guess im glad i live 4 miles from the county line. Stay away deer. 

[MOPanfisher]

Most if not all of the Polk County cases are in the Northern portion by me.. I did see a deer about 10 miles south of the north county line along 13 that did not look injured but was absolutely the sickest looking deer I have ever seen, if I had a rifle with me I would have killed it and waited for the MDC Agent.  Did report it to them, they are going to look for it and try to put it down and test it.  It was a pitiful thing,,have seen starving animals that looked better.

[BilletHead]

54 minutes ago, MOPanfisher said:

Most if not all of the Polk County cases are in the Northern portion by me.. I did see a deer about 10 miles south of the north county line along 13 that did not look injured but was absolutely the sickest looking deer I have ever seen, if I had a rifle with me I would have killed it and waited for the MDC Agent.  Did report it to them, they are going to look for it and try to put it down and test it.  It was a pitiful thing,,have seen starving animals that looked better.

          I think you said you had signed up for part of the culling operation. Were you able to help out? You know we are only a couple counties away. Bummer City .

BilletHead

[MOPanfisher]

I never even spent one day in the blind.  I did see a few deer around home but was never where I could hunt them.  Then I caught a few walleye and forgot about deer!  My neighbor whom I don't believe was in the program I had seen as many as 20 deer at a time, but they didnt want anyone culling them.

[fishinwrench]

How come deer never get Parvo, distemper, rabies, hoof&mouth, mange, lymes, eurlikeosous, or any other contagious diseases to be concerned about?  

It's always something complicated and expensive to diagnose....and impossible to treat or avoid.

[tjm]

Deer get mange (not really a disease),  Lyme disease   , eurlikeosous, blue tongue, hoof and mouth, parvovirus has been reported in California mule deer, Adenovirus Hemorrhagic Disease and Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease   a kill lot of deer,   Fibromatosis  causes hair loss in deer,  Canine distemper affects many wild animals ( all carnivores),  any mammal can get rabies- a Pennsylvania hunter killed a rabid deer several years ago. 

I'm not sure why CWD gets so much money thrown at it, other than it is made in a university and spread by deer trafficking. They have now learned that not only the ground stays contaminated for unknown decades, but that plants uptake the prions and transmit the disease to new grazers. I guess the fact that prion disease is known to have jumped species a few times and extreme fear of how humans might be affected has put pressure on authorities to attempt to contain it. Truth is the spread may be slowed but the areas where it has been it will be forever, or for the foreseeable future. Some carriers will go undetected and continue to spread the contamination. Think vultures. Do we still have the deer "farms" in those affected counties?

[fishinwrench]

1 hour ago, tjm said:

it is made in a university

Yet another reason to pat a biologist on the back.

[MOPanfisher]

1 hour ago, tjm said:

Deer get mange (not really a disease),  Lyme disease   , eurlikeosous, blue tongue, hoof and mouth, parvovirus has been reported in California mule deer, Adenovirus Hemorrhagic Disease and Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease   a kill lot of deer,   Fibromatosis  causes hair loss in deer,  Canine distemper affects many wild animals ( all carnivores),  any mammal can get rabies- a Pennsylvania hunter killed a rabid deer several years ago. 

I'm not sure why CWD gets so much money thrown at it, other than it is made in a university and spread by deer trafficking. They have now learned that not only the ground stays contaminated for unknown decades, but that plants uptake the prions and transmit the disease to new grazers. I guess the fact that prion disease is known to have jumped species a few times and extreme fear of how humans might be affected has put pressure on authorities to attempt to contain it. Truth is the spread may be slowed but the areas where it has been it will be forever, or for the foreseeable future. Some carriers will go undetected and continue to spread the contamination. Think vultures. Do we still have the deer "farms" in those affected counties?

There is some truth in there, however the disease was NOT made in a university, it was first identified by a university in their captive deer herd, but is not a man made disease.  I still believe that CWD can be slowed, maybe, however it cannot be stopped or eliminated, the wild population of deer will in time either have to develop their own resistance or suffer the consequences.  And yes probably the big "scare" is the possible transmission to human host, although to anyone's knowledge it has not happened yet.  That connects directly to the multi-billion dollar hunting industry, and money talks, loudly.

[MoCarp]

2 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

How come deer never get Parvo, distemper, rabies, hoof&mouth, mange, lymes, eurlikeosous, or any other contagious diseases to be concerned about?  

It's always something complicated and expensive to diagnose....and impossible to treat or avoid.

all mammals have species specific diseases, and parasites some worse than others a few can on occasion jump to people and when it does it can be specifically deadly, one reason CWD scares the hell out of people because it can crush a lucrative money market (deer hunting) if people can't eat deer or fear eating deer they will not spend money to do hunt, odds are you could eat an infected deer and not catch anything, but if it was one chance out of 10,000 would you do it? or let a family member eat it? most would say no...how many deer get harvested and not tested? or do you trust the test? the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends hunters strongly consider having their harvested deer tested before eating the meat. They also recommends not consuming an animal that tests positive for the disease.” when you can possibly die from even touching an animal, I don't think people will eat it....it should be noted I have not found any evidence of people getting CWD, much less catching from eating or touching deer meat/parts

1 hour ago, tjm said:

Deer get mange (not really a disease),  Lyme disease   , eurlikeosous, blue tongue, hoof and mouth, parvovirus has been reported in California mule deer, Adenovirus Hemorrhagic Disease and Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease   a kill lot of deer,   Fibromatosis  causes hair loss in deer,  Canine distemper affects many wild animals ( all carnivores),  any mammal can get rabies- a Pennsylvania hunter killed a rabid deer several years ago. 

I'm not sure why CWD gets so much money thrown at it, other than it is made in a university and spread by deer trafficking. They have now learned that not only the ground stays contaminated for unknown decades, but that plants uptake the prions and transmit the disease to new grazers. I guess the fact that prion disease is known to have jumped species a few times and extreme fear of how humans might be affected has put pressure on authorities to attempt to contain it. Truth is the spread may be slowed but the areas where it has been it will be forever, or for the foreseeable future. Some carriers will go undetected and continue to spread the contamination. Think vultures. Do we still have the deer "farms" in those affected counties?

again its about $$ I read where a guy moving to TN got busted coming from Missouri with his deer mount and burger in a cooler, in states with no CWD they are crazy about stopping it,  because of the "what might happen"...the whole  Larry Dablemont issue on his articles have stirred up a hornets nest with "the CWD is called Kruetzfeldt-Jakobs disease in people" and how deadly CWD would be in the human population this basically caused a melt down at the MDC....its an issue thats not going away anytime soon, I don't plan on eating any venison anytime soon