Wow ! Our Government In Action

[Daddy Carp]

Hey, Gov. Guys, you all did fantastic in tracking the calf of a cow that lived in the USA for several years after being born in Canada. Now our MDC guys are intercepting "undocumented elk" at the borders. The Law-Type dummies can't seem to intercept thousands of illegal aliens at the borders or even find them later. Maybe we should hire the MDC guys out & pay them a bounty. Might get results faster!! LMAO & rollin! Have a good one, D.C.

http://mdc.mo.gov/cgi-bin/news/news_search...196444900,96635,

[Thom]

I don't know about what diseases the elk might be bringing in but I have heard from deer hunting friends in Illinois that 20 to 30% of the deer coming into processing plants this year are being conviscated and destroyed due to a disease that discolors the tongue and taints the meat. Unfortunately the hunters have lost not only their deer but their tags are not good for another harvest to replace the one lost. I hope this doesn't move over the rivers to Missouri.

When I lived in Valmeyer in Illinois I ofter saw deer swim across the mighty missippi when our dogs spooked them when rabbit hunting in the Miss bottoms. I was told that larger problem was more in the eastern and central forests of Illinois.

[zander]

I remember working deer station check points when I was getting my degree in wildlife management down in Louisiana looking for blue tongue virus. Sounds like the same thing. I don't remember every seeing one that had it although I did see a lot of Cajuns who shot deer slightly larger than a swamp rabbit, to them they were monsters.

[Daddy Carp]

Ya, it's just like the zebra muscles, the disease or pestulance starts in one small area. Normally it is detected & pointed out. Sometimes it is carried and spread by people who are unaware of the problem. Usually, it is spread by air-headed idiots who are too selfish to clean their equipments, disenfect or wash them. Animal diseases are often carried in the carcus of out-of-state game when the hide & wastes are disposed of during home or local processing. I would like to see a law (national) requiring all big game be processed in the state it was shot and any rack, mounts or hides disenfected & tagged as such before permited to enter the state. There will be a fast enough spread of diseases by the animals themselves without out help. We just can't control them, they don't pay attention. Of all the special places we have set up just for them, and even marked & labled each "DEER CROSSING" They just don't read or don't obey cause they still cross where they darn well please. They should have a ticket or something! LOL Your tight Thom, it's a serious problem & gets worse every year. D.C.

[Thom]

Zander:

I couldn't remember the name that my Nephew had told me but yes it is the blue tongue virus that is the disease that they are encountering in Illinois.

[Kayser]

I live in Waterloo and hunt in Valmeyer. It mainly hit the older bucks in the area, but the farmers havent been seeing too many dead in the Waterloo-Valmeyer-Maeystown area (Thom should recognize these towns if he lived in Valmeyer). The only ones that have been found were those old bucks.

Rob

[Al Agnew]

We had a pretty significant outbreak of blue tongue in Ste. Genevieve County, MO this summer. Killed a bunch of deer, including some big bucks...I found one dead in a local creek that had a fine rack (in velvet).

[flyfishmaster]

Kayser,

You said there were not many dead deer in our area, but that is not what I have been told. My friend is a Boy Scout leader and during a camp out weekend he said his troop found 10 dead deer at Camp Vandevender this year, plus the property owners next to the camp found 8 more. One of the conservation officers told the scouts that the deer population south of I-64 may be reduced by 40% this year due to blue tongue.

In my area between Waterloo and Hecker, I hunt with my cousins that farm most of the ground in a 2 mile radius and they informed me they found 11 dead deer just in their fields during harvesting of corn and beans.

So the disease is in our area, and during my hunting time this year, which only consisted of 3 days, I saw only 5 deer. I am use to seeing many more then that.

Again, this is what I have been told.

FFM

Here is how the Blue tongue disease is spread. Very interesting.

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How it Spreads

Bluetongue viruses are spread from animal to animal by biting gnats. In the United States, the disease is most prevalent in the southern and southwestern States. It is almost non–existent in the upper North Central and northeastern States, where biting flies do not appear able to transmit the viruses.

Animals cannot directly contract the disease from other animals.

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Here is the full story:

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/pubs/fsheet_...bluetongue.html

[Thom]

Daddy Carp:

Even for the deer that can read the signs are turned the wrong way. By the time they can read the signs since they are sideways to the crossing.... they are already on the road.

[Daddy Carp]

If I read this correctly by "Flyfishmaster", the movement of deer from other areas won't spread the disease as long as they don't come in here and start BITING OUT NATS. They shouldn't bite them any ways, they are way to small for much nourishment!! .............LOL God Bless, D.C.