"Joseph Fitzsimons is a rancher, lawyer and conservationist who is a director of the Texas Wildlife Association and former chairman of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission".

He also owns a HUGE low-fenced ranch in Dimmit and Maverick counties. He doesn't believe in non-native genetics and is a huge proponent of habitat restoration/improvement for the benefit of all wildlife. I am too but I believe in supplemental feeding to enhance diet of the deer. Don't know if Fitzsimmons feeds on the San Pedro or not.

You think he likes deer breeders?

And Chairman Friedken owns the Commanche Ranch in Dimmit and Maverick counties. 110,000 acres low-fenced. Native genetics, only. You think he likes deer breeders? What about Stuart Stedman (Faith Ranch) or Lee Bass (Maverick County)? You think they like deer breeders?

“This is bigger than the interests of one group and it’s not about choosing winners or losers,”

Picture getting a little more clear?

Fouzman you think they figured out they made a mistake starting the scientific breeder program and this is a way to contain the growth?

Exactly, it is bigger than one group. It's people in charge of a state agency that also have stake in low fence hunting operations against deer breeders and high fence hunting operations.I guess I'm the only one who thinks it's pretty peculiar that a state agency with several members owning huge low fence hunting operations just completely hammered their competition. No one else thinks that's a conflict of interests? If so I'll just shut up.

No.


Yes.

I think if you look at the public in generals response (whether educated or not) it looks like the commission sided along with the majority on this one. Maybe TDA needs to spend more money on public education versus job threats and attacks on commissioners?

Do you know those on the commission run commercial hunting operations on their property? In other words, are they "in competition" with anyone to make money?

Even if they do, it's no more of a conflict than those who instituted the faux "scientific breeder program" (that has zero to do with science and everything to do with big bucks - in both senses of the word) have/had when they started all this to begin with....

Not much room to complain about one side having an "agenda" when the other side has had its own "agenda" for years - and makes no bones about it.

Sounds like some common sense may be on the board. Bully for them, I say.

That's because the general public has not a clue about CWD and will always gravitate to the sky is falling scenario. All the public knows is this is the similar to Mad Cow disease. When officials label CWD as "prevalent in our captive deer populations" (IT's NOT), "highly contagious, deadly disease" (PROOF?) and "could wipe out the native deer herd in Texas and the $2.2 billion dollar hunting industry" (LIES), the public is naturally going to believe those fear mongering statements. Rather than sound, reasoned, scientific facts.

I think this is more about ego and less about competition.

Or maybe the general public just doesn't relate to or have much sympathy for deer breeding industry period. For any number of reasons. And doesn't really concern itself with the details.

The simple fact is this: the tide is turning against this sort of thing. It has been for quite some time nationally. Even in TX, the market has been reflecting it for a while. Recent administrative happenings are simply following the tide as more and more light begins to shine on the subject.

Its All Political, and far from over! I will give you a prime example of tpwd mismanagement of Wildlife(Whitetail Deer) on there own High Fence ranch deeded to them by Albert and Bessie Kronkowsky back in 2011. This ranch is 3800 acres of beautiful hill country located in both Bandera and Kendal county. The Kronkowskys worked diligently on their ranch to improve the native whitetail population on this ranch by erecting a game proof fence and supplement feeding the deer population. There wasn't a day I wouldn't drive down hwy 46 between Pipe Creek and Boerne and see incredible native bucks just inside the high fence and sometimes in the front yard of the ranch headquarters that was visible from the highway. I spoke to the foreman one day after catching some young kids climbing the fence and he advised me that the ranch was donated to the state with the intentions of all who wanted to be able to enjoy the ranch. Once tpwd took over the ranch they spent an incredible amount of money converting the headquarters into what is now tpwd hill country headquarters, they bought all new vehicles but they forgot one thing the necessary care of the whitetail deer which they were entrusted in by the Kronkowskys. I drive by there still everyday and never see whitetail deer anymore. I spoke to the ranch manager of a large HF ranch across hwy 46 and he tells me the deer he does see inside the HF are starving to death and in the worst shape he has ever seen since tpwd has taken over the ranch. Please look the ranch up its still called the 3K. It is a shame that tpwd cannot find the funds to care for the whitetail deer that they advise they are so worried about. Such Hypocrites! This ranch after 6 years of being donated is still not open to the public and probably never will be, I wonder what Albert and Bessie Kronkowsky would think now of their decision in donating the ranch to tpwd.

So you agree this is political and not based on science?

Everything is political to one degree or another when the state or federal or local government is involved. That's just life. To what degree, I don't know - you know more about it than me.

Just like it has been "political" when it all got ramped up in the first place and expanded over the last 30 years. So arguing about stuff being "political" at this stage from the deer breeding industry pretty much falls on deaf ears with me.

Bottom line is this: if it has enough public/political support, it will stay. If it doesn't, it will not. Again, that's life.

I will say this: it's pretty sound science (not to mention common sense) that an animal being moved hundreds of miles is much more of a risk to spread CWD than a native animal that will not be transported.

Also, prohibitions on TTT across state lines have been in place for quite some time now. If those are based on science, then the same science applies to intrastate transport also, since the underlying principles are exactly the same.

By the same reasoning the state needs to restrict hay and grain from known CWD hotspots like NM, CO and KS. Since scientifically it's been proven feed and hay can transfer CWD.

Infact Medina was first hypothesized that the CWD came from feed.

NP, you put that very well. Majority will always rule and politics will follow popular opinion. Can't argue with you on the logic that toiling over it is futile, either.

Interstate prohibitions were not based on science. Those regulations were enacted as a fail-safe against possible disease transmission.
Just like TPWD's recent scorched earth policy of killing (or requiring the killing of) hundreds of deer in Texas breeder pens and release sites.

While I agree that intrastate transport greatly increases the risk of spreading any disease within those confines, I've still NEVER seen epidemiological evidence that CWD is highly contagious, easily transmissible or responsible for widespread death among Cervids. But by gosh, the public's scared and the boogie man has enacted new regulations to placate those fears. To the enormous financial detriment of an industry it helped create.

That's my only real gripe. The way these new regs. have been spun. Just call it a fail-safe reaction to a disease TPWD doesn't yet understand and doesn't have the funds to research.

The hunting public couldn't care less, though I'd imagine the 1,000 or so newly classified TC2 and TC3 breeders could stomach their imminent demise a little better with a shot of truth.

Good info

CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD WISCONSIN Almond Deer (Buckhorn Flats) Farm Update DECEMBER 2011

The CWD infection rate was nearly 80%, the highest ever in a North American captive herd.

RECOMMENDATION: That the Board approve the purchase of 80 acres of land for $465,000 for the Statewide Wildlife Habitat Program in Portage County and approve the restrictions on public use of the site.

SUMMARY:

http://dnr.wi.gov/about/nrb/2011/december/12-11-2b2.pdf

J Vet Diagn Invest 20:698–703 (2008)

Chronic wasting disease in a Wisconsin white-tailed deer farm

Delwyn P. Keane,1 Daniel J. Barr, Philip N. Bochsler, S. Mark Hall, Thomas Gidlewski, Katherine I. O’Rourke, Terry R. Spraker, Michael D. Samuel

Abstract.

In September 2002, chronic wasting disease (CWD), a prion disorder of captive and wild cervids, was diagnosed in a white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) from a captive farm in Wisconsin. The facility was subsequently quarantined, and in January 2006 the remaining 76 deer were depopulated. Sixty animals (79%) were found to be positive by immunohistochemical staining for the abnormal prion protein (PrPCWD) in at least one tissue; the prevalence of positive staining was high even in young deer. Although none of the deer displayed clinical signs suggestive of CWD at depopulation, 49 deer had considerable accumulation of the abnormal prion in the medulla at the level of the obex. Extraneural accumulation of the abnormal protein was observed in 59 deer, with accumulation in the retropharyngeal lymph node in 58 of 59 (98%), in the tonsil in 56 of 59 (95%), and in the rectal mucosal lymphoid tissue in 48 of 58 (83%). The retina was positive in 4 deer, all with marked accumulation of prion in the obex. One deer was considered positive for PrPCWD in the brain but not in the extraneural tissue, a novel observation in white-tailed deer. The infection rate in captive deer was 20- fold higher than in wild deer. Although weakly related to infection rates in extraneural tissues, prion genotype was strongly linked to progression of prion accumulation in the obex. Antemortem testing by biopsy of recto– anal mucosal-associated lymphoid tissue (or other peripheral lymphoid tissue) may be a useful adjunct to tonsil biopsy for surveillance in captive herds at risk for CWD infection.

Key words: Cervids; chronic wasting disease; prion; transmissible spongiform encephalopathy.

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1143&context=zoonoticspub

State pays farmer $298,000 for infected deer herd

Jan. 16, 2016 8:05 p.m.

The State of Wisconsin paid nearly $300,000 to the Eau Claire County farmer whose deer herd was depopulated after it was found to be infected with chronic wasting disease.

Rick Vojtik, owner of Fairchild Whitetails in Fairchild, received an indemnity payment of $298,770 for 228 white-tailed deer killed on his farm, according to officials with the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

The money was taken from the agency's general program revenue funded by Wisconsin taxpayers.

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/outdoors/...-365554851.html

CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD WISCONSIN Almond Deer (Buckhorn Flats) Farm Update DECEMBER 2011

The CWD infection rate was nearly 80%, the highest ever in a North American captive herd.

RECOMMENDATION: That the Board approve the purchase of 80 acres of land for $465,000 for the Statewide Wildlife Habitat Program in Portage County and approve the restrictions on public use of the site.

SUMMARY:

http://dnr.wi.gov/about/nrb/2011/december/12-11-2b2.pdf

For Immediate Release Thursday, October 2, 2014

Dustin Vande Hoef 515/281-3375 or 515/326-1616 (cell) or Dustin.VandeHoef@IowaAgriculture.gov

*** TEST RESULTS FROM CAPTIVE DEER HERD WITH CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE RELEASED 79.8 percent of the deer tested positive for the disease

DES MOINES – The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship today announced that the test results from the depopulation of a quarantined captive deer herd in north-central Iowa showed that 284 of the 356 deer, or 79.8% of the herd, tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD).

http://www.iowaagriculture.gov/press/2014press/press10022014.asp

*** see history of this CWD blunder here ;

http://www.iowadnr.gov/Portals/idnr/uploads/Hunting/070313_consent_order.pdf

On June 5, 2013, DNR conducted a fence inspection, after gaining approval from surrounding landowners, and confirmed that the fenced had been cut or removed in at least four separate locations; that the fence had degraded and was failing to maintain the enclosure around the Quarantined Premises in at least one area; that at least three gates had been opened;and that deer tracks were visible in and around one of the open areas in the sand on both sides of the fence, evidencing movement of deer into the Quarantined Premises.

http://www.iowadnr.gov/Portals/idnr/uploads/Hunting/060613_consent_order.pdf

The overall incidence of clinical CWD in white-tailed deer was 82%

Species (cohort) CWD (cases/total) Incidence (%) Age at CWD death (mo)

https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Hunting/BigGame/CWD/PDF/ResearchArticles/JWDEpiCWD.pdf

Thursday, June 09, 2016

Scrapie Field Trial Experiments Mission, Texas, The Moore Air Force Base Scrapie TSE Prion Experiment 1964

How Did CWD Get Way Down In Medina County, Texas?

DISCUSSION

Observations of natural outbreaks of scrapie indicated that the disease spread from flock to flock by the movement of infected, but apparently normal, sheep which were incubating the disease.

There was no evidence that the disease spread to adjacent flocks in the absent of such movements or that vectors or other host species were involved in the spread of scrapie to sheep or goats; however, these possibilities should be kept open...

http://web.archive.org/web/20030513212324/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/mb/m08b/tab64.pdf

http://scrapie-usa.blogspot.com/2016/06/scrapie-field-trial-experiments-mission.html

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2016/06/how-did-cwd-get-way-down-in-medina.html

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

NIH awards $11 million to UTHealth researchers to study deadly CWD prion diseases Claudio Soto, Ph.D.

Public Release: 29-Jun-2016

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalop...o-uthealth.html


kind regards, terry

Not sure what your point is there Terry. Please explain without linking a book. Nobody is or has said that deer in breeding pens can't have high infection rates.

I find it very informative though that in the first example above (and probably in each of the subsequent examples), "none of the deer displayed clinical signs suggestive of CWD"... Even though there was an ~ 80% infection rate.

Incredibly solid proof that not only is CWD not a significant problem in wild populations (where infection rates are mere fractions of the examples above), it's not even a threat in pens in where high infection rates can, but rarely occur.

The facts surrounding CWD are becoming clearer with each example. Even CWD infected deer are more likely to die of old age, predation, hunting, or other pathogens than they are of CWD.

Thanks for the examples terry.

I've learned, documented and shared a ton of knowledge from working with deer in our breeding facility. We've mostly focused on learning about genetic resistance to disease (the real deer killer EHD). Therefore I would say it has a just a tiny little bit (not zero as you say) to do with science.

Then again you're probably right. You sound like you've got a strong opinion. I just do this for a living.

Also, the topic of the thread is highly misleading. "fatal" implies that CWD kills deer.

CWD kills very very few deer. EHD and anthrax kill more in one week than have died in decades from CWD.

But emotional folks with agendas aren't interested in facts.

Scrapie-like disorder in a Nyala (Tragelaphus angasi)

IN CONFIDENCE

http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20090505194948/http://bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1986/11/00001001.pdf

http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20090505194948/http://bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1986/06/23001001.pdf

http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20090505194948/http://bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1986/07/08001001.pdf

Spongiform encephalopathy has so far only been recorded in the sheep and goat, man, mink, and several deer including the mule deer, black tailed deer and the elk (most, if not all, of the deer incidents occurred in wild life parts in Wyoming and Colorado). Clinical cases in deer all occurred from 3 1/2 to 5 years old and usually 60-80% losses occurred over a 4 year period...

http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20090505194948/http://bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1986/07/24001001.pdf

The clinical and neuropathological findings in F22 are consistent with the spongiform encephalopathies of animals and man. The agents causing spongiform encephalopathy in various species cannot be unequivocally distinguished and some isolates of human agent cause neurologic disease in goats indistinguishable from scrapie. The spongiform encephalopathies are invariably fatal once clinical signs of disease are evident and as very high fatality rates (79% of 67 animals) are recorded in Mule deer it is important that an awareness of the disease is maintained at Marwell.


http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20090505194948/http://bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1986/07/21001001.pdf

EHD and CWD: What’s the Difference?

https://www.qdma.com/articles/ehd-and-cwd-whats-the-difference



kind regards, terry

Again terry, nothing you linked disputes the fact that CWD kills very few deer. Not even measurable in comparison to EHD.

It's ok though. He has a great vocabulary so he must know what he's talking about.