Has it been proved that CWD can be transmitted ?
Does CWD preside in the body of the animal undetected ?
Has CWD been found in any other animal as being positive for a fact?
Has CWD been found outside of an animal and for a fact identified as CWD ?

All I know is these are good questions?

They are great questions...at this point, if it is someone from the government can answer them can their answers even be trusted? Sad state we are in as it pertains to honest information being distributed to the masses...especially when it is something that money can be made from. As I see it there is potentially a lot of money to be made from CWD...or freedoms lost due to CWD.

I know, I know...after the last 2-3 years it is much easier to think like a conspiracy theorist when they have been so accurate

Read all you want as it is disappointing.

https://cwd-info.org/

All I know is the disease can be decimating on deer populations.

CWD takes a toll on deer in Mississippi and Tennessee

It’s now been proven it’s scrapies so to answer your questions.

1) yes
2) yes it is scrapies as it came from sheep, and has been transferred to elk and deer species
3) the scrapies prion can be found in soil and plants for decades

I wouldn’t stress over scrapies/CWD. It will genetically wash out like it has in sheep. There are already Elk and deer popping up with resistance. Also preliminary ongoing feed studies showing Cooper in feed helps prevents transmission

Every real population study done hasnt been able to show a large population decline out side of winter kill areas. The areas even where humans got heavy handed in eradication of all deer, have had populations rebounded, ironically with the same prevalence CWD/Scrapies % before herd while outs.

My advice is make sure take magazine articles with a grain of salt as most are poorly cited and contain opinion or perception not hard facts.

Only diseases/ecological occurrences that have had massive hard herd declines or population deaths is EHD, Anthrax and poison(invasive or lichens-ie: tumbleweed shield ), parasites like lung worms/ticks etc

Note a large % of deer die of natural causes before they every express the disease as it can take 4-5 years to express its self.

Yes to all your questions but some have nuances I would say.

What do you mean by transmitted?
I will say at the research facility here in Wyoming where it was brought and is studied almost every single animal that has been shown to be susceptible to CWD that is put in the pens has caught it and died. They test animals before they bring them in.

Yes it has been found in plants and identified, the prions.

Yes animals may live for years then start showing signs and die of it.

Moose , reindeer, elk deer and maybe caribou all can get it.

The monkey study involved manipulating prions and feed and direct injection into brains to get transmission. It has not naturally crossed species yet into monkey families.

I don't believe it is the same as scrapies but I don't know everything about it or scrapies. I do know I trust the guys studying it in the lab here in Laramie, spouse knows many of them and went to school with some. For sure some have different ideas and theories but they are working on learning more about it.
The high fence and breeder issues are not talked about much up here in regards to CWD.
Our herd numbers going down is more concerning, and number of mature bucks.
Prevalence seems to be their main issue and as BOBO stated nothing tried has helped with that yet.

Thanks Wytex and Bobo for your input very enlightening..the articles I read were from P&W and others. Still, don't remember reading the good information that you have put out..which is better news for me. Now we need some direction for us as deer hunters. So, being what it is, for now, we just have to be patient as this will possibly pass as most diseases have. I am concerned about the exposures were so high in passing on the disease. I have not read this on any of the articles. What I remember, was deer in pens a very few, maybe only one or so, had the disease so the herd was killed by P&W folks. Now with live testing available will save a lot of animals I suppose.

MeatEater has put out several articles on CWD, both from researchers and years-long studies from one of their contributors experience with his farm in Wisconsin. Seems to impact certain geographies more than others. There are those that completely dismiss it as a non-threat, and others that are very concerned with the long-term impacts of potential spread. I don't understand the logic of not testing a harvested deer if given the option.

It’s scrapies. TAHC was already starting to formulate it.

https://academic.oup.com/jid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/infdis/jiac443/6809058


Live testing is accurate but TPWD uses it until they don’t want to. In other words live testing won’t save a deer herd if they don’t want to save it …

I see it as somewhat of a storm cloud on the horizon and hopefully it blows around my region. It is not something I want to see in my part of Texas. Reality is it is just a matter of time before it is hauled to my part of Texas in a trailer. It is a hot button topic. I bird hunted an area up north where it has been in the wild for some time. This year it is taking a particularly heavy toll there. The dogs found 5-8 dead deer each of the 4 days we hunted that that area. It was sad to witness.

EHD/Blue tongue or CWD?

I’m surrounded by CWD counties at my ranch, but where my place is the state doesn’t mandate testing, but we have it. Biggest kill offs we have had were confirmed EHD.

It was CWD.

The reason I mentioned is the process to get a sampling isn’t simple and tissue deterioration is real. I think lot of people assume CWD when it’s something else. Decompression is a real issue with CWD testing

I would like to thank everyone for your input. I seemed to remember in and about 1970's in Dewitt county when we were in a 10 year drought causing a disease to spread. The deer hunting for food began to eat some blue flowers resulting deer to go blind and later die. There was a horrible loss of deer.
I don't know if we are headed towards the tremendous loss we had back then or not. I think that due to the seriousness of CWD there could be some processes put in place that will not be understood by me but that's ok as there is a lot I don't understand.
Because of that I will do my part as I think the folks that are suggesting things I hope are based on facts from the labs suggesting what we should do.
Thanks again for all the information I was able to get great stuff.

Did a deer breeder moving deer cause it in that area? Did you clean and sanitize your hunting boots, vehicle tires, or dogs feet to remove prions when returning to east Texas?

1) yes

2) Once infected it takes time before there are enough prions to cause symptoms. Love testing is rare for many reasons, not the least of which is that it involves capturing the deer. It’s hard to tell what you’re asking, but once infected, a deer will produce and shed CWD prions until it dies, and is 100% certain to die of CWD unless it dies of something else first.

3. It has been transmitted under lab conditions to species outside the cervid family, but has not done so in the lab. Even n all mammal species. To my knowledge, only scrapie and CWD are easily transmissible by somewhat casual contact. For a cow to transmit mad cow to another cow, the healthy how must consume the sick cow. Simply eating from the same pile of feed is not enough. Human transmission of CJD and Kuru involve invasive medical procedures(like brain surgery for one) and cannibalism. Scrapie and CWD require no such efforts to be transmitted. Putting a healthy sheep into a pen where scrapie infected sheep had been, YEARS EARLIER, will result in the new healthy sheep becoming infected with scrapie. Deer seem to be infected with CWD almost as easily. WHY, IF CWD JUMPED TO HUMANS, WOULD WE ASSUME THAT HUMAN TO HUMAN TRANSMISSION WOULD NOT BE EXTREMELY EASY, PERHAPS EASIER THAN TRANSMITTING THE FLU? It seems as though, no matter who is talking, the issue of CWD transmission to humans is always discussed as though only the person eating the meat is at risk. That’s the case with Mad Cow(BSE), but BSE does not transmit easily from cow to cow. CWD transmits easily from deer to deer, even before the infected deer has symptoms. It only makes sense that if CWD ever jumped to humans, there would be at least some risk of human to human transmission.

Just get your deer tested for free, and don’t eat it if it’s positive. Dispose of the carcass by either leaving it right where you shot it, or tossing it in a dumpster that goes to a landfill. I don’t think CWD is something to worry about AS LONG AS YOU DONT SPREAD IT TO NEW PLACES OR EAT A DEER THAT HAS IT. Call your local GW and let him take a sample. He’ll be glad to.

People get all wound up about shooting one deer that might have been bigger next year, and then try to say CWD isn’t real or doesn’t decimate populations. You will absolutely have some bucks dying before they peak once you’ve had CWD in an area for a decade or two. I don’t think CWD is going to be the end of deer hunting, but for crying out loud, it’s not that hard to dispose of a carcass where you shot it OR in a city dumpster. At least do that.

I got a little dizzy trying to stay with the CWD transmitting but not to worry as I am pretty simple minded which doesn't make it easy absorbing all the facts which pertains to CWD. My main reasoning points to the starting of the disease. When animals can contract the disease on land once an animal has had the disease(YEARS EARLIER) says a lot to the fact that all the efforts should start with the grasses and minerals that support the disease. I'm sure the scientist are well beyond any thoughts I could have.
I do have a problem trying to destroy the spread of the disease by putting our unused carcasses of a deer in a hole that I will dig deep enough with tools I have at my disposal (nothing but a shovel). Animals will have excess to the carcass with no problem.
However, I am impressed with your knowledge of the CWD facts. What I understand ...is that the prions do not travel to humans. If it ever has been proven to travel to humans, then it will be my last meal with deer... and deer hunting will come to a halt and I will question eating any other animal.
I do believe we should all test our deer before eating...just in case.lol The infected carcasses should be taken by P&W for proper disposal.

Hole digging for disposal has been suggested by some biologists, but not all, and I also don’t see the point in digging a hole. My opinion, which a lot of biologists would agree with, is that you should either quarter the animal in the field and leave the carcass where you shot it, or dispose of the carcass in a suitable landfill after you debone it at home. There’s a legal description of what sort of landfill is recommended, and I don’t remember what it is, however, after making a few phone calls to the local TPWD office, and doing some Google searches, almost ever city dumpster goes to those types of landfills. In fact, “just put it in your dumpster” was suggested to me by a TPWD official. So, leave the carcass where you shot it, or put it in the dumpster. Don’t shoot in, drive 500 miles home, and then dump the carcass out on the farm. It’s not much of a burden.

As far as “travel to humans” the CWD prions absolutely “travel to humans”. What they have not been show to do is become incorporated in our nerve tissue and/or reproduce in humans. That’s a probability thing. With BSE, not many people contracted it from eat sick cattle, BUT most people don’t eat an entire cow when they eat beef. They buy a package or two of beef, and the next time they go to the store and buy more beef, it came from a different cow. With a deer, a lot of us eat the whole thing. I don’t really care to eat an entire sick deer. Testing isn’t perfect, but it’s reasonably good. If you’re not hunting in an area of extremely high prevalence, and you get your animal tested, I would not worry about it. There are parts of CO and WY where I would not want to eat an animal because prevalence is so high, I would be concerned with a false negative. Others are comfortable with that and that’s fine with me. In TX, I’m not aware of any areas of low fence with a really high prevalence of CWD. Just test your deer, and then eat it if it’s negative. I hunt an area in CO with a sub 5% prevalence rate, and I get my animals tested, and I don’t worry about it. I’m not going to go to any extreme lengths, but just avoid a few small hot spots in the entire US, and getting my deer and elk tested for free before I eat them is really no skin off my nose.

The soil and plants don’t “support” CWD prions. They just won’t destroy the prions. It takes decades of sun exposure. While experimenting with scrapie they found that they could put a stainless steel rubbing post in a pen with infected sheep, then remove the post and clean it thoroughly and place it in a different pen with healthy sheep, and the healthy sheep would all get scrapie after rubbing on the stainless steel post that had been cleaned. They eventually found various means by which to destroy the scrapie prions, but it’s quite intensive and unreasonable. The best method is to prevent any sheep from living in an infected area for DECADES. Eventually the prions become damaged by light and soil conditions. That’s a bit much to do with wildlife if it’s in a very large area. Basically, don’t bring that crap into your hunting area by dumping a carcass that came from somewhere else.

If it ever infects a human, I won’t stop eating deer meat. You’re much more likely to catch it from some sort of exposure to an infected human than from it jumping the species barrier in meat again. The CWD prions in the deer meat will be the same as before, and equally unlikely to infect a human. The new prion in humans will be modified to more easily infect humans. It’s still likely to require some sort of high level exposure. Deer don’t follow the same hygiene practices that humans do.

One good thing is there has never been a recorded case of cervid-human transmission. This in it's self has confidence of no transmission to date. Until then I will hunt and eat deer.

My property is about 3 miles outside of a CWD zone. This close proximity doesn't make me cautious, but curious. Couldn't they make an instant CWD testing kit that hunters could test on the deer they've shot, rather than taking the required deer parts to an unmanned (atleast in the zone I'm nearest to) check station and waiting for the results to come back? I feel if that were the case, I'd test harvested deer just to be 100% sure they are not infected, even though I am outside the CWD boundary.

Follow the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ same as govt did with covid. Guarantee there is a Fauci somewhere in this experiment. You could start with A&M. How much are they making for each test? Even though there are several other CWD testing sites in the US, A&M is the only one that can be used? This is a joke, but be on the lookout for a corn additive made by A&M and only purchased through TPWD that you MUST feed you deer herd, high fence or low fence, year-round to prevent this disease that is killing deer by the 1000's every week, for the uninformed.

Thanks to the those who shared some insights, been curious about this topic myself after that TPWD email last weekend on the subject. Curious if any of y'all have gotten yours tested before? My current lease isn't in a zone, but looking for a new one and assuming I'll have to deal with it at some point.

Mostly curious about one thing, TPWD says don't take it to a processor until it's been tested. But then it also says test results take 2 weeks. For those that use processors, does this mean you just can't take the untested deer to a processor or do you have to actually wait for the results?

Sorry for just now catching back up on this stxranchman. No it was not caused by a deer breeder. These were wild deer in a very remote area. No, but we did what we needed to do and we continued to bird hunt. A local game and fish employee did ask us to report the dead animals if our dogs found any and we complied. As I said earlier, “it was a sad deal”.

So you found dead animals and immediately new it was from CWD? Did that state have any EHD or Anthrax? I know several states that had one or the other of those in the last few years. It killed 100's if not 1000's of deer in some states. I hunted in western Kansas about 7 to 10 years ago and they had some issues both there depending on where you were at that part of the state. The drought killed a lot of deer in 2011 and 2012. I've heard the drought took its toll again just recently again the areas I hunted in western Kansas.