Anthrax

Anyone have any recent info on Anthrax in and around Val Verde?

A few of our neighbors have found a couple dead deer with no visible injuries other than blood coming from front and rear and black spots on the body.

They need to be talking to a biologist for that county. I don't think there's anything you can do about anthrax, it's nasty stuff though.

---> TFB anthrax

---> TAHC anthrax

Is this dangerous to humans? I would assume you don't want to touch. It is transferable or only infectable by the orgiinal source?

Is this dangerous to humans? I would assume you don't want to touch. It is transferable or only infectable by the orgiinal source?

Highly contagious. Breathing the bacterial spores from disturbance will infect you, and transfer to your lymph nodes. Without immediate treatment, you die. Active in the soil for years

I believe that you're required by law to report anthrax to TP&WD. I could be wrong but you might call a game warden and find out for sure.

Neighbors have made that call to authorities and surrounding properties

It can be spread a couple of more ways. Ingesting it or from insect bites. I have a friend who managed a very large ranch in the Carta Valley area where that used the vaccine for livestock to coat onto a feed source then fed it to the deer. He had an ongoing annual program on that ranch for over 10 yrs and did that from late Feb until Aug every year. IIRC he did 9 applications over a 6 month period. They had a huge outbreak in mid 80's that wiped out almost all the deer and then he lost a few deer every year after that. Even in other major outbreaks around him his death losses were the same amount every year on that ranch. He also burned every carcass to ashes he found in May till Sept and spray all the green vegetation around the immediate edges of the burn. He felt the flies that were on the carcass moved the anthrax to the leaves on the plants and deer could ingest those leaves. He worked and consulted with a professor at A&M when doing this.

Starting to hear some bad things for the area. Like maybe the worst Anthrax case since 2001 according to a few feed stores.

Isn�t it more prevalent during wet years?

https://uvaldeleadernews.com/news/two-livestock-deaths-blamed-on-anthrax/

It looks like the problem is spread more than usual.

https://youtu.be/AVQkdX81fyI

https://sanangelolive.com/news/busi...hrax-various-animals-concho-valley-month

Any new reports on this? I am headed to my place in Kinney County next weekend. Hopefully we�re not getting it. But it�s definitely bad this year.

Lands & Lease section is going to be very busy in the near future.

Friend who hunts south of Sonora has not had a beer on camera since July 7
Corn piled up under feeders
He thinks huge die off

I didn't know that beers came to a feeder, well maybe on a utv they do I guess.

Just trying to wake people up or maybe to much beer.

I have heard of much larger numbers of dead deer in that area than what had been previously reported so far. One thing that I would caution is that anyone hunting in the area and finds any deer that died in velvet or hard antlers that are still attached to the skull before the season starts in October would be to leave it lay where you find it. I would not want to move Anthrax out of the area into other areas. Everyone likes to collect deer skulls with antlers. Here is a read on the disease and down at the end of the article about whitetail deer and season ahead.
https://today.agrilife.org/2013/11/...eed-for-awareness-of-indigenous-disease/

It�s much much worse and widespread than what�s being reported

I hunt south of Ozona and heard from the ranch owner that we are affected as well. He said so far it hasnt been a major die off, but some deer have been found.
I havent been back to the lease since spring, hoping its not too bad.

how far south of Ozona? down which road?

I have a place ~35-40 miles south off Pandale road, to the west actually about 8-10 miles ... was last out there in mid June and no signs of a die off there ...

We hunt about 23 miles south of Ozona off Hwy 163

thanks! I notified our LO about the article and it reaching into Crockett county. She is out there much more frequent than me and can be on the look out as well.

after reading thru a bunch of the links provided above, how are you supposed to remove a dead animal that might have contracted it. Appears you shouldn't handle ... what about dumping lye on it to help speed up decomposition??? sounds very nasty

PMK
The state recommends burning the carcass and that is the only way to properly remove the spores. One thing I have come to understand is that typically an infected animal will not be consumed by predators except for the eyes.

thanks ccrock ...

Does anyone know if it also affects axis deer? I'm assuming it would?

http://agrilife.org/texnat/files/2016/09/EWF-060.pdf

Got a hunt booked just east of Juno, kinda concerned about it. Anyone know how it is in that area?

Some reports on the FB deer sites saying they are leaving their leases after the season it is so bad. Must be pretty isolated though. They probably over paid anyway just to have a place to hunt.

That area is not good from what I saw a couple weeks ago. PM me the ranch name and I can possibly pinpoint it better.

https://www.tahc.texas.gov/news/2019/2019-08-06_AnthraxUpdate.pdf
http://uvaldeleadernews.com/top-stories/man-losing-dozens-of-exotics-to-anthrax/

Have lease in crocket county near Sheffield off of C.R. 406. This buck was found dead by a lease member but not sure of the cause. Assuming Anthrax. Anybody have any info in that area being hit by Anthrax.

I just spoke to my LO and he said that he has found around 25 deer at our place. We are in the NE corner of Val Verde county.

My buddy told me earlier today that the neighboring ranch to their north has been impacted really bad with anthrax. Their ranch has lost a few deer so far. They are catercorner to the Foyt Ranch to the north out of Bracketteville.

Deer do die but can’t be too careful....looks like the back end got eaten off that one. Did y’all contact TPWD?

Man, that sucks. What a waste of alotta great deer.

will be interesting to hear a report from our LO who is going out Labor Day weekend ...

One of my buddies said they had a few turn up dead in Kinney county, not sure what got them... but I can only suspect it was the same.

Latest update
https://www.tahc.texas.gov/news/2019/2019-08-13_AnthraxUpdate.pdf

1 confirmed case in Val Verde. That's funny

I've heard reports of 750K acres at a 80% mortality rate

1 confirmed "site" not animal numbers.

I have heard as much as 90% on a couple of places.

Yes sir that's what I meant.

Are they really considering 3/4 of a million acres as a “site”? That seems ridiculously misleading if so.

Wasn't saying that "one confirmed site" is 750K acres. Just saying I've heard that's how much land has been affected so far.

The one site is the only owner who's actually called and reported the anthrax I'm sure.

Tell him to drive with his windows down, wont take long to find out.

Gotcha. Thanks.

Looks like our place 23 miles south of Ozona east side of 163 is wiped out, according to the reports I am hearing.
I talked to a guy on another forum, who hunts same ranch but different pasture. He has not had a deer on trail cam since 6/25. He said another lease member on another pasture counted 37 dead deer on their lease road.
I am heading up there tomorrow to look around, I will let y'all know if I find out different but it looks like it hammered our place.

We had an outbreak in the mid to late 90s on our place in Sutton County, SE of Sonora. Two years back to back; it was devastating then the drought hit. Axis, WT, BB, fallow, cows, and goats all died at high rates; pigs and predators somehow made it through. Burned every carcass we found.

How long before the the deer herd came back?

If state does not trap and restock 5 to 10 years my guess friom 80s

I think we had infill from neighbors. We went from seeing dozens of deer each hunt to singles instantly, but we still saw deer. Herd rebounded over time...4-5 seasons? It was over two decades ago, hard to say exactly how long it took to recover.

Personally, if I was leasing in the middle of all the Anthrax, I would be looking for another lease for the next 5 years.

Unfortunately that is what I am thinking. I hate to start that whole process again. Not going to be looking in that area anymore

We hunt about 25 miles south of ozona. Off 1973. Our LO said they lost some cows, But deer herd looks decent. Others still have deer coming on cameras.

I just got back from the lease Sunday. We got 1/2” of rain Saturday evening. Walked around a lot only found 5 dead deer and 5 dead cows. Never saw a deer or a deer track the whole weekend. This lease is about 1800 acres and normally you can’t throw a rock and not see a deer.
The place looked like a ghost town. It’s like they all disappeared.

I always heard old timers talk about Anthrax back in the day, & they were terrified of it. I can see why now.

We take for granted modern medicine & innoculation against disease.

How can anyone say the deer will come back because you don't get rid of the Anthrax. Once it's there it is there forever, and It's a ticking time bomb, and then the process just starts all over again.
Restocking is just a death sentence for those stocked animals.

Its naturally occurring isn't it? There are deer there now just like there have been for 1000's of years. Its all part of a cycle, some of the biggest deer that country produces probably come in years after an outbreak where there are fewer mouths on the range.

Its a sad state of affairs with this many animals dying. I've gotten a handful of phone calls from ranchers looking for deer to restock their ranches. Like I told them and I would tell anyone else, if you do restock in the current conditions, put them in a soft release pen and talk to your vet to see if they will prescribe you protein feed with CTC to get them through the exposure. Not sure if you can get CTC prescribed to you by your vet to put in your protein feeders on open pasture, but it might be worth the phone call to save a few head through these outbreaks.

What's up Red Chevy? Long time buddy.

I can agree with most of you here. Deer die-off's suck. For my neck of the woods it's predators. We really struggle with coyotes year around and lose fawns to bobcats too.
What's really hard to stomach is when the state biologists think that it's truly a good thing/

I drew archery at Kickapoo Caverns. It seems to be in the area that's currently in question.

We are about 5 miles South of Sonora Caverns and early info not very encouraging. Should better info after fly over later in month. What is CTC mentioned in breath takers post.

Lease is about 13 miles west of Rocksprings and no signs of it. All deer looked good and it appears horns are going to be above average this yr.

Lease is approx 31 miles west and northwest of Rocksprings, 20 miles due south of Sonora. No deer on camera after July 25. Several dead deer carcasses around the ranch. Corn piling up under the feeders. There is some discussion that perhaps the deer "know" there is a problem, and migrate east or west outside of the "kill zone" and perhaps will come back after the cooler weather sets in. Anyone with long term experience in that area know whether that is true or not? Or are all the deer that would be going to the feeders right now, just dead in their beds?

Here is a quote from wildlife biologist Bob Dittmar:
“Anthrax is a disease that can cause high local mortality in deer,” Dittmar said. “It’s been estimated that some ranches have lost more than 50% of their deer herd in past outbreaks in southwestern Texas. It may take three to six years for those herds to regain numbers.”

vaccine could have saved these

bringing back to the top to see if any of you have any more information or location of occurances??? I will be heading to Ozona (40+/- miles SW down Pandale road) tomorrow to check cameras and based on what I see on the cards, fill feeders...

Hope the best for you PMK

thanks! my LO talked with some cousins that have adjoining ranches but did the inoculations plus booster on their livestock (cattle & sheep) and they haven't lost any livestock but they aren't hunters, so really haven't paid much attention to the wildlife. Will be covering about 600+ miles round trip tomorrow that may end up being a water haul depending on what I find. Hoping for the best and will update late next week (business travel first part).

I hunt in Val Verde County off of FM 189 North of Juno. Our rancher flew our place and the adjoining ranch which consisted of approximately 18000 acres. He stated about 75% of the deer herd is gone, with a lot of orphaned yearlings that will probably not survive. He was really surprised at how it decimated the aoudad herd that were really easy to spot dead on the hill tops.

We went through this in 2004-05 (?) and I saw in an earlier post where someone said that it will take 4-5 years for the herd to recover. All I can say is it will take at least that long and I recommend start feeding protein and alfalfa now to help the surviving herd make it through the winter.....

We flew two ranches on 189 and our findings were exactly the same.

The aoudad got hit really hard. The whitetail it decimated

based on Google maps, we are roughly 40 miles to the NW from where ya'll are talking as the crow flies ... guess I will find out tomorrow. Thanks!

I hope the S/E wind didn't get ya'll.

Anyone have any better info on how long it will take the population to rebound?

In my understanding as long as there are no more outbreaks the population will spring back very quickly, high survival rate from the fawns that are born, much better forage available due to low density. Sure it will take years to get your age classes back, but deer should make a major come back in population in 2 years provided no more anthrax outbreaks and average rainfall.

This outbreak is bad enough for many folks getting full or partial refunds for this season. Just an FYI on anyone affected by this.

Any reports around Rocksprings?

Our helicopter survey was completed yesterday on our 5,000 acres and neighbor's 2000. Not a mature buck seen on either ranch, one 3-4 yr old on 2,000 acres, 7 yearlings and 15 does on larger place and 5 on 2,000. No fallow.! Axis seen to have done a little better. There were 9 counted on smaller ranch and about 35 on the 5,000A. Seven aoudad seen out of a herd estimated at 50 plus. Last year our MLD quota was 100 deer( 50 bucks,50 does). I don't expect us to kill any WTs. Unmitigated disaster and its going to be a long time recovering.

That is not good news...but I would not base everything off the helicopter survey as they can be very inaccurate IME. I would still move trail cams around on water sources to see how the buck/doe numbers compare to what was seen from the air. IME helicopter surveys were seeing only 40% at best of the total population on two ranches I flew each year. I hope I am right on this and you have a few more deer than what you think. Numbers can rebound quickly with average rains and habitat rebounds quickly from lesser numbers. Twin fawns can grow a population quickly. Just won't grow your mature buck numbers as fast but the numbers will rebound, age structure comes with time.

We have never don't helicopter surveys, but one of my buddies in the affected area has for years. Pretty sure they have shot more deer on some years than were counted total and they still had a good number of deer.

The first year on a ranch in South Texas we shot the exact number of deer that I counted on the helicopter survey. The next year we shot 3 times the amount of deer I saw out of helicopter on that same ranch. The third year we shot about the same amount or shade more that I saw from the helicopter. If a ranch has been flown a period of time it seems to get a little tougher to get a good accurate count. You just hope to see a downward trend on numbers from year to year.
I have heard numbers of up to 90% die off this year and that much or more in years past on the severe outbreaks. Most ranches recovered nicely in time. Just hard to take if you are on a lease or own a ranch and enjoy hunting.

Have a bud with 10Kac about 26mi south of Ozona....says he got hit hard, really hard. And his hunters had really built the place up and were taking some really nice bucks. Very sad indeed.

gotta love technology ...

1 camera coons or cows demolished, ate the strap, found camera about 30 feet from where it was mounted and the battery pack about 20 more feet away, never found the strap. Replaced the batteries and used a ratchet strap to remount, SD card wouldn't read, so I replaced.

another camera, pulled the SD card and kept giving me an error message when trying to open files, had several hundred pictures but couldn't get any open, batteries 90%, put new SD card and moved on.

another camera, pulled the SD card and it had a couple hundred pictures, mostly feral cattle, horses, a few stray loner pigs, coons, porcupine and a handful of deer. 3 separate middle age bucks towards the end of velvet plus a few does & yearlings. Last picture was late Aug time frame. I was out there during the heat of the day and did not see any live deer in the two hours I was driving around between feeder locations. All caliche pits were bone dry, so anything would have to rely on the water troughs at the area wells. The LO wants to do a spotlight survey likely opening weekend of rifle season

CTC is like tetracycline that feed makers mix into deer feed mainly for the breeder business to get antibiotics into a vast number of deer. It’s been known to help get deer through anthrax outbreaks. But it’s a good way to medicate a large number of animals if you can see the problem coming.

My buddy who is about 8 miles northwest of Bracketteville just told me they lost over 70% of their deer, no hunting this year.

After some boots on the ground,it looks like we lost 75% of our whitetail and 90% of our fallow and aoudad on our low fence lease between Juno and Sonora Caverns. Not sure why, but our Axis and Blackbuck fared much better. The worst part of the problem is that we are yet to see a mature WT buck from the air or ground. Huge disappointment after 12 years of hard work to build up the herd.
I have learned recently from others in the same situation that various lease members with medically compromised immune systems, etc have been advised by their doctors not to take the risk of exposure by going hunting. Tough deal if true.

headed out to my place 35-40 miles SW of Ozona last week to do sight survey and game counts ... I was pleasantly surprised as I saw 8-12 deer per feeder location over a 2 day time line. Does with fawns, yearlings, several 2.5-4.5 year old bucks, none of the older deer but usually don't this early in the season.