There is no factual information that shows a spread rate among the population that's anywhere close to a comparison of Ebola or plague. I used that comparison because they know as much about CWD as they knew about cancer when they first put a name to the disease and started trying to treat it.

Here's an interesting article on some research if anyone cares to read it.

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2015/06/re...e/#.VZVtTstLiM8

I'd also like more research to be done on potential transmission to human consumers of deer meat. Very concerning.

I think I read somewhere that a deer was killed and the meat was donated to charity. The test came back was found to have had CWD, but that was after it was consumed by everyone at the charity event. No human related problems from it that I remember.

This is a very bad thing, It affects all of us in the state of Texas maybe not directly but it will have an affect to deer hunting and deer breeders. I to am very curious how CWD got into a herd of deer behind a high fence.

It being a deer breeding facility I would assume that they have gotten deer from numerous sources. I don't know if the deer was a buck or doe. I would think it has put the "Fear of God" into all that have purchased deer from this facility. Hope it all works out without a lot of problems to all involved.

Where this is going to have the biggest quickest impact is on the ranches that depend on stocker bucks. They have shut that down indefinitely. And they should until they get all the records and checks on where this guys deer came from and went to.

I don't know who the breeder was, but if he was selling stockers to lots of ranches this could take a LONG time and impact a LOT of ranches.

Glad I don't buy stocker bucks and feeling sorry for those who do.

By what date do deer have to be released to be hunted?

Rancher, hit the nail on the head, the breeding facility is the tip of the iceberg. How many ranches a looking at quarantine due to buying stock from this breeder. I believe that the entire breeding business is at risk. Who is going to introduce improved genetics and risk either depopulation or quarantine if a breeder comes up positive.

10 days before the start of archery season has always been that day in fall and not have to saw off the antlers(to a specific amount left). Then you have to wait till after seasons are closed again.

There are quite are a good number of breeders and a few release sites that I was told about. No numbers given on the release sites as to what were bucks and what were does. No number given as to how many of the release sites still have those deer on their ranches either. These breeders who have bought deer from this breeder have always had to test for CWD, just like any breeder is required to test a % of death losses stay movement qualified. None of these breeders have had a deer test positive for CWD, yet. I also heard rumor that some of these ranches called and volunteered to have a deer they bought tested for CWD. They were told to wait.

iirc when I was looking into it, every deer that dies,or is sold is logged and a form turned in to TPD each year, should be easy for them to track the animals if this was done, right? May be an old rule IDK

Every breeder has an on-line/on the ranch inventory of animals they have in their pens, they have sold, they have liberated, that are born into annually, brought into or died in that facility via records that are kept current and/or updated to be turned in in the spring. Deer breeders are highly regulated, highly. Their facilities and records can be checked and are checked at anytime without notice. Their records must be kept current as per regulations or they can be shut down as far as movement until they are up to date. If they fall behind in their CWD testing then they are not movement qualified. Their records must match the amount of deer in the facility. Those deer must have their state assigned unique number on them. That number is tattooed on them when or if they leave that facilty.

It wouldn't hurt my feelings at all to see the entire industry cease to exist in the state of Texas.

BINGO!

Thanks STX, that is basically what I remember, I know early on in the industry, it was hardly regulated, but as it moved forward, you knew this was coming. Hardly worth it IMO unless you are selling big time $ hunts.

Regardless of how much testing goes on it's only a sample for the deer moved or produced; a fraction. A lot of animals are moved, sold, bartered, loaned.

What do deer breeders do with all those deer?
Sell for genetic enhancement purposes, other breeders, hunting (stockers), ranch improvement.
Loaned for DMP permits and returned(exposed to wild deer) for breeding, then Does and fawns are released.
Released because they are surplus... not all deer bred are 200" quality animals.

Thats a lot of deer, and a lot of the surplus deer are released on low fence properties cheaply because the are unwanted excess.

I thought you couldn't release "raised" deer in a LF anymore

You know as well as I live deer are not tested, only CWD tests done are done on dead deer currently. That "fraction" as you call it or % of death losses was a % set forth by TPWD. Every deer moved from a or onto a breeding facility is accounted for. Lot of ranches volunteered testing of pasture deer killed on their ranches for CWD. To TTT deer from one ranch you need to test a % of the deer or a minimum number also. CWD Testing has been done for a long time and never had a CWD case till now in a breeding facility. My concern is how it got into that facilty and did it leave that facility to somewhere else. I never understood how TPWD could allow deer from a breeding facility to be released onto any ranch, LF or HF. Then only allow TTT deer to be caught/moved from a ranch no matter what the fence height but only released only a HF ranch. Seems if they were concerned with breeders staring/moving a disease in the first place they would have regulated that movement.
I am not a deer breeder nor have any real desire to be one.

Surveillance should be better, but you already know there's a huge lobby to limit the # of samples, they have done just that. The DEER INDUSTRY could be better and submit more samples but they do just what they have to get buy, hence the current situation.


You are right was this a isolated occurrence? some researches say that can happen, or was this a deliberate issue from other indiscretions that occur every year and finally the INDUSTRY got caught. ie... moving deer from out of state violating the movement ban from years ago and finally showed up?

What is known it's going to be a blow to the industry and it may be next year before TPWD gets a handle on the overall movement of these deer.

Everyone seems to think and wants to blame it on a WT deer since that is where it was found. I am not jumping on that band wagon yet.
You know as well as I do that some abide by the TAHC guidelines of 100% testing of all death losses in their pens to state CWD certified free herds. Some will always do the minimum or what they are asked to do. If this was an "indiscretion" then how did it not get caught before in this pen or others when doing CWD testing? Deer were slaughtered in facilities that were known to have brought deer in illegally(notice I said illegally) and not one of the 100's of the slaughtered deer had CWD. To many questions as to what type of animal brought it to this ranch or how it got to this ranch that need to be answered. One thing we both know is it will be drug out a very long time. Chests are sticking way out on this one at this time. A deer breeder will catch all the blame whether or not it was deer that brought it in or not. Guess we can blame deer breeders for it being found in West Texas also now? We all know deer breeders or any animal breeder just thrive on bringing in diseases that will cut their own throat.....

It'll be interesting how this plays out. The live rectal test isn't perfect, because it's not sensitive enough to be 100% early in the infection, it is 100% for the last two preclinical stages. It could be used to make the depopulate versus quarantine decision. There are researchers in New York, that have had 100% success in identifying Scrapie in sheep, with blood and urine tests. Lab indications are that it will also work for deer. I'd like to see the NY researchers get to do a 100% screen prior to depopulation, as proof of concept, if depopulation is done.

What is known it's going to be a blow to the industry and it may be next year before TPWD gets a handle on the overall movement of these deer. [/quote]
Everyone seems to think and wants to blame it on a WT deer since that is where it was found. I am not jumping on that band wagon yet.
You know as well as I do that some abide by the TAHC guidelines of 100% testing of all death losses in their pens to state CWD certified free herds. Some will always do the minimum or what they are asked to do. If this was an "indiscretion" then how did it not get caught before in this pen or others when doing CWD testing? Deer were slaughtered in facilities that were known to have brought deer in illegally(notice I said illegally) and not one of the 100's of the slaughtered deer had CWD. To many questions as to what type of animal brought it to this ranch or how it got to this ranch that need to be answered. One thing we both know is it will be drug out a very long time. Chests are sticking way out on this one at this time. A deer breeder will catch all the blame whether or not it was deer that brought it in or not. Guess we can blame deer breeders for it being found in West Texas also now? We all know deer breeders or any animal breeder just thrive on bringing in diseases that will cut their own throat..... [/quote]

The fact is it was a 2 year old doe and CWD has a 2 year incubation period. That is really alarming. Most CWD positives states cannot detect CWD till the deer is older say 4 or older. Don't know the cause of death yet in this one. But researchers use statistics to detect RANDOM disease occurrence 99-95% confidence intervals but still this is the real world and if everyone plays by the rules the stats work. But throw in illegal activity, nonrandom selection and that detection drops.

All animal breeders use the animals for income, but some cut corners and eventually you'll get caught.

Plus their off-label use of and unregulated drugs on animals to keep them alive. That's another ball of wax for deer breeders. But that is another story.

Don't blame breeders about MD CWD in w Texas. That was inevitable.

Lab folks need to get to work in the lab to see if fawns nursing will transfer the prions. Would think the lower the body weight, the faster the incubation period. Then there's fetal development and incubation rates.....then there's plant carriers. Don't imagine a whole lot was growing in a breeder pen back in 2013.

tx_biologist, what I've read says that, CWD has been found in deer as young a 17 mos, so finding it in a two year old is within the observed range.