Deer management

[Aili]

Admins: feel free to move this post if it would fit better in another category.

I am in the eastern United States, and so far my area has not had any deer with Chronic Wasting Disease. CWD scares me: it's the Mad Cow of the cervid world. Has it occurred in Europe?

As hunters - for meat and not trophies - I follow closely what our local authorities publish about management tactics, food, habitat, climate and anything that effects our deer populations.

[SealDriver]

Thankfully CWD has not reached our shores YET Aili, but I would expect it to find its way here soon unfortunately. Like most diseases in plants, animals and humans, globalisation has made it a great deal easier for diseases to reach even the remotest places.

Right now we have a tree disease that will most likely see the end of our native Ash trees, we lost most of our Elms in the 1960's and we are also right now losing our Horse Chesnut Trees. Our deer population is quiet healthy, but TB is on the increase and that will be the one that I think will be our greatest concern.

Chronic Wasting Disease will also have the added problem of causing great confusion over here because we have a deer species called 'CWD' Chinese Water Deer.

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There is a concern about farmed Red Deer catching CWD and DEFRA have an interesting pamphlet on the subject. As someone who hunts deer for food I would be very upset to find a deer with CWD. We have a massive deer population in this country and it is a great provider of food to its hunters.

Aili how is the problem being handled in the States?

http://archive.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/far...e-deer.pdf

[Highlander]

Agreed CWD is not here yet,.. I am sure it will get here at some point, but I think that the estates,..at least here in Scotland are ready for it, and will do whats nessersary to remove it,...I would be guessing that the ash tree problem will become more of a problem to us

[Tigs]

i cant see it getting here we dont need to import deer live stock , we have a problem with too many already

[Aili]

Quarantine. Nearly all states have stopped the import of deer or deer products into the state. I know of two commercial deer farmers in Maine (one has red deer imported from the UK, the other elk), both were established before the disease became known. There are no new farms anywhere here. Wild populations are monitored by local authorities with the help of hunter surveys & education. We cannot feed or bait deer because it is unknown how the disease spreads so they want to discourage abnormal congregating -- although baiting is allowed under certain circumstances. Once a deer is found to have CWD, it is recommended that harvested deer not be eaten by people. If someone is caught with un-tagged deer, the deer are incinerated because it isn't known where they came from.

It was pretty common for states with low deer populations to bring in deer from other areas to reestablish herds, but that has completely stopped... in fact, it might have been the cause of it. Too much is still unknown.

[SealDriver]

(12 December 2012, 23:32)Aili Wrote: Quarantine. Nearly all states have stopped the import of deer or deer products into the state. I know of two commercial deer farmers in Maine (one has red deer imported from the UK, the other elk), both were established before the disease became known. There are no new farms anywhere here. Wild populations are monitored by local authorities with the help of hunter surveys & education. We cannot feed or bait deer because it is unknown how the disease spreads so they want to discourage abnormal congregating -- although baiting is allowed under certain circumstances. Once a deer is found to have CWD, it is recommended that harvested deer not be eaten by people. If someone is caught with un-tagged deer, the deer are incinerated because it isn't known where they came from.

It was pretty common for states with low deer populations to bring in deer from other areas to reestablish herds, but that has completely stopped... in fact, it might have been the cause of it. Too much is still unknown.

That sounds like it is going to be a real headache to enforce. It's sad when something like this spreads from farmed to wild deer because it will damage the whole environment and the true nature of the diseases affects are difficult to measure and a true picture of the damage it causes may not be fully appreciated until many years later.

[Mortblanc]

Here in the States the wildlife management agencies also caution to not eat brains or central nervous system parts, to wear protective gloves when skinning game and to report any animal that appears sick.

The appearance of the disease is linked to dense populations that are not being culled properly. This represents two concerns; spread of the disease from host to host and lack of harvesting of young but mature animals before they can develop visible symptoms or spread the disease.

We are also in a battle to save several species of trees here. In my region the Ash trees are in danger due to the Emeral Ash Boer and the elms are being killed off by the Longhorn Beetle. The methods seem to involve harvesting and distroying the trees in their path to starve them out, then replanting when the danger has past. We are loosing entire hardwood forests just north of my area.

We also have the Southern Pine Beetle which has devastated thousands of miles of woodland. Oddly, the devestation was origionally blamed on acid rain and presented as an excuse for more strick environmental controls. We got the controls, and millions of acres of trees still died due to treatment of the wrong agent.