A Letter To Deer Hunters Concerning CWD
Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 9:51 pm
This from a doctor friend who lives in West Virginia:
A Letter to Deer Hunters Concerning Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)
The future of deer hunting is in our hands. The eastern deer herds are under assault from a slow, but tenacious disease that has the potential, with time and continued inadequate management, to send the whitetail the way of the American bison. From the time the first mule deer fell sick in Colorado over thirty years ago, to the current outbreak in West Virginia, the response of government agencies, both federal and state, has generally been soft, vague and inadequate to contain the disease. Even now, with a serious outbreak in our backyard, the official approach has not really changed. Every person in this region has a stake in this battle. This is not just the West Virginia Department of Natural Resource’s struggle. From the smallest mom and pop store in Bloomery, to the new Cabela’s in Wheeling, from the realtor in Winchester who sells hunting properties, to all the local game departments who sell hunting licenses, there are huge consequences for us all.
As hunters, we must come to realize that we must step to the front to be the ones who take positive action. We are the true managers of the resource, not some wildlife agency. We are the ones who will make critical decisions in the field that will determine whether or not the disease spreads farther. I am not at all afraid hunters will panic and stop hunting if they are educated about this disease and the actions necessary to staunch it. The hunters that I know are good people, true conservationists, and would never knowingly do anything to harm the whitetail resource. What they need is some straight talk.
Chronic wasting disease is an infectious disease of cervids (deer family animals-specifically whitetails, elk, mulies, black-tailed deer, and only just discovered in a moose) caused by an abnormal, infectious brain protein particle called a prion. CWD has recently been discovered in Hampshire Co., WV. CWD is 100% fatal to deer and there is no treatment or prevention for any of the various, similar diseases such as Mad Cow (BSE) or C-J disease of humans. CWD has not been shown to occur in any animals outside the deer family, but the final word on this is not known and may not be for many years. In humans, BSE has an incubation period of 5 and perhaps up to 20 years and probably only one in millions of servings of bad beef eaten resulted in a human case of the disease. To date, about 150 people have died of BSE. Due to the absolutely fatal nature of all of these diseases (they cause microscopic holes in the brains of victims) it is critical that we, as hunters, treat CWD with the utmost respect. The following are rules that should help prevent any hunter (and help prevent more deer) from contracting the disease.
1. Gut the deer only if you really must. Various gut organs (spleen, lymph nodes and lymph tissue of intestines) are areas of concentration of infectious prions. A cut through a glove into your hand from a knife contaminated with prions from an infected deer would be a more risky exposure than eating contaminated meat. If you must gut the deer, wear latex, vinyl or nitrile gloves (shoulder length if possible) and be very careful. If you must gut in the woods, double bag the guts in trash bags and absolutely remove them from the woods for proper disposal. DO NOT USE THE KNIFE FOR ANY OTHER PUPOSE! Prions are very hard to destroy as they are not alive. It takes 600 degrees or more to destroy them and usual disinfectant agents such as chlorine bleach may not fully deactivate them. The second reason not to gut is that if the deer is infected and you leave a gut pile in the woods, you have left a focus of infection that will persist for years! A deer browsing over that area years later may become infected. Even worse, a bear eating the gut pile may pass infectious prions in its feces miles from the area, suddenly spreading the disease far outside the original focus of infection.
2. Don’t cut through any bone. Debone the meat carefully, avoiding areas under the shoulder, ham, or neck where lymph nodes (bean shaped and sized gray to brown nodules) are found. Properly prepared, uncontaminated meat, to the best of our knowledge, is not infectious. If you split the hide down the back and debone the shoulders, loins, and hams after peeling the hide down the sides, you can largely avoid any potentially dangerous areas. Butcher your own deer. That is the only way to know your deer is not contaminated by butchering equipment. Remember, you cannot tell if a deer is infected by looking at it. Obviously, any deer that looks or acts sick should never be eaten. If I encounter such an animal, I will kill it and notify the DNR.
3. DO NOT CUT INTO THE BRAIN CAVITY OR SPINE. The brain and spinal cord are hot zones for prions. You may safely cut the antlers off just below the burr through the pedicle. IF the deer is truly magnificent and you want to have it mounted, very carefully, with gloves on, cut through the spine and then put the saw in the garbage. Once again, cutting oneself with a contaminated saw would be asking for it.
4. Dispose of all carcass parts, guts, etc in an approved landfill. DO NOT DUMP ANY PART OF ANY DEER (or elk) in the woods!!
5. Do not use any deer lure or scent made from anything related to a deer. Prions may be present in urine, feces, glandular remnants, dirt contaminants or other ingredients. You do not want to be the one to introduce CWD to your hunting grounds!
6. Absolutely do not put bait, lure, salt or anything in the woods where any deer can lick or eat the product! Nose to nose eating, licking, etc appear to be a major way CWD is spread. Food plots where deer are spread out normally as they would while eating acorns on an oak flat should not be a problem.
7. Put pressure on your DNR and legislature to eliminate all susceptible deer family members from high fence/game farm situations. These unnatural sites can become breeding grounds for CWD. It was in fenced mule deer that the disease first appeared.
8. Obey local laws concerning CWD. It is my understanding that PA (and likely VA) soon or even now is banning the transport of a deer carcass from a CDW area into the state. Keep your eyes open as more and more laws will appear. At some point it may even be possible to have your deer tested. While these new game laws and the rules I have listed above may be a pain, I know that you, as much as I, would like to have deer to watch and hunt in the future and I sure as heck don’t want to be the first poor guy to find out humans can get CWD.
I will hunt this year as I have for the last 40 years, but I will be smart. If I am lucky enough to tag a mature doe or buck I will treat it with respect and enjoy the venison. I encourage you to harvest as many does as you can use and the law allows. Reducing herd density is a prime way to slow or prevent the spread of the disease. As responsible hunters we must reduce the herd, perhaps to levels that in the past we would have considered to be too low. If we do not accomplish adequate herd reduction, either the DNR or eventually, sadly, CWD will surely do it for us.
May the wind always be in your favor!
Nick Casto, MD
A Letter to Deer Hunters Concerning Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)
The future of deer hunting is in our hands. The eastern deer herds are under assault from a slow, but tenacious disease that has the potential, with time and continued inadequate management, to send the whitetail the way of the American bison. From the time the first mule deer fell sick in Colorado over thirty years ago, to the current outbreak in West Virginia, the response of government agencies, both federal and state, has generally been soft, vague and inadequate to contain the disease. Even now, with a serious outbreak in our backyard, the official approach has not really changed. Every person in this region has a stake in this battle. This is not just the West Virginia Department of Natural Resource’s struggle. From the smallest mom and pop store in Bloomery, to the new Cabela’s in Wheeling, from the realtor in Winchester who sells hunting properties, to all the local game departments who sell hunting licenses, there are huge consequences for us all.
As hunters, we must come to realize that we must step to the front to be the ones who take positive action. We are the true managers of the resource, not some wildlife agency. We are the ones who will make critical decisions in the field that will determine whether or not the disease spreads farther. I am not at all afraid hunters will panic and stop hunting if they are educated about this disease and the actions necessary to staunch it. The hunters that I know are good people, true conservationists, and would never knowingly do anything to harm the whitetail resource. What they need is some straight talk.
Chronic wasting disease is an infectious disease of cervids (deer family animals-specifically whitetails, elk, mulies, black-tailed deer, and only just discovered in a moose) caused by an abnormal, infectious brain protein particle called a prion. CWD has recently been discovered in Hampshire Co., WV. CWD is 100% fatal to deer and there is no treatment or prevention for any of the various, similar diseases such as Mad Cow (BSE) or C-J disease of humans. CWD has not been shown to occur in any animals outside the deer family, but the final word on this is not known and may not be for many years. In humans, BSE has an incubation period of 5 and perhaps up to 20 years and probably only one in millions of servings of bad beef eaten resulted in a human case of the disease. To date, about 150 people have died of BSE. Due to the absolutely fatal nature of all of these diseases (they cause microscopic holes in the brains of victims) it is critical that we, as hunters, treat CWD with the utmost respect. The following are rules that should help prevent any hunter (and help prevent more deer) from contracting the disease.
1. Gut the deer only if you really must. Various gut organs (spleen, lymph nodes and lymph tissue of intestines) are areas of concentration of infectious prions. A cut through a glove into your hand from a knife contaminated with prions from an infected deer would be a more risky exposure than eating contaminated meat. If you must gut the deer, wear latex, vinyl or nitrile gloves (shoulder length if possible) and be very careful. If you must gut in the woods, double bag the guts in trash bags and absolutely remove them from the woods for proper disposal. DO NOT USE THE KNIFE FOR ANY OTHER PUPOSE! Prions are very hard to destroy as they are not alive. It takes 600 degrees or more to destroy them and usual disinfectant agents such as chlorine bleach may not fully deactivate them. The second reason not to gut is that if the deer is infected and you leave a gut pile in the woods, you have left a focus of infection that will persist for years! A deer browsing over that area years later may become infected. Even worse, a bear eating the gut pile may pass infectious prions in its feces miles from the area, suddenly spreading the disease far outside the original focus of infection.
2. Don’t cut through any bone. Debone the meat carefully, avoiding areas under the shoulder, ham, or neck where lymph nodes (bean shaped and sized gray to brown nodules) are found. Properly prepared, uncontaminated meat, to the best of our knowledge, is not infectious. If you split the hide down the back and debone the shoulders, loins, and hams after peeling the hide down the sides, you can largely avoid any potentially dangerous areas. Butcher your own deer. That is the only way to know your deer is not contaminated by butchering equipment. Remember, you cannot tell if a deer is infected by looking at it. Obviously, any deer that looks or acts sick should never be eaten. If I encounter such an animal, I will kill it and notify the DNR.
3. DO NOT CUT INTO THE BRAIN CAVITY OR SPINE. The brain and spinal cord are hot zones for prions. You may safely cut the antlers off just below the burr through the pedicle. IF the deer is truly magnificent and you want to have it mounted, very carefully, with gloves on, cut through the spine and then put the saw in the garbage. Once again, cutting oneself with a contaminated saw would be asking for it.
4. Dispose of all carcass parts, guts, etc in an approved landfill. DO NOT DUMP ANY PART OF ANY DEER (or elk) in the woods!!
5. Do not use any deer lure or scent made from anything related to a deer. Prions may be present in urine, feces, glandular remnants, dirt contaminants or other ingredients. You do not want to be the one to introduce CWD to your hunting grounds!
6. Absolutely do not put bait, lure, salt or anything in the woods where any deer can lick or eat the product! Nose to nose eating, licking, etc appear to be a major way CWD is spread. Food plots where deer are spread out normally as they would while eating acorns on an oak flat should not be a problem.
7. Put pressure on your DNR and legislature to eliminate all susceptible deer family members from high fence/game farm situations. These unnatural sites can become breeding grounds for CWD. It was in fenced mule deer that the disease first appeared.
8. Obey local laws concerning CWD. It is my understanding that PA (and likely VA) soon or even now is banning the transport of a deer carcass from a CDW area into the state. Keep your eyes open as more and more laws will appear. At some point it may even be possible to have your deer tested. While these new game laws and the rules I have listed above may be a pain, I know that you, as much as I, would like to have deer to watch and hunt in the future and I sure as heck don’t want to be the first poor guy to find out humans can get CWD.
I will hunt this year as I have for the last 40 years, but I will be smart. If I am lucky enough to tag a mature doe or buck I will treat it with respect and enjoy the venison. I encourage you to harvest as many does as you can use and the law allows. Reducing herd density is a prime way to slow or prevent the spread of the disease. As responsible hunters we must reduce the herd, perhaps to levels that in the past we would have considered to be too low. If we do not accomplish adequate herd reduction, either the DNR or eventually, sadly, CWD will surely do it for us.
May the wind always be in your favor!
Nick Casto, MD