COMMENTARY BY DR. DAVE SAMUEL
It seems diseases are all we read about in the past year. Obviously the COVID-19 virus has taken center stage, and it will be there a long time. That virus won’t really impact our deer hunting, but there is another disease that should have hunters concerned. Not “panic” concerned, but concerned. The concern is chronic wasting disease.
COVID-19 is scary for humans, especially those of us who are senior citizens. CWD is just as bad or worse for white-tailed deer. Already found in 26 states, three Canadian Provinces and at least four foreign countries, it travels from deer to deer via prions that remain relatively indestructible and can survive in the wild for decades. Those with COVID-19 show no signs of the disease for a while. Deer with CWD show no signs of the disease for several years, and some for at least five years.
The problem for deer is there is no cure. Deer with CWD are more easily hunted, more easily caught and killed by predators, less resistant to other diseases, and are less wary when crossing highways. If those things don’t kill the deer before it’s time, then eventually the disease will. Deer cannot survive CWD. The prions destroy brain cells and the deer dies. Once a deer has CWD, by somehow coming into contact with a prion, then it is doomed. Apparently, a few can survive it and research is now looking at the genetics involved, but most die.
The good news is it is not transferable to humans, at least it hasn’t happened yet, and thousands of infected deer have been eaten by humans. The big question for state wildlife agencies where the disease has been found is how do you slow the spread? The best approach is to cull the deer herd in CWD areas. Of course, hunters don’t want to do that, but the simple truth is the fewer deer out here, the less there is a chance for a sick deer to infect a healthy deer.
Social distancing would be great, if the deer would cooperate, but they are found with other deer quite often. However, state wildlife agencies can assist the deer to practice social distancing by doing several things, in addition to lowering deer numbers in an area. Stopping baiting is one sure way of helping deer stay away from each other. The political problem with that is that hunters love to hunt deer over bait.
Put a pile of corn in the woods and deer will come to eat it. If they have CWD and deposit saliva on the corn as they eat, and another deer shows up and eats that corn and saliva, it also eats the malformed prions that cause the disease. If several deer are there, and they lick each other, they spread the prions. If a buck licks a doe’s urine, which they do in the rut, then that buck can get the disease.
As mentioned, another way state agencies try to control the spread is to increase deer harvest in areas where the disease is found. This approach has shown success in states like Illinois, but doesn’t get hunter support. Another strategy is done in most states with CWD. That method is to restrict hunters from bringing in parts of deer from places (states) that have the disease. Thus, if a West Virginia hunter shoots a deer in a state with CWD, they can only bring in boned out meat and quarters into West Virginia.
Restricting anyone from feeding deer is another option some states are following. Eliminating the use of deer urine scents is also happening in a few places.
In West Virginia, 50-70% of all yearling bucks disperse from their home range, moving an average of five miles in forested habitat. If that buck has CWD, then the range of the disease has now moved another five miles. One way to slow that down is to harvest more yearling bucks. Again, something not desired by many hunters.
So, relative to where CWD is now found, both in West Virginia and surrounding states, where do we stand? The really hot area for CWD relatively close to us is Bedford County in Pennsylvania. In 2012, one wild deer tested positive for CWD in Bedford County. In 2017, 27 deer on a deer farm in that county tested positive. In fact to date, 16 captive deer farms within the hot zone in the area in and around Bedford County have tested positive for CWD. There is no doubt that deer farms put deer in close quarters and have had a huge impact on the spread of this disease to the wild.
In 2013, 1,005 deer from just over the Pennsylvania state line in Fulton, Blair and Bedford counties were tested for CWD and only two were positive. In 2017, 2,653 deer were tested and 54 had CWD. In 2019, 2,556 deer were tested from those counties and 174 were positive. This increase in CWD is happening, even though Pennsylvania has initiated various policies to slow the spread.
Bedford is 28 miles from Cumberland and one positive deer has already been found just Northeast of Cumberland. Slowly but surely, CWD will move from Bedford County to the Cumberland area, and also west of Bedford toward Preston County. Deer in several western Maryland counties have tested positive for CWD, and of course West Virginia already has deer in several Eastern Panhandle counties. Hampshire County had 179 deer test positive and that number goes up every year. Hardy County had six, Mineral County had seven, Berkeley County had 15 and Morgan County had six.
Thus, CWD is found in a number of counties in West Virginia and Maryland east of Preston County. And it’s found in counties northeast of Preston County. Will we eventually get CWD here or in Preston County? Yes, but how many years before that happens? There are many variables that control that, including number of deer harvested, number of yearling bucks harvested, the extent of baiting, deer on deer farms closer to us getting CWD, the weather, etc.
When it does arrive here, some hunters will stop hunting because of fear of eating meat from CWD deer. Most will continue to hunt and many will consume CWD deer as is happening everywhere there are CWD deer being harvested. I believe that very soon there will be a government-approved test for CWD in harvested deer that can be done by hunters very quickly. This will allow hunters to harvest a deer, test it for CWD and then decide whether to feed it to family. That will be a very big deal relative to the future of deer hunting in America.
Dr. Samuel is a retired wildlife professor from West Virginia University. His outdoor columns have appeared, and continue to appear, in Bowhunter magazine and the Whitetail Journal. If you have questions or comments on wildlife and conservation issues, email him at drdave4@comcast.net.
