The following are notes from the Indiana Sportsmen's Roundtable Saturday January 5th. (from another site)


Current 2019 Deer Season – Where we are with CWD

Dr. Nancy Boedeker – Wildlife Veterinarian

CWD – Can be taken in by deer elk moose reindeer. It is currently always fatal. It effects the neurological system. Caused by prion. Still consider very new to science. It can’t be fought off like diseases. Can be shed from secretions, i.e. nasal secretions saliva feces urine. It stays persistently in the environment for a long time. They get it from contact with other deer secretions. No real testing for live deer as of right now. DNR is looking at deer that CWD can also be spread in carcasses. have been hit or hunter harvested. They also test on deer that are reported as sick and can be harvested.

Control – No state has eradicated that we know of yet. NY may have stopped CWD and they were very aggressive. Minimizing the number of deer and reduce deer density have both shown signs of reducing the spread and persistency in an area.
Originally is was found in 1967, found in captive Mule deer and spread to other captive deer and elk and finally spread to wild elk in CO.

Currently there is no specific contingency plan in place now, because it is being revamped. They are discussing the plan with other state groups.

There have been NO positive test from this season yet.

CDC recommendation is to test meat in areas where CWD has been found, and if it tests positive than do not eat the meat. So far there are no cases of it spreading to humans.

There have been tests that have infected other animals, but that was direct injection into the brain. They are doing more tests all the time. Resent research shows plants can uptake the prion from the root into the plant. They are testing to see if this can pass to deer or other animals yet.

BOA covers captive deer DNR covers wild deer.

They are working with BOA to see what their plan is vs. the plan DNR comes up with. They are both revising their plans. They are working with Vet Services and Department of Health and all the other groups that would respond to CWD in the state. They do intend to reach out to the public with their plan idea before it gets finalized.
TB has been a focus, but as that gets under control they are backing off resources and putting them to CWD.

Dr. Joe Caudell – Deer Biologist

Old CWD information came from 2006. It is much more prevalent in the population now. Wi and MO both got it about the same time. Started about 1% prevalence in the population. Now WI is about 50% of the population in those original areas. MO is still around 1-2%. There is a big difference it controlling the spread and the prevalence based on how you approach the plan to control it. We are focused on areas where it is close to us. NW along Kankakee River it is 25 miles across the border in IL. We are looking at 9 counties in that NW area on IN. IL keeps a low prevalence rate. It is 30 miles across our NE boarder in MI. It is also in OH. It is not in KY. They are studying the spread of CWD. Some believe it can be traced to captive deer movement, but some is do to natural deer movement. When researchers used radio collars for studies, they believed deer didn’t travel far from their home range. When they couldn’t find one, they assumed collar failure or something. Now researchers use GPS collars. We are finding some deer will make excursion up to 70 -80 miles using gps collars. This is usually outside breading cycle. The deer a lot of the time returns home. CWD can also be spread in carcasses.

We are using a new tool that lets us know how many deer specimen to sample in an area to figure out prevalence in an area. We are really looking hard to find CWD. Newton county we have sampled 80 deer so far which gets us to 2% prevalence. We would need 300 deer to get down to 1% and 1000 deer to get down to ½%. We are currently sampling at 2% prevalence. We are working on getting that down. Having people report sick deer is important. Sampling 1 sick deer is better than sampling 30 yearlings. Especially old male deer that look sick. Make sure hunters are getting the word out to each other to report sick deer and get the DNR out to investigate. The DNR will need lots of help getting more samples.

There is an enormous amount of ongoing research, however there is no science that has shown ways to get rid of it or stop CWD. A lot of the research has brought up more questions than it has answered. It may be a while before they can get a complete handle on it. So far, the vaccines that are getting a lot of hype have all failed to prove effective. The last big prevention product ended up increasing susceptibility. There is a lot of research on defecting the land, but they haven’t proven they work yet. The IN DNR is constantly watching this. There is a way to send in test results directly to the DNR if you have your deer privately tested. Info on their web page.

The US geological services have a current map of where CWD is in the country on their web page.
Currently if it is found within 10 miles of our border, we would identify a target area where testing would increase immediately, reduce the deer density in the area, stop feeding in the area. NO sharp shooters to start. This is under revision currently.

Currently carcasses can be brought in to the state from other states including CWD states. There is currently no national identification method to notify us if hunters have hunted in a positive area and their deer came back positive. We have had hunters bring back positive meat from WI however WI contacted us. DNR contacted the hunters. Some states would never be aloud to release that information because of their current state privacy laws.

IL currently has the best management practices. When they get a positive, they go in and remove the herd in a radius, size unknown. Then they let the population fill the area back in and continue to test. They aggressively try to get the doe group and the area some of her offspring possibly have moved off to. WI started with an idea like this, but hunters pushed back, and they stopped trying to manage it and now their prevalence is around 50% in the original zones. There are positives and negatives for each plan. However aggressive seems to be more effective on keeping prevalence down. There is no perfect plan. MI is moderately aggressive in their attack of an area, but extremely aggressive in their monitoring. IL is very aggressive on the attack of an area and a little less aggressive on monitoring. IL keeps their plan very accessible to the public online. There are studies that say mule deer decline is due to CWD.

Funding Mark Reiter

DNR 50% funded by licenses and federal match DFW 100% funded by licenses and federal match. We are operating on a $2,000,000/yr. deficit. The governor’s office has not been on board with license fee increases for the last 7 years. We believe that he will get on board after he gets re-elected and in his last term. Auto renewal license and multiyear licenses are being looked at as alternative ways to get funding. Commercial fisherman pays less than a sport fisherman. That needs fixed. If we just raised our Hunt, Fish, Bundle and Tag fees $5 it would cover the deficit, but Holcomb won’t let that happen. For us to certify a license we must have at least a $1 profit. If we charged at least $5 for the DAV license we could certify them and get federal funding. Once again Holcomb won’t let that happen. As stated he won’t even discuss it until after he’s re-elected and in his last term.

Bobcat – Representative Shane ? is drafting a bill, but it will not go anywhere. ISR will encourage it to turn into a resolution. The preference is to go through the NRC. Rules are easier to get fixed and/or changed. Example is the high-powered rifle was done poorly and hard to fix. It also sets a bad president. There is NO 5 year wait to take it up again. They will take it up again if the DNR pushes it. The DNR and hunters needs to educate the public. They have only ever educated the constituents, i.e. hunters fishermen and people who are affected. Also, we must get hunters and trappers out to the hearings this time. That will mean some people will need to take a vacation day.

R3 – Recruitment retention and reactivation of hunters and fisherman. They have decided that they cannot move the needle on their own. They are going to have a statewide R3 meeting March 16th and bring in experts from around the country on how to grow hunting. We need to get groups and people there. R3 activities are a big push. They are willing to work with NPO’s.