Another case of CWD in the wild deer of Missouri

[Four Season Whitetail's]

 So another case found in the wild deer and found this post from a QDMA member interesting. The QDMA say they want deer farms done away with to save the spread of a disease yet they still support one of the biggest ways CWD moves across the landscape.

Double standards or just an excuse?

 

QDMA Member

 

Join Date: Mar 2007

Location: Traverse City, MIchigan

Posts: 1,068

 

The deer in question was a 3.5 year old buck. According to the biologist in charge of Missouri's CWD eradication program, they assume that this buck dispersed from the CWD core area in Macon Co. as a yearling. Harvest location was approx. 25 miles form the core CWD area. The primary reason that the MDC rescinded the APR's in the CWD containment zone was to decrease yearling dispersal. It's likely, however, that many hunters in that area ignore the potentially negative impact of advancing the buck age structure and continue to pass on younger bucks.

This situation highlights the fact that in areas where communicable diseases like CWD and Bovine Tuberculosis are prevalent in free ranging deer, that hammering younger bucks is the sound and biologically correct practice to try and mitigate the spread of disease. It's unfortunate that QDMA is not focusing as much on the potential for hunter practices causing CWD to spread among free ranging deer, as they are about risk mitigation issues related to captive cervids. As recently as last year, QDMA was still promoting and endorsing the implementation of mandatory APR's in areas where communicable disease is known to exist.