Now is the time to start preparing for it should it be found in your area
Hopefully you are aware that Chronic Wasting Disease has been found in Louisiana. CWD is a neurodegenerative disease of white-tailed deer, and infected deer eventually die from it. There is no cure, and the disease does not go away.
Once you get it, you have it on the landscape forever. It’s a disease that has been around in western states since the 1960s, but at that time biologists did not know what it was. The disease is also in the states that border Louisiana.
CWD has been found in Tensas and Catahoula parishes. There are also deer pens in Tangipahoa, St Landry, Concordia and Jefferson Davis parishes with infected deer. The deer in the three pens came from the positive pen in Jefferson Davis Parish. There are other pens around the state that received deer from there as well, so other parishes may eventually show up with diseased pens. You can go to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries website and read all about it and see the other parishes that may eventually be impacted.
It should be noted that some biologists and deer hunters have written CWD off as a government scam. Some of this thinking is because some states initially tried to eliminate deer from the infected area, rather than try to manage for it. That mindset was not good and created a lot of problems and mistrust. But make no mistake about it, the disease is real and it is not going away. Once you get it, you have it.
Here to stay
When LDWF first set up the regulations for CWD in Tensas Parish, I attended the legislative hearing regarding these new rules and regulations. All of the members of the committee wanted to know how long these regulations would last; of primary concern was the no feeding and baiting regulation. I don’t think they liked hearing that the disease does not go away.
Of major concern is the position of the Centers for Disease Control that recommends not eating the meat of deer that test positive for the disease. But it must be noted that CWD has not been shown to be contagious to humans. No doubt many humans have consumed deer and elk meat infected with the disease.
My outdoor writer friend Patrick Durkin up in Wisconsin told me that there are a lot of Wisconsin hunters eating meat infected with CWD. He referred to it as an experiment in progress. Should CWD show up in your area, this is something to seriously consider; do you want to feed your family and friends infected meat? But again, I have heard many well-known biologists say go ahead and eat the meat!
Preparations
I have also heard many wildlife biologists say it’s just a matter of time before it shows up across the state. So as a landowner or hunting club, what should you be doing to get ready for the disease? It will have a major impact on the way you hunt because the feeding and baiting of deer will most likely not be allowed.
CWD is spread by direct contact from deer to deer. There is a lot of natural deer contact from one animal to another from saliva, urine and feces. During the rut, bucks and does are licking branches, rubs and scrapes along with the other normal contact from animal to animal. Feeding, however, greatly increases the deer to deer contact and this is the reason that it is prohibited.
So, if you can’t hunt a feeder, what are you going to do? In habitat with a good oak component this is not a problem; one hunts the mast trees. For piney woods hunters this is big problem. Planting food plots and hunting food plots is allowed, so this would be the other option for hunting a food source.
Landowners who do not have a good oak component in their woods should start planting and growing some hardwood stands rather than having a dominant stand of pine. From day one when we purchased our small tract of land in 2007 I began planting more hardwoods. But this is long term management. I might get to see some acorns from some of the trees, but for the most part my son and grandsons will be the ones to benefit.
Chestnut trees are fast growing and produce mast within 7-8 years. Soft mast trees such as pears, crab apples, mayhaws and persimmons will also provide a source of food for hunting. My main point is now is the time to be doing work on the landscape.
Get your deer tested
CWD can be managed, and the worst thing that could happen is to stop shooting deer. It generally takes several years for the disease to kill a deer, but during that time it is infecting other animals. The mindset today is to let the small bucks get bigger, but that probably is not the best way to manage a herd with CWD. Shoot bucks and does across all age classes. One study showed that if 40 percent of the adult bucks were shot annually, the spread of the disease was low. I doubt if many landowners or clubs are harvesting their adult bucks at that rate.
The important thing to do is get your deer tested. For many years now I have been taking samples from the deer we kill on our property in East Feliciana Parish and giving them to LDWF for testing. The department is trying to sample deer from all parishes, and they have made it fairly easy for hunters to get their deer tested. Hunters submit the head from their harvested deer. The biologists then remove two glands from the throat area and the brain stem and submit them to the testing center.
If the hunter kills a buck and wants to keep the rack, they can remove the skull plate with the antlers and then submit the rest of the head for testing. Many deer processors are set up to collect heads for LDWF. If a hunter wants to mount the deer, the taxidermist can remove the skull plate when caping the head out. Keep in mind there are specific regulations pertaining to transporting harvested deer that are killed in the designated CWD Control Area.
LDWF has established designated collecting sites around the Control Area. Hunters can take the heads to these locations and put them on ice. The head should not be frozen.
The main problem for hunters is the delay from time of harvest to the time the sample is tested, but I think LDWF has sped up the process. Work with the private lands biologists in your region, and if you have not started testing deer, start now.
Stay informed about CWD, follow the rules and regulations the department has established to manage the disease and above all, keep deer hunting!
