4mo ago

‘Don’t call it zombie deer disease’: scientists warn of ‘global crisis’ as infections spread across the US

www.theguardian.com

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How it started: No you don't understand we need hunters to kill deer to control their population, that's why we raise them on farms en masse so people can buy them to release on their property to hunt
How it's going: oh god it's in the soil the prions are in the soil they're in the plants fire's not enough to destroy them oh god oh god
- Fire no, but the ash changes the chemistry in the soil and can neutralize the prions.
- It's not too late to fix this.
  lmao get owned
The USA is going to destroy the entire planet through climate change, pestilence and disease, and nuclear war.
Studies show that having healthy wild carnivores on a landscape can help weed out sick CWD-carrying elk and deer, but states in the northern Rockies have adopted policies aimed at dramatically reducing wolves, bears and mountain lions.
And the doubling down continues.
I get the point they're making but, at least to me, the zombie-prion comparison is pretty apt and helps convey the sense of "irreversible and unstoppable" that people may not grasp right away
Now if only half the country wasn't
about the idea of "getting sweet headshots" on the rest of humanity...
I live in south Texas. Everyone and their grandmother hunts whitetail and mule deer. Canned hunts or otherwise.
A former long time friend of mine has a small plot of land near Hueco Mountains, which was the first place CWD was found in free range whitetail deer back in like 2015-2016 (not where I live so I’m not doxing myself). He had offered me backstrap a couple times until I mentioned that it is a Texas Parks and Wildlife monitoring zone for CWD. He quit offering it to me, once I told him I’d report him to TPWD back around 2018-2019. We have a mutual circle of friends, and he still brings it down to give away to family. He feeds his children venison from possibly tainted deer.
I’d not be surprised if he or someone in his family is patient zero in ten years once the prions begin their misfolding.
- Does he process the carcass himself or take it to a USDA certified facility? At least with a USDA certified facility there should be an expectation that testing is done.
  
  He processes it himself. I’m not sure of the specifics wrt how heavily these CWD zones are observed or enforced. I’m not sure what the procedure is for hunting in a CWD area. I used to hunt, but this was well over 25 years ago, so I just don’t keep up with it any more. I know for certain there are tons of small mom n pop places around that will process venison and not ask too many questions about who shot it or where it came from. Lotta hillbillies that just need cash and dgaf about game origins.

9 comments