Serious diseases such as chronic wasting disease (CWD) can be detrimental to whitetail deer management programs with mortalities impacting local deer numbers as well as regional and potentially even statewide deer populations. State agencies around the country have been monitoring CWD in deer herds for many years now, and they know that it is caused by prions, but much about the spread of the disease was unknown until now. Researchers have discovered that deer asymptomatic for the fatal brain condition known as CWD excrete the infectious prions that cause the disease in their feces.

The finding suggests a reasonable explanation for transmission of the disease among white-tailed deer, mule deer, and possibly elk and moose in the environment. While the study reveals that prions are shed in feces of symptomatic deer as well, the discovery that the infected deer shed prions in their feces many months before they show clinical symptoms is the most unsettling. White-tailed deer, mule deer, elk and moose inadvertently consume feces and soil in the course of their daily browsing and grazing. (more…)

State wildlife departments across the United States have continued with their annual Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) monitoring in wild deer populations. Although numerous research studies are underway, there is currently no vaccine or other biological method of preventing CWD in a free-ranging deer herd. The only tool wildlife biologists and hunters have is to prevent the spread of CWD to new areas, because once an infected prion is deposited into the environment through either an infected carcass or from a live deer, it can remain viable for a decade or more!

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) wildlife biologists and technicians have continued their annual testing of tissue samples (brain stems) from hunter-harvested and road-killed white-tailed deer during the 2008-09 hunting season. To date, Texas has had no documented case of CWD within the State. Many of the samples collected over the hunting season are being prepared for analysis at the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. (more…)

Question: A friend and I are considering starting a supplemental feeding program for the white-tailed deer population on his farm where we hunt. Our goal is to, over time produce larger, healthier bucks and does, as well as attract and holding a larger population of high-quality animals for hunting.

We are planning to implement food plots as the main approach to this end, but we are also considering supplemental feeding during the winter, when the does are carrying fawns and the bucks are shedding and preparing for the growth of the coming years antlers.

In my research on supplemental feeds, have I found several articles suggesting that supplemental feeding increases the chances of the transmission of diseases like ‘blue tongue’, which is normally associated with deer using the same watering hole as an infected animal. (more…)

Bluetongue is an insect-borne, viral disease primarily of sheep, but it occasionally goats and even white-tailed deer. The disease is non-contagious and is only transmitted by insect vectors, especially during periods of drought. The disease is actually caused by a virus belonging to the family Reoviridae.

Species That Can Be Affected

As mentioned, this is primarily a disease of sheep but other species such as goats, cattle, buffalo, antelope and whitetail deer can be infected. Don’t worry, humans can not be infected.

Distribution of Blue Tongue

The virus is present in the United States, so any area can potentially harbor the virus. However, outbreaks typically occurs repeatedly in areas where it has occurred before and especially during dry conditions.

Key Signs To Look For

Characters of disease include fever, widespread bleeding of the oral and nasal tissue, excessive salivation, and nasal discharge. In acute cases the lips and tongue will become swollen and this swelling may extend below the lower jaw.

Lameness, due to swelling of the cuticle above the hoofs and emaciation, due to reduced feed consumption because of painful inflamed mouths, may also be symptoms of this disease. The “blue tongue” that actually gives the disease its name occurs only in a small number of cases.

How Blue Tongue is Spread

The virus cannot be transmitted between susceptible white-tailed deer without the presence of insect carriers. The incidence and geographical distribution of bluetongue depends on seasonal conditions, the presence of insect vectors, and the availability of the density of deer. The insect carriers, biting midges, prefer warm, moist conditions and are in their greatest numbers and most active after it rains.

Life of the Blue Tongue Virus

Bluetongue virus does not survive outside the insect vectors or susceptible hosts. Deer carcases and products such as meat and hide are not a method of spread. Survival of the virus within a location is dependent on whether the vector can over winter in that area.

Controlling Blue Tongue

Within a wild population of deer, there is not much that can be done. With domestic animals, you can use a combination of quarantine and movement controls to prevent spread and reduce transmission and protect susceptible animals. As with just about every disease, less animals will become infected under lower densities.

Texas Parks & Wildlife Department sent out a news release urging deer hunters and meat processors, specifically those in South Texas, to take additional precautions when harvesting and handling deer carcasses during the upcoming season, due to concerns about possible spread of fever ticks in the region. Portions of Maverick, Dimmit and Webb counties are currently under livestock quarantine by the Texas Animal Health Commission due to heightened levels of fever ticks outside the permanent quarantine zone along the Rio Grande border.

If not contained, fever ticks could continue to spread northward outside the permanent fever tick quarantine area and become re-established in other areas of Texas. In addition to cattle, horses, white-tailed deer, Nilgai and elk can act as hosts for the tick.

“We’re asking that hunters use common sense and take precautions when handling and transporting deer taken on ranches within the quarantine zone,” said Wildlife Director Mike Berger, PhD. See the complete news release online by clicking here.

CWD is a brain disease related to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, also known as “Mad Cow Disease.” CWD affects elk, mule deer and white-tailed deer. Researchers are just beginning to understand CWD. CWD appears to be caused by an abnormal protein called a prion. CWD can be spread by close contact between animals, and animals exposed to a CWD-contaminated environment may also become infected.

Usually, months to years pass from when the animal is infected to when it shows signs of disease. Classic CWD signs in deer/elk 18 months or older include poor body condition, tremors, stumbling, increased salivation, difficulty swallowing, and excessive thirst or urination.

Typical signs of the disease include drooping head or ears, poor body condition, tremors, stumbling, increased salivation, difficulty swallowing, or excessive thirst or urination. In Minnesota, CWD has been discovered in two captive elk farms in Aitkin and Stearns counties. In the wild, over 15,000 deer have been tested and the disease has not been detected. The disease was first discovered in Colorado and Wyoming, and has since been detected in wild or captive animals in Illinois, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Montana, Utah, Wisconsin, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

CWD has been detected in wild and captive deer and elk populations in 12 states in the West and Midwest. Though it is deadly to some deer and elk species, there is no evidence that CWD is harmful to humans or other domestic livestock.