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A head of a national wildlife conservation organization, dedicated to securing the future of the white-tailed deer, said the Pennsylvania Game Commission was right to propose removing the deer herd from the area.
Kip Adams, director of conservation at the Quality Deer Management Association, said there was not much success in managing the chronic debilitating disease.
"I am primarily a hunter, I understand, we never want to have less deer and we certainly do not like the deer slaughter that we will hunt," he said.
Adams said he was from Pennsylvania and that he was close to the issue, but he also works in more than 20 states a year.
"I've seen agencies come up with good ideas that failed because they did not effectively communicate the importance of these to the public or the hunters," he said. "I firmly believe that this has happened here with the Pennsylvania Game Commission."
Adams said the Game Commission was right on its targeted elimination plan.
"The reality is that the gambling commission is correct. The targeted removal of deer in this area presents the best chance of protecting the future interests of deer hunters in this area and the health of the deer herd. The best example we have is Illinois (in 2002). He said that when the CWD had been discovered in Wisconsin and Illinois, the two states had begun to make targeted referrals.
"Illinois has kept the MDC rate low. Wisconsin has stopped its targeted elimination and the rate of MDC has skyrocketed, " he said.
"Targeted elimination works and the reality is that this is the best for you and all hunters across the country in the long run. Nothing good will come if CWD rates continue to rise. This operation (targeted withdrawal) has proved to be the best impact strategy for hunters and livestock, " Adams said.
The Game Commission and a group of hunters and landowners are arguing over a proposal to use snipers to kill deer in Blair and Bedford counties in an attempt to limit the spread of MDC.
The commission planned to create sites for deer to gather and use US Department of Agriculture snipers to shoot down the flock earlier this year. But the plan was set aside for this year as agencies could not get enough permission from homeowners to enter their property.
Sportsmen for the Future, the group of hunters who are leading the charge against the Game Commission's targeted withdrawal plan, has issued statements and reports of reports of problems with Game Commission figures.
"The Gaming Commission presents the number of infected deer without taking into account the total number of deer tested. This information should be represented as "percent of deer that tested positive. "
In addition, the group cites studies indicating that CWD has little effect on population growth.
The average life expectancy of deer combined with the slow progression of the disease probably attenuated the effects of CWD on population growth, according to a peer-reviewed study published in the journal PLOS One, "Bayesian modeling of the dynamics of prion disease in mule deer."
The group also cites studies according to which CWD can not spread in domestic cows.
In addition, Matt Johnson, president of Sportsmen for the Future, Roaring Spring, said that Pennsylvania could not be compared to Illinois in terms of targeted elimination.
"Illinois is a completely different state. The terrain is completely different, " Johnson said, adding that the MDC was spreading, albeit slowly, in Illinois despite the targeted elimination.
"Illinois has never fired on the number of deer that the Pennsylvania Game Commission (2,000 to 2,500) would achieve," he said.
"The Gaming Commission admits that it will never stop it from spreading. They just hope to slow down the pace, until science offers something (to stop the MDC). "
The Gaming Commission released the final results of the cervid detection tests for 2018. There were 122 specimens positive for crown detections during the calendar year, up from 75 in 2017, a steady increase over the last year. previous years.
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