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It has always been a question of when and not if, given the events of recent years.
It's when.
Chronic debilitating disease, or CWD, is in the range of Pennsylvania elk.
To be clear, no one has yet detected the ever-fatal condition that affects deer, elk, moose and other deer in a Pennsylvania elk.
But last week, officials from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture announced the discovery of MDC-infected deer on high-fence captive farms in Fulton and Clearfield counties. They found a sick doe in the Fulton County facility, a sick male killed by a hunter in that of Clearfield.
As part of its MDC containment strategy, whenever a sick deer is found, the Pennsylvania Game Commission places a pin on a map indicating the site of the infection. Then he draws a circle of 10 miles around.
The area inside the circle becomes a disease management area.
This puts some rules in play. Hunters can not use urine-based deer perfumes, or move parts of deer out of the disease area, for example. The feeding of deer is also prohibited.
The discovery of Clearfield deer did not necessitate the creation of a new disease management area. Instead, the Commission has expanded the boundaries of the disease management area 3.
This puts the range of elk in an area of illness "for the first time," said Executive Director Bryan Burhans.
This should not surprise anyone.
The trend
Discovered for the first time in Pennsylvania on a captive deer facility in 2012, CWD has spread exponentially in the state, both in terms of geography and prevalence.
"It seems that we are currently seeing the early stages of CWD infection as it begins to grow. And we can look to other states to see what the future holds for us if we do not take action, "said Chris Rosenberry, head of the commission's deer and elk section.
This future is not promising.
In West Virginia and Wisconsin, according to Rosenberry, MDC infection rates exceed 25%. Pennsylvania is headed in the same way in 10 to 15 years if nothing changes, he said.
What to do is the question, though.
Containing the disease
The commission began this winter with the hope of using a two part strategy.
Part 1 concerns "travelers" or newly documented cases of MDC that appear outside known infection areas. Jared Oyster, the Commission's coordinator on deer destruction, said the commission was planning to use snipers to kill deer, probably between 100 and 200, within a two-mile radius of these animals. .
The goal, he said, is to eliminate and test enough deer to be 90% sure that no more than 1% of deer in the region are positive for CWD.
These "targeted withdrawals" are "the only effective method known to slow down or stop the MDC," he said.
"If we do not do it, it's almost like we're managing the deer blindly," Oyster said.
The second part of the strategy had to be a test.
The commission made available 3,000 additional antlerless deer licenses during the last hunting season for part of disease management zone 2 in south-central Pennsylvania. The hope was that hunters would reduce the number of deer.
Thus, other states are trying to control the spread of CWD.
To reinforce this effort, the commission was planning to use snipers to eliminate an additional number of supposedly deer, although never fully defined, from this region.
"Ideally, the harvest of the hunters would be the only action we used. However, targeted harvesting can help reduce deer populations more quickly, "said Rosenberry. "And time is the important component here."
The hunters of this region have revolted. Some bought billboards to oppose targeted moves and threatened to sue the commission. Landowners, meanwhile, have largely refused to allow the commission to slaughter deer on their property.
As a result, the commission recently abandoned this plan.
Burhans, presenting its annual report to members of the House of Representatives Game and Fisheries Committee this week, told lawmakers that the commission would try to further "engage the public" before going forward. .
Antler restrictions
In the meantime, the legislators themselves have proposed possible solutions.
Representative Bill Kortz, the Allegheny County Democrat who chairs the commission, suggested to the commission to remove or relax restrictions on timber in CWD infected areas. This would allow hunters to help reduce the deer population, he said.
"It just makes sense to let them do it rather than the snipers," Kortz said.
Rep. David Maloney, a Berks County Republican, suggested removing restrictions on ferrywood throughout the state. A handful of other states have chosen this route recently, he said.
The commission is studying wood restrictions, at least in disease management areas, Burhans said. But that might be useless, he says.
The commission was able to find "no evidence" that the restrictions on timber favor the spread of the debilitating disease, he said.
It's because of the young dollars. It is the most dangerous blanket in the woods, he said.
By dispersing, that is, leaving their places of birth, they move more often and further than any other deer, he said. And they can take the disease with them.
Burhans said the problem is that they move before growing their first set of visible woods. Thus, if they are really sick, they have already spread the disease before hunters can shoot them, whether they have wood restrictions or not, he said.
Contradictory research
Maloney had another suggestion.
"My concern has always been that we are more than 50 years old, at the national level, with no solution" to the MDC problem, he said.
He suggested that the commission consider new research.
A group of hunters, the Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania, held a press conference in February to announce their intention to support the work of Frank Bastian, a professor at the School of Animal Science at Louisiana State University.
Bastian says that MDC is caused not by unwanted prions or deformed proteins, as has long been believed, but by a previously unknown species of bacteria.
"This breakthrough has changed the game in that it is now possible to develop a vaccine, an antibiotic, to prevent and cure MDC," said John Eveland, Unified's Scientific Advisor.
Eveland added that Bastian was waiting for a field test allowing hunters to know if a deer was sick immediately after killing him within 12 to 18 months, an injectable vaccine to use on the deer and elk in captivity within 24 months, as well as an oral or nasal vaccine. for use on wild deer and elk in the 36.
He predicted that Bastian's work, which could eventually cure 15% of misdiagnosed patients around the world, will ultimately have a Nobel Prize.
Incredulity
Others, however, do not buy that.
The National Deer Alliance has stated that no other researcher has duplicated Bastian's findings, "despite rigorous attempts in this direction." In fact, all other research around the world in the field of MDC indicates that prions are the cause.
The "flagship" study of the disease has already won a Nobel Prize, he noted.
"There is an international agreement among scientific agencies, including Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that prions would be the infectious agent responsible for the disease (MDC and other similar diseases)," said Krysten. Schuler, wildlife ecologist and co-director of the Cornell Wildlife Health Laboratory.
According to Schuler, viruses and bacteria are not considered as potential causes of the disease for a number of reasons. They include "lack of immune response, resistance to normal disinfection procedures, persistence of the environment for years, even decades, as well as extensive genetic studies".
The Deer Alliance recently spoke in favor of the Commission's CSD management strategy. A number of other groups have done the same: the Quality Deer Management Association, the Pennsylvania Federation of Athletes and Environmental Advocates, the Archery Federation, the Athletes' Foundation. of the Congress, the Mule Deer Foundation, the National Wildlife Federation, the Pope and Young Club, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.
Moving forward
This plan is scalable, Burhans said. But the commission must continue to do everything in its power to fight against the waste of diseases, he said.
Burhans said it would be better to use hunters to do the same – there is no other choice, really.
"Ignoring this disease will lead to a result: the prevalence of MDC and its spread throughout the state," he said. "When MDC prevalence rates become too high, it is unlikely that we can go back."
Bob Frye is the publisher of EverybodyAdventures.com. Contact him at 412-216-0193 or by email. See more stories, blogs, videos and more on EverybodyAdventures.com.
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