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As an ever-fatal neurological disease in elk and deer is moving closer to Wyoming's foraging grounds, it's time for wildlife managers and the public to have a serious conversation, said Scott Talbott, director from Wyoming.
Chronic wasting disease is slowly moving westward across the state since its discovery in 1985 in southeastern Wyoming. The maps of its spread resemble spider webs always reaching the east and west, north and south.
"I think that chronic wasting disease is the biggest threat to the North American model since its inception," said Talbott recently, referring to the concept that hunters and fishers pay for the management of fish and fish. wildlife. "If all these pessimistic scenarios come true, it could change the game for us."
Because of these concerns, Game and Fish plans to launch a massive statewide information campaign to talk to people about the severity of the disease, what could happen to the feeding areas, and how much they can do. help from hunters.
Looking at the numbers, it is easy for an athlete to be discouraged by the disease.
In mule deer and white-tailed deer, it kills almost all infected animals. In momentum, it is probably the case. In the United States, deer hunters account for 62% of the $ 498 million in licenses and permits sold in 2011, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Of the 18 billion dollars spent on hunting in the country, 47% came from deer hunters. And deer hunting has supported more than 310,000 jobs across the country.
"If the hunt was a business, the amount spent by athletes in 2011, let alone today, would put it in the Fortune 500," said Chris Dolnack, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of the National Shooting Sports Foundation. "It's time for us to do this because stag and deer hunting is an extraordinary economic force."
Dolnack was speaking in a series of panels on chronic debilitating disease at a recent summit organized by the conservation partnership Theodore Roosevelt.
All of these numbers mean that if deer populations drop dramatically or if fears continue to spread to humans, hunting may not be able to pay for wildlife management.
"The MDC is the biggest threat to the future of deer and deer hunting," he said.
Chronic wasting disease, as opposed to many other wildlife diseases, is particularly confusing for wildlife managers, biologists and disease specialists. It is caused by a prion, or protein, that mutates in the body. When each mutated protein meets another protein in the body, it instantly changes it. The scientific name is transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, which literally means Swiss cheese in the brain, said Jonathan Mawdsley, senior scientific advisor to the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. Ultimately, the disease causes holes in an animal's brain to form, creating visible signs such as lethargy, excessive salivation, and weight loss. While animals will eventually die of the disease, they also have a higher probability of dying by something like a car collision or a predator than a healthy deer.
It can not be cured by a known vaccine or killed by an antibiotic. He passes from one animal to another by touch, and some research shows that he can live in the ground up to 16 years old.
The human variation of the disease is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob. In cattle it is mad cow disease and in domestic sheep is scrapie. Until recently, researchers thought that it could not be transmitted to humans, but an unpublished study in Canada indicates that it can be administered to a type of monkey called macaque by consuming infected deer meat. Although this study creates more questions than answers, Talbott said.
"There does not seem to be anything with this disease that's clear," said Talbott. "The only thing I can tell you is when an animal gets it, it dies."
With other wildlife managers, the disease can impact the population of deer and elk herds.
While it's easy to feel helpless, wildlife managers, like Talbott, say that hunters can already play a role in contributing to research and helping to prevent its spread.
First, do not drive carcasses, he said. Leave the brain and spinal tissues in the field at the killing site or take it to a landfill.
"Get rid of your carcasses and watch the carcass shipping guidelines very carefully," he said. "You saw county roads littered with carcasses, but carcass disposal and transportation are two things people can do now.
And always have your pet tested if it comes from an area known to have the MDC, or somewhere Game and Fish is currently monitoring the possibility of an infection.
Game and Fish also plans to launch a public information campaign to help the public understand the seriousness of the disease and begin to think about possible solutions. It will be similar to the Mule Deer initiative, launched in 2013 with troubled herds of deer in the Wyoming Range and Platte Valley.
"It will not go away. This is not a flash in the pan. It's not like the epizootic haemorrhagic disease that kills a bunch of deer and disappears in a year, "said Talbott, referring to epizootic haemorrhagic disease. "It's very persistent. There are a lot of messages out there. We must prepare for and cope with this disease and public education is an important part of it.
The states and the federal government must invest in the fight against chronic debilitating disease, said Dan Forster, vice president and director of conservation at the Archery Trade Association.
Instead of considering the hunting industry, especially deer hunting, as an element to be funded, state and federal agencies should see it as an investment.
"The money we need through surveillance continues to be on the backs of hunters," he said. "We need to invest in the things we know that will help us fight the disease. It's surveillance; that search; and that's the communication. "
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