What Does a Deer With CWD Look Like? Chronic Wasting Disease in Wild Whitetails 

I’m only here out of interest in CWD but y’all give gun owners and hunters a great name. Good job man

i don't hunt but i enjoy learning about animals and nature, even the unfortunate parts of it like this. i appreciate your clarity in explaining this topic as well as your respect for these animals

Prions are what scare the beejeebus out of me. My professor said they are proteins fold a certain way, prions fold the opposite and take the spot of the normal ones. Then you are left with unfunctional proteins. He said its like the difference between the left and right hand.

I saw a doe yesterday running around in my neighbors field like a maniac for about 15 mins. Running around full speed for no reason as other deer looked on like it was out of its mind. I live in Clarksville TN btw which is pretty west TN.

since it is so contagious, what about those nearby predators? wolf, bear and coyotes?

Im in Michigan so we cant hunt over bait because they dont want deer to group up even though they do that naturally but karen next door is allowed to feed then with a food pile as long as shes not hunting over it..... Makes a lot of sense to me

These deer eat and urinate in the same fields beef cattle feed. Are they affecting them too?

I've been reassured that CWD does not affect domestic livestock. However, My sister in law's horse contacted CWD following drinking from a forest stream.

The problem with CWD is its a prion. What is that? In my biology class my prof explained it this way. Stay with me. He said what is alive? That's hard to explain. He then answered it this way. What is a dog? If you cut off its ears, is it still a dog? It's nose, is it still a dog? It's legs? It's tail? It's a funny looking dog, but still a dog. Well, you cut off It's head. It's dog meat, but still a dog. Or is it now not a dog? At what point is it no longer a dog? Then he circled back to what is alive and prions. Viruses, bacteria and prions will all make you sick or kill you. A bacteria is a bug. It has its own cells, it is its own creature. It has cell walls, enzymes, it's own DNA, cytoplasm, everything. It's easy to kill because it is its own creature. It lives next to your cells, its a neighbor. It built a house on an empty lot. A virus on the other hand is different. A virus lives in your cells. It uses your cells to reproduce, your cytoplasm, your cell walls. It's just some errant DNA that gets injected into your cell and takes it over. It's like a squatter in a house in your neighborhood. You are the city and the houses are your cells. They are more difficult to get rid of because you would have to destroy your own cells, and your cells look like your cells whereas the bacteria look like invaders. You can't tell them apart until they pop and send the viruses off to other cells to infect them. You can catch a messenger traveling between cells, but once they've infected a cell, you can't evict the squatter. So now prions. They act like a virus, they live inside your cells, use your cells to reproduce, but are they alive? How do you kill them? Mad cow is prion. It can "live" outside your cells indefinitely where a virus can't live outside your body anymore then 20 minutes. If you took a cow infected with MCD and slaughtered it, took its corpse, incinerated it to 2000⁰F for a day, where anything known to "live" would be dead. It is now considered sterilized. Take that finely burned ash, inject it into a cow and it would immediately get MCD. Take that dirt from a field that had a cow that had MCD and inject it into a cow, now positive with MCD. How do we kill this? Is it even alive? Mad cow and this are both prions. I'm open to suggestions.

Where/how do you store the deer while you wait for the meat results to get back? What do you do with the positive deer body/meat once you know it's positive? I assume you can't eat it.

People need to keep commercial feeds away from deer. If you knew what things go into cow and hog feed you would understand. These are the same reason Europe has banned beef imports from the US several times.

Saw a deer 2 days having a whole body spasms while walking with it's 3 other deer. (full body meaning, it fell once; then few ft later, half way fell, with jerking motions). DNR only allows reporting in the tool if one can indicate the treatment or death. Not sure where to report it.

If all hunters don't test for it than how would you know how fast this thing is spreading 🤔

Don’t think I’d rely on the who or the cdc for accuracy

if half of the deer in his area have CWD, there is almost certainly some major contamination nearby. those deer are probably drinking water out of an old mine or some similar shiz. contaminated with heavy metals = bad for think think.

So can I still field dress and gut my deer out in the field if it may have CWD?

I have been hunting 2 decades and have never seen one before. Did any of you see one? Curious. I don’t trust any media and news.

We had a doe wandering around over a week ago here in Pulaski county, Arkansas, that looked like she had CWD. The Arkansas Game And Fish Commission was informed about it. Haven't seen the rest of the deer herd that usually passes through here. I wonder how widespread it is.

Absolutely no way to tell if a deer has CWD until it is in it's final sages. Last year I took a healthy mule deer that was covering does and running off smaller bucks. Everything indicated he was healthy. Unfortunately he tested positive for CWD.

So is cwd kinda like cancer but instead of just cells it protein

Big question is what are these deer being fed? Antler growth supplements? Could GMO crops be a contributing factor? Hard questions nobody wants to look at. We know mad cow prions came from feeding herbivores feed made from other herbivores. Who was the genius that came up with that idea? If we’re not looking long and hard and talking about the possible causes will never contain or eradicate this problem.

Why don’t we do this, why don’t we finance scientists to find a cure, or preventative measures for CWD? And introduce it to Corn, I ain’t saying give it away, but a cost effective, quick way to ensure deer in your hunting area are treated would be through a food source. Just a thought, and as far as those areas that are “no bait” zones, we could use the feed in the Spring or Summer months when hunting season is out… just a suggestion.

So is killing as many deer as possible in a DSA a good management practice? In theory it only takes one infected animal to start the spread all over again. I understand banning bait/mineral sites but late season food sources and harsh winters pull an incredible amount of deer into close proximity of one another in my area. What state would you consider to be the model for all others to follow in successfully managing CWD?

OK, so what about the processor that takes the deer in and grants it up? Does it not spread the CWD germs every other deer cause we know they mix things up when they’re cutting meat

I've seen two deer on my farm property that didn't seem to be acting right. I'm not a hunter but my cousins hunt in my timber. Should I contact my DNR office?

Thanks!

I'm wondering about the chain of custody when it comes to testing.. throwing heads in the same bin doesn't seem all that smart when you are trying to test for a disease. then you presented a picture of all the heads un-isolated on a table. Wouldn't be surprised if there where a lot of false positives.

Where did it come from

Thank you so much for this.

Good informative video, Thank you.

A1-2 year incubation is highly suspect in any illness.

Yo I got pics and video of a buck and a doe in my yard in sept 2024 both skinny and can hardly walk and just look like death. The other deer around chase them off aggressively. The buck looked sick for a few days and I haven’t seen it since however the doe is here daily. Who should I show these to or tell. I live in small town NW Montana. Thanks

If you look closely to the side of the deer was starting to go green real quick

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How does it spread? In the images the hunters were getting very close to the corpse, is it harmless to humans?

What about people if they eat it?

So are you able to eat these deer ?

Why hasn't biologist put forth the effort to develop a vaccine for this disease for the amount of money the hunting industry brings to a state's revenue and the number of years cwd has been around especially now that farming white tail deer has become another source of revenue for state's bringing in millions of dollars for the state's that allow deer farming

What happens if you eat them

They are in north Florida too in my unexpert opinion. I have video and pictures taken by my family.

966 Dannie Manor

is this contatous to humans?

Better come up with an antidote and feed it out . or get rid of them .

Can sasquatch get it iam worried .Calling China

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Looks like I ain't leaving Australia we don't any animals that can get it

Bet there's people not giving a damm to that

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Why In The H Do We Manage CWD ??? Not Once Did I Hear THE WORD CURE CWD !!! WHY .

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It is what it is, nothing anyone can do about it! And maybe those deer supposedly testing positive we’re building immunity to it as well?

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So it’s like mad cow disease.

And that's exactly why human hunters aren't equipped to hunt in the first place.

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Antler restrictions should be done away with

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They all will have it from here now in because if a mother has it and has baby's the Baby is going to have it 100% so will be normal thing in animal and humans , as it passed on to the animal or human who eat infection deer

You never actually showed what a deer with cwd acts or looks like you just a bunch of still images and dead deer after they been shot.

Why does this seem more like rabies?

T

I am here to learn. Just sick that humans mostly hunt the biggest, most beautiful animal for trophy instead of just a healthy one for consumption. Kill the ill and survive by only taking what you need

When the WHO is involved and recomend something you better do the exact opposite... i will still eat it with or without CWD ..they just wanna find a reason not to hunt and eat healthy meat ...

Bottom line - is it an actual issue? Or a money grab?

That's a lot of deer you have killed.. Understand if they are ill but don't see the fun in killing a healthy deer I think it's sick

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