TPWD Gearing Up for CWD Response during Deer Season
Media Contact: Shawn Gray 432-837-2051, shawn.gray@tpwd.state.tx.us
Sept. 25, 2012
TPWD Gearing Up for CWD Response during Deer Season
Public hearings to include workshops for hunters, landowners
AUSTIN – Wildlife officials are asking mule deer hunters and landowners in
far West Texas to familiarize themselves with new protocols developed as part of
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s (TPWD) Chronic Wasting Disease response
plan. The plan includes mandatory check stations for harvested mule deer taken
inside the CWD Containment Zone, which covers portions of Hudspeth and El Paso
counties. See map of CWD zones at http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/cwd
.
The response plan is being implemented after tissue samples from two mule
deer in far West Texas this past summer tested positive for CWD. These are the
first cases of CWD detected in Texas deer.
CWD workshops will be held in conjunction with upcoming public hearings to
inform landowners, hunters, and outfitters about CWD, care of meat, appropriate
management actions, and check station requirements. TPWD will present proposed
amendments to deer movement rules, answer questions and take public comment
during the public hearing segment of the meetings.
Meetings are set for Oct. 2 in Fort Stockton at the Pecos County Civic
Center; Oct. 3 in Alpine at the Alpine Independent School District Auditorium;
and Oct. 4 in Van Horn at the Van Horn Convention Center. The workshops will
start at 6 p.m. and the public hearing will begin at 7:30 p.m.
CWD is a member of the group of diseases called transmissible spongiform
encephalopathies (TSEs). Other diseases in this group include scrapie in sheep,
bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or mad cow disease) in cattle, and
Cruetzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. CWD among cervids is a progressive, fatal
disease that commonly results in altered behavior as a result of microscopic
changes made to the brain of affected animals. An animal may carry the disease
for years without outward indication, but in the latter stages, signs may
include listlessness, lowering of the head, weight loss, repetitive walking in
set patterns, and a lack of responsiveness. CWD is not known to affect
humans.
There is no vaccine or cure for CWD, but steps have been taken to minimize
the risk of the disease spreading from beyond the area where it currently
exists. For example, within the CWD Containment Zone, human-induced movements of
wild or captive deer, elk, or other susceptible species will be restricted and
mandatory hunter check stations will be established.
Hunters taking mule deer inside the Containment Zone during the general
season, Nov. 23 – Dec. 9, are required to submit their harvest (unfrozen head)
for CWD sampling at mandatory check stations within 24 hours of harvest.
“We recommend hunters in the Containment Zone and High Risk Zone quarter
deer in the field and leave all but the quarters, backstraps and head at the
site of harvest if it is not possible to bury the inedible carcass parts at
least 6 feet deep on the ranch or take them to a landfill,” said Shawn Gray,
mule deer program leader for TPWD.
Hunters that harvest deer in the Containment Zone during the archery-only
season or outside the general season under the authority of MLDP (Managed Lands
Deer Permits) will need to call TPWD at (512) 221-8491 the day the deer is
harvested to make arrangements to have the deer sampled for CWD.
Mandatory check stations will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Nov. 23 – Dec.
10. Stations will be located in Cornudas at May’s Café (on US 62-180) and in Van
Horn at Van Horn Convention Center (1801 West Broadway).
In addition to protocols within the Containment Zone, TPWD has created a
High Risk Zone for voluntary CWD sampling during the hunting season. Biologists
have been collecting voluntary mule deer harvest data in the region since 1980
and this year CWD sampling will be offered in addition to age and weight
measurements.
Voluntary check stations will be set up at the following locations during
the first three weekends of the general season, Saturday through Monday (Nov.
24–26, Dec. 1–3 and Dec. 8–10), from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and 9
a.m. – 1 p.m. Monday:
Midland at Naturally Fresh (Deer Processor) (1501 Elwyn)
Bakersfield at Chevron Station (south of I10; Exit 294)
Sanderson at Slim’s Auto Repair (823 West Oak; Intersection of US 90 and
285)
Alpine at Hip-O Taxidermy (east side of town on US 90, across from Dairy
Queen)
“All deer brought to the check stations this season will be aged as part of
our CWD surveillance,” said Gray. “We also intend to collect other biological
information such as antler measurements and field dressed weights as time
allows.”
Although wildlife officials cannot say how long the disease has been
present in Texas or if it occurs in other areas of the state, they have had an
active CWD surveillance program for more than a decade.
“We have tested more than 26,500 wild deer in Texas since 2002, and the
captive-deer industry has submitted more than 7,400 CWD test results as well,”
said Mitch Lockwood, Big Game Program Director with TPWD. “But that part of West
Texas is the toughest place to conduct an adequate CWD surveillance program
because so few deer are harvested out there each hunting season. Thanks to the
cooperation and active participation of several landowners, we were able to
begin getting an idea of the prevalence and geographic distribution of the
disease without needing to remove many deer.”
More information on CWD can be found on TPWD’s website, http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/cwd or at
the Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance website, http://www.cwd-info.org
2012-09-25
> TPWD Gearing Up for CWD Response during Deer Season
I’m not holding my breath. ...TSS
Monday, September 17, 2012
New Mexico DGF EXPANDS CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CONTROL AREAS, while Texas
flounders
Monday, March 26, 2012
Texas Prepares for Chronic Wasting Disease CWD Possibility in Far West
Texas
Monday, March 26, 2012
3 CASES OF CWD FOUND NEW MEXICO MULE DEER SEVERAL MILS FROM TEXAS BORDER
Saturday, June 09, 2012
USDA Establishes a Herd Certification Program for Chronic Wasting Disease
in the United States
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
TAHC Modifies Entry Requirements Effective Immediately for Cervids DUE TO
CWD
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, July 07, 2012
TEXAS Animal Health Commission Accepting Comments on Chronic Wasting
Disease Rule Proposal
Considering the seemingly high CWD prevalence rate in the Sacramento and
Hueco Mountains of New Mexico, CWD may be well established in the population and
in the environment in Texas at this time.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Chronic Wasting Disease Detected in Far West Texas
key word here is _considering_. so consider this, CWD still spreading in
Texas. ...TSS
Friday, September 07, 2012
Texas Wildlife Officials Considering New Deer Movement Rules in Response to
CWD
Friday, August 31, 2012
COMMITTEE ON CAPTIVE WILDLIFE AND ALTERNATIVE LIVESTOCK and CWD 2009-2012 a
review
Friday, June 01, 2012
TEXAS DEER CZAR TO WISCONSIN ASK TO EXPLAIN COMMENTS
Friday, August 24, 2012
Diagnostic accuracy of rectal mucosa biopsy testing for chronic wasting
disease within white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) herds in North America
Saturday, September 01, 2012
Resistance of Soil-Bound Prions to Rumen Digestion
Monday, September 17, 2012
Rapid Transepithelial Transport of Prions Following Inhalation
TSS
posted by Terry S. Singeltary Sr. at
11:12 AM
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