Texas Senate Bill 2649 creation of a statewide Chronic Wasting Disease plan
Bill Text: TX SB2649 | 2025-2026 | 89th Legislature | Introduced
Texas Senate Bill 2649
TX State Legislature page for SB2649
Summary Sponsors Texts Votes Research Comments Track Introduced
Bill Title: Relating to the creation of a statewide Chronic Wasting Disease plan.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2025-04-03 - Referred to Water, Agriculture, & Rural Affairs [SB2649 Detail]
Download: Texas-2025-SB2649-Introduced.html
By: Hall S.B. No. 2649
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT
relating to the creation of a statewide Chronic Wasting Disease plan.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Chapter 11, Parks and Wildlife Code, is amended by adding Subchapter Q to read as follows:
SUBCHAPTER Q. CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE IN DEER.
Sec. 11.501. ASSESSMENT BY THE TEXAS A&M COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES.
(a) The Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences shall evaluate the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife's overall Chronic Wasting Disease management since 2015 in general and the department's implementation of the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife's August 2020 Chronic Wasting Disease Management Plan.
(b) The Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences shall compare the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife's overall Chronic Wasting Disease management since 2015 in general and the department's implementation of the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife's August 2020 Chronic Wasting Disease Management Plan to:
(1) Other states' plans and policies related to Chronic Wasting Disease in deer;
(2) Any national standards related to Chronic Wasting Disease in deer; and
(3) Any generally accepted practices related to Chronic Wasting Disease in deer.
(c) The Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences shall create a Statewide Chronic Wasting Disease Plan that describes plans and policies used by other states, national standards, and any other generally accepted practices related to Chronic Wasting Disease in deer.
(d) The executive director of the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife shall implement the practices described by the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences' Statewide plan related to Chronic Wasting Disease in the state's deer population.
(e) The Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences shall monitor the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife's implementation of the Statewide Chronic Wasting Disease Plan. The Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences shall create a report detailing the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife's implementation of the Statewide Chronic Wasting Disease Plan. The Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences shall send the report to each member of the legislature, the lieutenant governor, and the Texas Sunset Commission before the beginning of each legislative session.
SECTION 2. Chapter 161, Agriculture Code, is amended by adding Subchapter I to read as follows:
SUBCHAPTER I. CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE IN DEER.
Sec. 161.160. ASSESSMENT BY THE TEXAS A&M COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES.
(a) The Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences shall evaluate the Texas Animal Health Commission's overall Chronic Wasting Disease management since 2015 in general and the department's implementation of the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife's August 2020 Chronic Wasting Disease Management Plan.
(b) The Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences shall compare the Texas Animal Health Commission's overall Chronic Wasting Disease management since 2015 in general and the Texas Animal Commission's implementation of the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife's August 2020 Chronic Wasting Disease Management Plan to:
(1) Other states' plans and policies related to Chronic Wasting Disease in deer;
(2) Any national standards related to Chronic Wasting Disease in deer; and
(3) Any generally accepted practices related to Chronic Wasting Disease in deer.
(c) The Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences shall create a Statewide Chronic Wasting Disease Plan that describes plans and policies used by other states, national standards, and any other generally accepted practices related to Chronic Wasting Disease in deer.
(d) The executive director of the Texas Animal Health Commission shall implement the practices described by the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences' Statewide related to Chronic Wasting Disease in the state's deer population.
(e) The Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences shall monitor the Texas Animal Health Commission's implementation of the Statewide Chronic Wasting Disease Plan. The Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences shall create a report detailing the Texas Animal Health Commission's implementation of the Statewide Chronic Wasting Disease Plan. The Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences shall send the report to each member of the legislature, the lieutenant governor, and the Texas Sunset Commission before the beginning of each legislative session.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this Act takes effect September 1, 2025.
https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB2649/2025
SO, i think I see the bigger picture here now. Evidently, imho, seems that’s exactly what Texas is going to do, LEGISLATIVE CWD, let the legislators pick the science they choose best for the industry bottom dollar, as opposed to the TPWD and TAHC using the best and most updated peer reviewed science, to contain and protect the wild Cervid, other animals, and humans. how sad, hope I’m wrong, but from past history, right here in Texas, this has not worked in the past, in has only hendered the TPWD, TAHC, efforts to try and contain CWD TSE Prion. The captive Cervid industry have fought the TPWD and TAHC in trying to stop or contain CWD TSE Prion at every turn, imo…terry
I thought Texas had a CWD Surveillance Plan?
What could have happened?
Sunday, December 14, 2014
TEXAS 84th Legislature commencing this January, deer breeders are expected to advocate for bills that will seek to further deregulate their industry
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2014/12/texas-84th-legislature-commencing-this.html
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2014/12/texas-84th-legislature-2015-hr-no-2597.html
Outraged San Antonio Lawmaker Hints At Legislative Oversight For Parks And Wildlife
By RYAN POPPE • JUN 21, 2016
A handful of lawmakers at the state capitol are outraged by the latest regulations adopted by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission.
The new rules are aimed at controlling the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease among the Texas deer population.
Following the passage of the updated regulations, Rep. Lyle Larson, a Republican from San Antonio sent out a tweet that chastised Parks and Wildlife officials for violating private property owner’s rights.
Larson says he is one of several state lawmakers who has vowed to reign in the mandates put out by the state agency during the 2017 session.
“Parks and Wildlife definitely needs to have some legislative oversight. They passed these rules outside the legislature and I think you will see a number of bills that try to protect private property rights and protect the deer industry. It’s a billion dollar industry in the State of Texas,” Larson says.
Larson says he’s pleased the new deer regulations include a “live” test for the disease, but he says the test is expensive.
So for those ranchers who cannot afford the test they will have to continue to kill off sections of their herd in order to stay compliant with the state directive.
The new rules for controlling the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease were adopted by the Commission this week.
Commissioners say the new regulation will help protect the industry and Texas' 4-million deer population.
TAGS: Outraged San Antonio Lawmaker Hints At Legislative Oversight For Parks And Wildlife
By RYAN POPPE • JUN 21, 2016
REP. LYLE LARSON
A handful of lawmakers at the state capitol are outraged by the latest regulations adopted by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission. The new rules are aimed at controlling the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease among the Texas deer population. Following the passage of the updated regulations, Rep. Lyle Larson, a Republican from San Antonio sent out a tweet that chastised Parks and Wildlife officials for violating private property owner’s rights.
http://tpr.org/post/outraged-san-antonio-lawmaker-hints-legislative-oversight-parks-and-wildlife#stream/0 http://tpr.org/post/outraged-san-antonio-lawmaker-hints-legislative-oversight-parks-and-wildlife
https://tpwd.texas.gov/newsmedia/releases/?req=20250227b
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2025/02/texas-game-wardens-bust-illegal-deer.html
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2025/02/texas-animal-health-commission-423rd.html
“CWD spreads among wild populations at a relatively slow rate, limited by the natural home range and dispersed nature of wild animals.”
NOW HOLD YOUR HORSES, Chronic Wasting Disease CWD of Cervid can spread rather swiftly, traveling around 50 MPH, from the back of truck and trailer, and Here in Texas, we call it ‘Trucking CWD’…
Preventive Veterinary Medicine Volume 234, January 2025, 106385
Use of biosecurity practices to prevent chronic wasting disease in Minnesota cervid herds
Vehicles or trailers that entered the farm were used to transport other live cervids, cervid carcasses, or cervid body parts in past 3 years in 64.3 % (95 % CI 46.3–82.3) of larger elk/reindeer herds compared to 13.6 % (95 % CI 4.7–22.4) of smaller deer herds.
Snip…
Identifying the exact pathway of initial CWD transmission to cervid herds is often not possible, in part due to many potential pathways of transmission for the infection, including both direct and indirect contact with infected farmed or wild cervids (Kincheloe et al., 2021). That study identified that transmissions from infected farmed cervids may occur from direct contact with the movement of cervids from one herd to another and from indirect contact with the sharing of equipment, vehicles, clothing, reproductive equipment, and potentially through semen or embryos.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S016758772400271X
***> Department records indicate that within the last five years (since January 1, 2020), 30 deer breeding facilities where CWD has been confirmed transferred a total of 8,799 deer to 249 additional deer breeding facilities and 487 release sites located in a total of 144 counties in Texas. <***
https://www.sos.state.tx.us/texreg/pdf/backview/0411/0411adop.pdf
Texas Kimble County Farm Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion Approximate Herd Prevalence 12%
SUMMARY MINUTES OF THE 407th COMMISSION MEETING Texas Animal Health Commission
September 22, 2020
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD):
A new CWD positive breeding herd was disclosed in February 2020 in Kimble County. This herd depopulation was completed in July 2020. Including the two index positive deer, an additional eight more positive deer were disclosed (approximate herd prevalence 12%). Since July 2015 and prior to this discovery, five positive captive breeder herds have been disclosed and four of those are in Medina County. One herd in Lavaca and three herds in Medina County were depopulated leaving one large herd in Medina County that is managed on a herd plan. A new zone was established in Val Verde County in December 2019 as a result of a positive free-ranging White-tailed Deer (WTD). A second positive WTD was also disclosed in February 2020 in the same area.
SUMMARY MINUTES OF THE 407th COMMISSION MEETING – 9/22/2020
Scrapie: The flock identified in April 2016 remains under quarantine in Hartley County.
https://www.tahc.texas.gov/agency/meetings/minutes/SummaryMinutes_CommMtg_2020-09-22
http://web.archive.org/web/20201017124040/https://www.tahc.texas.gov/agency/meetings/minutes/SummaryMinutes_CommMtg_2020-09-22.pdf
“It is interesting to note that, in 2001, the State of Texas shifted its deer management strategies toward the same leanings that Kroll has suggested for Wisconsin. In Texas, the change was brought about via heavy lobbying from the high-fence deer ranching industry. This pressure helped convince the Texas Parks and Wildlife to change their regulations and allow private landowners to select the own deer biologists.”
According to Wisconsin’s White-Tailed Deer Trustee Dr. James Kroll, people who call for more public hunting opportunities are “pining for socialism.” He further states, “(Public) Game management is the last bastion of communism.”
“Game Management,” says James Kroll, driving to his high-fenced, two-hundred-acre spread near Nacogdoches, “is the last bastion of communism.” Kroll, also known as Dr. Deer, is the director of the Forestry Resources Institute of Texas at Stephen F. Austin State University, and the “management” he is referring to is the sort practiced by the State of Texas. The 55-year-old Kroll is the leading light in the field of private deer management as a means to add value to the land. His belief is so absolute that some detractors refer to him as Dr. Dough, implying that his eye is on the bottom line more than on the natural world.
Kroll, who has been the foremost proponent of deer ranching in Texas for more than thirty years, doesn’t mind the controversy and certainly doesn’t fade in the heat. People who call for more public lands are “cocktail conservationists,” he says, who are really pining for socialism. He calls national parks “wildlife ghettos” and flatly accuses the government of gross mismanagement. He argues that his relatively tiny acreage, marked by eight-foot fences and posted signs warning off would-be poachers, is a better model for keeping what’s natural natural while making money off the land.
Dr. Deer Wisconsin Report: Will High-Fence Bias Skew Final Plan?
Categories: Blogs, Daniel Schmidt’s Whitetail Wisdom, Deer News, Featured Tags: antler restricitons, dan schmidt, Dr. Deer, james kroll, James Kroll Wisconsin, qdm, quality deer management, texas hunting, wisconsin deer hunting March 29, 2012 According to Wisconsin’s White-Tailed Deer Trustee Dr. James Kroll, people who call for more public hunting opportunities are “pining for socialism.” He further states, “(Public) Game management is the last bastion of communism.”
OPINION BLOG
These are just two insights into the man who has been asked to provide analysis and recommended changes to Wisconsin’s deer management program. Kroll’s insights are from an article entitled “Which Side of the Fence Are You On?” by Joe Nick Patoski for a past edition of Texas Monthly. If nothing more, the article gives an unabashed look into the mind-set that will be providing the Wisconsin DNR with recommendations on how to change their deer management practices. James Kroll (also known as “Deer Dr.”) was appointed to the Wisconsin “deer czar” position last fall. He was hired by the Department of Administration and instructed to complete a review of the state’s deer management program.
Here’s a sample of the article:
“Game Management,” says James Kroll, driving to his high-fenced, two-hundred-acre spread near Nacogdoches, “is the last bastion of communism.” Kroll, also known as Dr. Deer, is the director of the Forestry Resources Institute of Texas at Stephen F. Austin State University, and the “management” he is referring to is the sort practiced by the State of Texas. The 55-year-old Kroll is the leading light in the field of private deer management as a means to add value to the land. His belief is so absolute that some detractors refer to him as Dr. Dough, implying that his eye is on the bottom line more than on the natural world.
Kroll, who has been the foremost proponent of deer ranching in Texas for more than thirty years, doesn’t mind the controversy and certainly doesn’t fade in the heat. People who call for more public lands are “cocktail conservationists,” he says, who are really pining for socialism. He calls national parks “wildlife ghettos” and flatly accuses the government of gross mismanagement. He argues that his relatively tiny acreage, marked by eight-foot fences and posted signs warning off would-be poachers, is a better model for keeping what’s natural natural while making money off the land.
A trip to South Africa six years ago convinced Kroll that he was on the right track. There he encountered areas of primitive, lush wildlife-rich habitats called game ranches. They were privately owned, privately managed, and enclosed by high fences. He noticed how most of the land outside those fences had been grazed to the nub, used up. “Game ranches there derive their income from these animals — viewing them, hunting them, selling their meat,” he says. “There are no losers.” At his own ranch Kroll has set up a smaller version of the same thing. His land is indeed lush, verdant, with pine groves, an abundance of undergrowth, wild orchids, New Jersey tea, jack-in-the-pulpits, and other native plants. He has also set up a full-scale breeding research center and is one of twenty Texas deer breeders using artificial insemination to improve his herd. “We balance sex and age ratio,” he says. “We manage habitat. We control the population and manage for hunting. I want to leave the deer herd better than it was before we came.”
It is interesting to note that, in 2001, the State of Texas shifted its deer management strategies toward the same leanings that Kroll has suggested for Wisconsin. In Texas, the change was brought about via heavy lobbying from the high-fence deer ranching industry. This pressure helped convince the Texas Parks and Wildlife to change their regulations and allow private landowners to select the own deer biologists.
“That has given landowners more freedom,” Kroll told Texas Monthly. “(However,) You still have to let the state on your land to get a wildlife-management permit.” The key difference here is that 98 percent of Texas is comprised of private land. Wisconsin, on the other hand, consists of approximately 34.8 million acres of land, and 25.5 percent of the state’s 638,000 gun-hunters reported hunting on public land at some point during the season (2010, Duey, Rees).
According to the Wisconsin Realtors Association, more than 5.7 million acres of this land, or 16.5 percent, is publicly owned and used for parks, forests, trails, and natural resource protection. [Note: these statistics do not include the public land used for roads, government buildings, military bases, and college/school campuses.] This 5.7 million acres of public land is owned as follows:
Federal government owns approximately 1.5 million acres (4.4 percent of the state’s land area). Almost all of the federal forestland in Wisconsin is located in Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest.
State government owns approximately 1.6 million acres (4.6 percent of the state’s land area). The land is managed by two agencies, the Board of Commissioners of Public Land (who manages lands granted by federal government) and the DNR (managing land owned by the state).
County government owns approximately 2.6 million acres (7.5 percent of the state’s land area).
Public land is located in 71 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties, with the most public land located in Bayfield County (464,673 acres). [Note: Menominee County does not have any public land, but 98 percent of the land is held in trust by the Menominee Tribe.] Twenty counties have more than 100,000 acres of public land, while only 12 counties have fewer than 10,000 acres.
What does this all mean? My initial reaction, which is one that I predicted when Kroll was named to the state’s deer trustee position, is that his team’s final recommendations — if implemented — will be heavily skewed toward the state’s larger landowners (500+ acres) and folks who own small parcels in areas comprised mostly of private land.
It is also my prediction that the final recommendations (again, if implemented) will do little, if anything, to improve deer herds and deer hunting on Wisconsin’s 5.7 million acres of public land.
Where does this leave the public-land hunter? “It will suck to be you,” said one deer manager who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for his job. “The resources and efforts will go toward improving the private land sector. This is all about turning deer hunting away from the Public Land Doctrine and more toward a European-style of management — like they have in Texas.”
I do, of course, hope these assumptions are wrong. As with all things in life, we should maintain an open mind to change. Life is all about change. However, change for the sake of change is usually a recipe for disaster. Especially when that change is driven by something more than a sincere desire to manage public resources for the greater good.
As noted yesterday (Dr. James Kroll Report: Is That All You Get For Your Money), I will provide more of my opinions and interpretation on this important issue in forthcoming installments of this blog. Read his full preliminary report here.
http://www.texasmonthly.com/preview/2002-02-01/feature5
http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/which-side-fence-are-you
THE CWD TSE Prion aka mad cow type disease is not your normal pathogen.
The TSE prion disease survives ashing to 600 degrees celsius, that’s around 1112 degrees farenheit.
you cannot cook the TSE prion disease out of meat.
you can take the ash and mix it with saline and inject that ash into a mouse, and the mouse will go down with TSE.
Prion Infected Meat-and-Bone Meal Is Still Infectious after Biodiesel Production as well.
the TSE prion agent also survives Simulated Wastewater Treatment Processes.
IN fact, you should also know that the TSE Prion agent will survive in the environment for years, if not decades.
you can bury it and it will not go away.
The TSE agent is capable of infected your water table i.e. Detection of protease-resistant cervid prion protein in water from a CWD-endemic area.
it’s not your ordinary pathogen you can just cook it out and be done
New studies on the heat resistance of hamster-adapted scrapie agent: Threshold survival after ashing at 600°C suggests an inorganic template of replication
http://www.pnas.org/content/97/7/3418.full
Prion Infected Meat-and-Bone Meal Is Still Infectious after Biodiesel Production
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2493038/
Detection of protease-resistant cervid prion protein in water from a CWD-endemic area
https://www.ncbi...nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2802782/pdf/prion0303_0171.pdf
Prions in Waterways
https://vimeo.com/898941380?fbclid=IwAR3Di7tLuU-iagCetdt4-CVPrOPQQrv037QS1Uxz0tX3z7BuvPeYlwIp7IY
A Quantitative Assessment of the Amount of Prion Diverted to Category 1 Materials and Wastewater During Processing
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2012.01922.x/abstract
Rapid assessment of bovine spongiform encephalopathy prion inactivation by heat treatment in yellow grease produced in the industrial manufacturing process of meat and bone meals
https://bmcvetres.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/1746-6148-9-134.pdf
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2019
BSE infectivity survives burial for five years with only limited spread
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs00705-019-04154-8.pdf
So, this is what we leave our children and grandchildren?
Detection of chronic wasting disease prions in the farm soil of the Republic of Korea
Here, we show that prion seeding activity was detected in extracts from farm soil following 4 years of incubation with CWD-infected brain homogenate.
https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/msphere.00866-24
"Additionally, we have determined that prion seeding activity is retained for at least fifteen years at a contaminated site following attempted remediation."
Detection of prions in soils contaminated by multiple routes
Results: We are able to detect prion seeding activity at multiple types of environmental hotspots, including carcass sites, contaminated captive facilities, and scrapes (i.e. urine and saliva). Differences in relative prion concentration vary depending on the nature and source of the contamination. Additionally, we have determined that prion seeding activity is retained for at least fifteen years at a contaminated site following attempted remediation.
Conclusions: Detection of prions in the environment is of the utmost importance for controlling chronic wasting disease spread. Here, we have demonstrated a viable method for detection of prions in complex environmental matrices. However, it is quite likely that this method underestimates the total infectious prion load in a contaminated sample, due to incomplete recovery of infectious prions. Further refinements are necessary for accurate quantification of prions in such samples, and to account for the intrinsic heterogeneities found in the broader environment.
Funded by: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Prion 2023 Abstracts
https://prion2023.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Meeting-book-final-version2.pdf
15 YEARS!!!
Chronic wasting disease prions on deer feeders and wildlife visitation to deer feeding areas
Miranda H. J. Huang, Steve Demarais, Marc D. Schwabenlander, Bronson K. Strickland, Kurt C. VerCauteren, William T. McKinley, Gage Rowden, Corina C. Valencia Tibbitts … See all authors
First published: 10 February 2025
https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.70000
Abstract
Eliminating supplemental feeding is a common regulatory action within chronic wasting disease (CWD) management zones. These regulations target the potential for increased animal-animal contact and environmental contamination with CWD prions. Prions, the causative agent of CWD, have been detected on feeder surfaces in CWD-positive, captive deer facilities but not among free-ranging populations, and information on the relative risk of transmission at anthropogenic and natural food sources is limited. In this study, we established and maintained 13 gravity feeders from September 2022 to March 2023 in a CWD zone in northern Mississippi, USA (apparent prevalence ~30%). We set up feeders up in 3 ways: no exclusion (deer feeders, n = 7), exclusion of deer using fencing with holes cut at the ground-level to permit smaller wildlife to enter (raccoon feeders, n = 3), and environmental control feeders, which were fully fenced and not filled with feed (control feeders, n = 3). We swabbed feeder spouts at setup and at 4 intervals approximately 6 weeks apart to test for prion contamination via real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC). We detected prions 12 weeks after setup on all deer and raccoon feeders. We compared relative transmission risk using camera traps at these feeders, 6 agronomic plantings for wildlife forage (i.e., food plots), and 7 oak mast trees. Weekly visitation rate by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus; hereafter: deer) differed (P = 0.02) among deer feeders (median = 24.5 deer/week, range = 15.6–65.7), food plots (median = 12.7, range = 3.8–24.7), and mast trees (median = 2.0, range = 0.4–5.1). Contact rates between individual deer also differed between site types (P < 0.01): deer feeders (median = 2.1 deer-to-deer contacts/week, range = 0–10.1), food plots (median = 0.1, range = 0–4.0), and mast trees (median = 0, range = 0–0.3). Raccoons also visited feeders at greater rates than food plots and mast trees (P < 0.04). Finally, we swabbed 19 feeders in 2 areas where CWD was newly detected, finding prion contamination on swabs from 4 feeders. We show that deer feeders in free-ranging populations with high CWD prevalence become contaminated with CWD prions quickly, becoming a potential site of exposure of deer to CWD prions. Our results also demonstrate the ability to find evidence of prion contamination on deer feeders, even in areas where CWD is newly detected.
Snip…
We found that supplemental feeding increased the risk of exposure to CWD prions due to contamination of feeders, increased deer visitation, and increased deer-to-deer contact.
The 12-fold increase in deer visitation to feeders compared to mast trees and 2-fold increase compared to food plots demonstrates increased risk for direct disease spread.
https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jwmg.70000
Artificial mineral sites that pre-date endemic chronic wasting disease become prion hotspots
The detection of PrPCWD in soils at attractant sites within an endemic CWD zone significantly advances our understanding of environmental PrPCWD accumulation dynamics, providing valuable information for advancing adaptive CWD management approaches.
https://int-cwd-sympo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/final-agenda-with-abstracts.pdf
Chronic wasting disease detection in environmental and biological samples from a taxidermy site
Results: The PMCA analysis demonstrated CWD seeding activity in some of the components of this facility, including insects involved in head processing, soils, and a trash dumpster.
Conclusions: Different areas of this property were used for various taxidermy procedures. We were able to detect the presence of prions in i) soils that were in contact with the heads of dead animals, ii) insects involved in the cleaning of skulls, and iii) an empty dumpster where animal carcasses were previously placed. This is the first report demonstrating that swabbing is a helpful method to screen for prion infectivity on surfaces potentially contaminated with CWD. These findings are relevant as this swabbing and amplification strategy may be used to evaluate the disease status of other free-ranging and captive settings where there is a concern for CWD transmissions, such as at feeders and water troughs with CWD-exposed properties. This approach could have substantial implications for free-ranging cervid surveillance as well as in epidemiological investigations of CWD.
Prion 2022 Conference abstracts: pushing the boundaries
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19336896.2022.2091286
https://intcwdsympo.files.wordpress.com/2023/06/final-agenda-with-abstracts.pdf?force_download=true
***> Infectious agent of sheep scrapie may persist in the environment for at least 16 years
***> Nine of these recurrences occurred 14–21 years after culling, apparently as the result of environmental contamination, but outside entry could not always be absolutely excluded.
JOURNAL OF GENERAL VIROLOGY Volume 87, Issue 12
Infectious agent of sheep scrapie may persist in the environment for at least 16 years Free
https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.82011-0
Rapid recontamination of a farm building occurs after attempted prion removal
First published: 19 January 2019 https://doi.org/10.1136/vr.105054
The data illustrates the difficulty in decontaminating farm buildings from scrapie, and demonstrates the likely contribution of farm dust to the recontamination of these environments to levels that are capable of causing disease. snip...
This study clearly demonstrates the difficulty in removing scrapie infectivity from the farm environment. Practical and effective prion decontamination methods are still urgently required for decontamination of scrapie infectivity from farms that have had cases of scrapie and this is particularly relevant for scrapie positive goatherds, which currently have limited genetic resistance to scrapie within commercial breeds.24 This is very likely to have parallels with control efforts for CWD in cervids.
https://bvajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1136/vr.105054
***>This is very likely to have parallels with control efforts for CWD in cervids.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30602491/
SUNDAY, MAY 04, 2025
Texas Senate Bill 2651 establishment of a pilot program to breed deer resistant to CWD TSE Prion, what could go wrong?
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2025/05/texas-senate-bill-2651-establishment-of_4.html
Texas S.B. 2843 Directs TPWD to conduct a comprehensive study of current measures to control chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer
Trying to legislate CWD is what got Texas in this CWD mess to begin with, how did that work out$$$ Legislators and Politicians need to stay away and let TPWD and TAHC et try and contain this mess that Legislators and Politicians got us in, called CWD TSE Prion…terry
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2025/04/texas-sb-2843-directs-tpwd-to-conduct.html
Terry S. Singeltary Sr.
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2017/01/texas-politicians-tahc-tpwd-and-spread.html
TEXAS CWD DEER BREEDERS PLEA TO GOVERNOR ABBOTT TO CIRCUMVENT TPWD SOUND SCIENCE TO LET DISEASE SPREAD
Letter to
Governor Greg Abbott
Dan Patrick
Dan Friedkin Governor Abbott,
Your reputation as Governor of the State of Texas is being tarnished by the ILLEGAL actions of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and its Executive Director, Carter Smith.
Under the leadership of Mr. Smith, the TPWD is in clear violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act; the very same act that you wrote in 2014 when you were Texas Attorney General.
Beginning in July 2015, Carter Smith and his Agency have violated the Texas Open Meetings Act on multiple occasions.
As a result of those CLOSED and ILLEGAL meetings, TPWD ordered new rules that are discriminatory against a class of Texans. These illegal rules have also resulted in the killing of thousands of perfectly healthy whitetail deer, lowered rural Texas property values and a loss of jobs in rural Texas.
I respectfully request the following:
1. Immediately FIRE Carter Smith for his illegal and repeated violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act.
2. Immediately revert to the Texas Deer Breeder rules that were in place PRIOR to TPWD’s illegal closed-door meetings.
3. Immediately begin the process of Rules evaluation pertaining to Deer Breeders in a legal and lawful manner following the Texas Open Meetings Act of 2014 (that you wrote).
To not do these things immediately will:
• Cause additional hardship on rural Texans
• Lower property values
• Result in the killing of more perfectly healthy Texas wildlife
• RESULT IN THE LOSS OF SUPPORT FOR YOU AS TEXAS GOVERNOR
With all due respect, please take immediate action and fire Carter Smith.
Sincerely,
https://www.change.org/p/greg-abbott-fire-carter-smith
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2016/05/texas-cwd-deer-breeders-plea-to.html
SATURDAY, MAY 28, 2016
TEXAS CWD DEER BREEDERS PLEA TO GOVERNOR ABBOTT TO CIRCUMVENT TPWD SOUND SCIENCE TO LET DISEASE SPREAD
Letter to
Governor Greg Abbott
Dan Patrick
Dan Friedkin Governor Abbott,
Your reputation as Governor of the State of Texas is being tarnished by the ILLEGAL actions of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and its Executive Director, Carter Smith.
Under the leadership of Mr. Smith, the TPWD is in clear violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act; the very same act that you wrote in 2014 when you were Texas Attorney General.
Beginning in July 2015, Carter Smith and his Agency have violated the Texas Open Meetings Act on multiple occasions.
As a result of those CLOSED and ILLEGAL meetings, TPWD ordered new rules that are discriminatory against a class of Texans. These illegal rules have also resulted in the killing of thousands of perfectly healthy whitetail deer, lowered rural Texas property values and a loss of jobs in rural Texas.
I respectfully request the following:
1. Immediately FIRE Carter Smith for his illegal and repeated violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act.
2. Immediately revert to the Texas Deer Breeder rules that were in place PRIOR to TPWD’s illegal closed-door meetings.
3. Immediately begin the process of Rules evaluation pertaining to Deer Breeders in a legal and lawful manner following the Texas Open Meetings Act of 2014 (that you wrote).
To not do these things immediately will:
• Cause additional hardship on rural Texans
• Lower property values
• Result in the killing of more perfectly healthy Texas wildlife
• RESULT IN THE LOSS OF SUPPORT FOR YOU AS TEXAS GOVERNOR
With all due respect, please take immediate action and fire Carter Smith.
Sincerely,
https://www.change.org/p/greg-abbott-fire-carter-smith
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2016/05/texas-cwd-deer-breeders-plea-to.html
SATURDAY, MAY 28, 2016
TPWD gives in to Breeders again and postponed their decision regarding proposed changes to state regulations for managing CWD allowing the TSE Prion to spread further
News Release Media Contact: TPWD News, news@tpwd.texas.gov, 512-389-8030
May 27, 2016
Decision Postponed on Chronic Wasting Disease Management Regulations AUSTIN – On Thursday, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission postponed their decision regarding proposed changes to state regulations for managing chronic wasting disease (CWD), until a more thorough review is conducted. CWD is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder that affects cervid species like white-tailed deer, mule deer and elk.
“How Texas responds to the prevalence of CWD in its captive deer herd will have significant effects on the way state wildlife agencies and animal health organizations mitigate epidemiological issues like this from here on out,” said TPW Commission Chairman T. Dan Friedkin. “The commission believes it is important to take some additional time to review the proposed rules, which are the product of months of study and consideration by the department, the Texas Animal Health Commission and a subject matter experts from the medical and deer breeding community.”
Following an extensive public hearing where commission members heard comments from a wide range of stakeholders, landowners and licensed deer breeders, Chairman Friedkin recommended tabling a formal decision on the proposed changes until June, when a special meeting can be held to vote on the changes. Time and location of the special meeting will be announced at a later date...
See;
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2016/05/tpwd-gives-in-to-breeders-again-and.html
WEDNESDAY, JULY 01, 2015
TEXAS Chronic Wasting Disease Detected in Medina County Captive Deer Media
Contact: Steve Lightfoot, TPWD, 512-389-4701, steve.lightfoot@tpwd.texas.gov Callie McNulty, TAHC, 512-719-0728, callie.mcnulty@tahc.texas.gov
July 1, 2015
Chronic Wasting Disease Detected in Medina County Captive Deer
AUSTIN – A two-year-old white-tailed deer in a Medina County deer breeding facility has been confirmed positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). This is the first case of CWD detected in captive white-tailed deer in Texas. CWD was first detected in Texas in 2012 in free-ranging mule deer in the Hueco Mountains in far West Texas.
The Medina County tissue samples submitted by the breeder facility in early June as part of routine deer mortality surveillance revealed the presence of CWD during testing at the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (TVMDL) in College Station. The National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, confirmed the findings on Tuesday, June 30.
An epidemiological investigation to determine the extent of the disease, assess risks to Texas’ free ranging deer and protect the captive deer and elk breeding industry is being led by the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC), in coordination with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Veterinary Services (USDA/APHIS/VS).
Officials have taken immediate action to secure all cervids at the Medina County breeder facility with plans to conduct additional investigation for CWD. In addition, those breeder facilities that have received deer from the Medina County facility or shipped deer to that facility during the last two years are under movement restrictions and cannot move or release cervids at this time. TPWD is disallowing liberation of captive deer from all breeder facilities into the wild at this time pending further review. Additional measures to further minimize risk of CWD spreading into Texas’ free-ranging white-tailed deer herd, and to protect the captive deer breeding industry, will be considered.
“This is a terribly unfortunate development that we are committed to addressing as proactively, comprehensively, and expeditiously as possible. The health of our state’s wild and captive deer herds, as well as affiliated hunting, wildlife, and rural based economies, are vitally important to Texas hunters, communities, and landowners. As such, our primary objectives are to determine the source of the disease and to identify other deer breeding facilities and release sites that may have received deer from affected facilities,” said Carter Smith, TPWD Executive Director. “Working collaboratively with experts in the field we have developed protocols to address CWD, and our implementation efforts are already well under way.”
The TPWD and the TAHC CWD Management Plan will guide the State’s response to this incident. The plan was developed by the State’s CWD Task Force, which is comprised of deer and elk breeders, wildlife biologists, veterinarians and other animal-health experts from TPWD, TAHC, TVMDL, Department of State Health Services, Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine, and USDA.
Since 2002, the state has conducted surveillance throughout Texas for the disease. More than 34,000 samples collected from hunter-harvested and road kill deer have been tested for CWD.
Although animal health and wildlife officials cannot say how long or to what extent the disease has been present in the Medina County deer breeding facility, the breeder has had an active CWD surveillance program since 2006 with no positives detected until now.
“We are working with experts at the local, state and federal level, to determine the extent of this disease, and respond appropriately to limit further transmission,” said Dr. Andy Schwartz, TAHC Epidemiologist and Assistant Executive Director. “Strong public awareness and the continued support of the cervid industry is paramount to the success of controlling CWD in Texas.”
The disease was first recognized in 1967 in captive mule deer in Colorado. CWD has also been documented in captive and/or free-ranging deer in 23 states and 2 Canadian provinces. 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. To date there is no evidence that CWD poses a risk to humans or non-cervids. However, as a precaution, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization recommend not to consume meat from infected animals.
More information on CWD can be found on TPWD’s website, www.tpwd.texas.gov/CWD or at the Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance website, www.cwd-info.org.
More information about the TAHC CWD program may be found at http://tahc.state.tx.us/animal_health/cwd/cwd.html.
2015-07-01
http://tpwd.texas.gov/newsmedia/releases/?req=20150701a&nrtype=all&nrspan=2015&nrsearch=
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2015/07/texas-chronic-wasting-disease-detected.html
https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/diseases/cwd/plan.phtml#:~:text=Upon%20detection%20of%20CWD%20in,sampling%20in%20the%20area%3B%20and
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2021/07/tpwd-emergency-rules-disease-detection.html
WILL TEXAS LEGISLATURE DERAIL MORE REGULATIONS TO HELP STOP CWD TSE PRION AKA MAD DEER DISEASE JUST TO SATISFY DEER BREEDERS?
Captive deer must retain tags
Brian Treadwell, For the Express-News Updated 4:40 pm, Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Texas whitetails, such as this buck bolting into a live-oak thicket while flashing its signature “flag,” differ in the wild from captive deer, bred for hunting.
The captive deer breeder industry has spent a fortune over the last four legislative sessions proposing laws to bulldoze prudent regulation of their industry in an attempt to squeeze more dollars out of Texas bucks. Texans collectively own all wildlife in the state. It is called the public trust.
The deer breeder industry works much like our driver’s license, where Texas Parks and Wildlife Department sells a permit for the privilege to place deer in small high-fenced pens, inside which the breeders manipulate the creatures to grow the biggest pair of antlers.
The House Culture, Recreation and Tourism Committee recently heard the first in a slew of bills the deer breeder industry sponsored. House Bill 2855 by Rep. Chris Paddie, R-Marshall, requests removal of the visible ear tag on captive deer. Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, sat in as a special guest with the committee like a bouncer to help attack opposition to the breeder agenda.
Most of the growth in the deer breeder industry has been in the “put and shoot” canned hunting business. The bread-and-butter of this industry is growing big bucks to be relocated in trailers to semiwild, high-fenced “hunting preserves,” where lots of money is spent to kill the “buck of a lifetime.”
In Texas, there are two kinds of whitetail deer — those that receive pharmaceuticals, and the native, natural, wild kind. For a quick education, there are no drugs manufactured for deer. The deer held in captivity survive on routine medication due to the unnatural environment and density of animals. The deer industry survives on manipulating extra label use of pharmaceuticals to enhance antler growth. Beyond animal welfare, we should be outraged these animals are given any illegal drugs.
Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, proposed House Bill 3723, which would allow deer breeders to sell the meat of rejected deer that routinely have been jacked up on drugs.
The breeder industry falls financially between cattle hide sales, annual wheat harvests and our caged egg industry, but instead of contributing to the state, the breeder industry continues to drain wildlife agency budgets and jeopardize natural resources.
There are lots of private property issues at stake here, and whitetail deer aren’t one. Breeder deer can commingle with wild populations. We need to be able to identify breeder deer visually in emergency situations and before hunter harvests. Lawyers will eventually want to identify specific deer breeders for when escaped breeder deer contaminate a neighbor’s property with chronic wasting disease, or CWD, or other diseases. We need to take steps to make breeder deer more identifiable, and educate our legislators and the hunting public about the two kinds of whitetail deer in Texas.
With recent outbreaks of CWD on ranches in Medina County, real estate prices have begun to take a dive locally, as contaminated land is in low demand. Instead of legislators focusing on increasing the economic benefit to this small industry, we need our elected officials to be more concerned about the negative impact on native wildlife populations. A major disease outbreak unchecked could cause more in damage to rural real estate values than the industry generates as a whole.
Never in our history has there been a group of so-called sportsmen who have spent more money and time whining about game and fish regulations. We must preserve our great hunting heritage and protect the species entrusted to our care. In society, our community is defined by how we treat our natural resources, where the value we put on wild things today defines the world we will pass on to future generations.
Your voice is needed to defend whitetail deer.
Brian Treadwell is a fifth-generation Menard County rancher. The Treadwell Brady Ranch was recognized in 2005 with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Lone Star Land Steward Award, and in 2006 with the Leopold Foundation’s Leopold Conservation Award.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Captive-deer-must-retain-tags-11084739.php
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2017/04/will-texas-legislature-derail-more.html
Powerful Abbott appointee's lobbying sparks blowback in Legislature
In an ironic twist for Gov. Greg Abbott, who has made ethics reform an urgent political priority, the Texas House is taking aim at what critics call a "pay to play" culture among his appointees.
BY JAY ROOT MAY 12, 2017 12 AM
Houston billionaire Dan Friedkin is chairman of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission
When Gov. Greg Abbott tapped one of his top campaign donors to become chairman of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, he didn’t get a part-time appointee who would merely draft rules and implement conservation laws passed by the Legislature.
In Dan Friedkin, the governor got a Houston billionaire — with a team of privately funded lobbyists — willing to use his influence to ensure his wildlife interests are taken into account by the Legislature before they pass those laws, interviews and records show.
On the receiving end of that influence, and not in a happy way, is state Rep. Chris Paddie, R-Marshall. Paddie said a lobbyist working for Friedkin’s business empire, which includes a massive South Texas hunting ranch, has been working against his deer breeder management bill, which many large ranchers oppose. The state Parks and Wildlife Department oversees deer breeding regulations in Texas.
“Many times these appointees are well-heeled, very influential people,” Paddie said. “Overall, I feel that it’s inappropriate for an appointee of a board or commission to have personal lobbyists lobbying on issues related to that board or commission.”
Under Texas law, state agencies are barred from lobbying the Legislature. But the powerful people who oversee them aren’t.
If Paddie and dozens of his colleagues get their way, that practice soon will be a Class A misdemeanor.
Last weekend, Paddie attached a ban on appointee lobbying — which would apply to any issues intersecting with their state responsibilities — to an ethics bill that already had powerful friends of the governor in its crosshairs. The provision was adopted unanimously and the bill sailed out of the Texas House on a 91-48 vote Saturday.
The ethics bill, authored by Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, would bar big campaign donors from getting appointed by governors in the first place. Anyone who contributed over $2,500 would be barred from serving on state boards and commissions.
Larson pointed to news articles documenting the amount of campaign money appointees have collectively given governors. Last year the San Antonio Express-News calculated that Abbott had received nearly $9 million from people he’s picked for appointed office; before that, a widely cited report from Texans for Public Justice found former Gov. Rick Perry had received $17 million from his own appointees.
Larson said 20 years from now, Texans will be reading the same stories about a future governor unless the Legislature does something about it now.
“We’ve read that article for the last three decades,” Larson said during a brief floor speech. “This is your opportunity to say, 'We need to stop this.' The most egregious ethics violation we’ve got in the state is the pay to play in the governor’s office.”
A prodigious fundraiser, Abbott has put plenty of big donors on prestigious boards and commissions. On the Parks and Wildlife Commission alone, he has installed three mega-donors — pipeline mogul Kelcy Warren, who’s given Abbott more than $800,000 over his statewide political career; Houston businessman S. Reed Morian, who has given $600,000; and Friedkin, who personally donated more than $700,000 — while his Gulf States Toyota PAC gave Abbott another $100,000, according to Ethics Commission records.
Passage of Larson’s HB 3305 represents an ironic twist for Abbott, who for the second session in a row has made ethics reform an urgent political priority — resulting in a bill that's now taking aim at his gubernatorial appointments. Abbott, who has made a habit of ignoring tough questions, hasn't made any public statements about the bill, and his office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Friedkin — whose wealth is estimated at $3.4 billion by Forbes — is the owner and CEO of Gulf States Toyota, founded in 1969, which has had the exclusive rights to distribute new Toyotas in Texas and four nearby states. He’d also been a mega-donor to former Gov. Rick Perry, who first appointed Friedkin to the Parks and Wildlife Commission in 2005. Abbott made Friedkin chairman of the commission in 2015.
Requests for comment from Friedkin's office went unanswered.
In addition to his public role as parks and wildlife chairman, a perch that gives him significant influence over deer management issues, Friedkin has private wildlife interests. He owns the sprawling Comanche Ranch in South Texas, according to published news accounts.
The January 2014 edition of Texas Wildlife, published by the Texas Wildlife Association, described Friedkin’s Comanche Ranch as “privately owned and privately hunted” and said it’s “in the business to produce as many trophy bucks as possible, without damaging the native habitat.”
The association, which advocates for private landowners and hunting rights, has locked horns with deer breeding interests at Parks and Wildlife and the Capitol. They compete against each other in the lucrative trophy deer hunting market — and the battle between them perennially spills into the rule-making process at the Parks and Wildlife Commission.
One of their battles centers on how captive deer are tagged so that game wardens and others can distinguish them from native deer. Current law requires a combination of tags and tattoos, and the ranchers and large landowners want to keep it that way. The breeders, meanwhile, favor tagging deer with microchips, which they contend are more accurate and foolproof.
The Wildlife Association said in a Facebook post that removing visible tag or tattoo requirements and allowing microchip tracking “creates real biosecurity risks and blurs ethical lines in the hunting community, as captive deer breeders are allowed to transport and release these animals to be co-mingled with pasture-born deer.” Proponents of the current system say tough rules on breeders are needed to keep out imported deer that may carry Chronic Wasting Disease, which has been found in Texas.
On the other side of the issue is the Texas Deer Association, which represents breeder interests. Executive Director Patrick Tarlton said opposition to his $1.6 billion industry stems less from environmental and health concerns and more from wealthy ranch owners who want to boost profits from trophy-seeking hunters. He notes that Chronic Wasting Disease has been found in both free range and captive deer.
Paddie sided with the breeders by filing House Bill 2855, which would allow breeders to track their deer with microchips instead of relying on physical tags that they say can be torn off.
No one identifying themselves as a Friedkin corporate lobbyist opposed the deer breeding bills during public hearings, according to House and Senate committee records published online.
Behind the scenes, it was a different story.
Paddie said his chief of staff reached out to Laird Doran, one of several lobbyists for Friedkin’s Gulf States Toyota, after hearing that he was trying to convince other legislators to help defeat Paddie's deer microchip bill.
“My chief called him and said, 'Hey, if you’ve got a problem with our bill why aren’t you talking to us?’ ” Paddie said. “He said he represented the Friedkin Group when that happened.”
According to an email from an aide to Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, who is carrying the deer breeding bill in the Senate, Doran also identified himself as a representative of the “Friedkin Group.” That’s the name of the consortium that contains Friedkin's Gulf States Toyota, according to the company’s Linked-In page. He told Estes’ aide that the Friedkin group was opposed to any bill that would “remove requirements for (deer) ear tags,” the senator’s office confirmed.
It’s not clear exactly which Friedkin interests Doran was advancing. Doran is registered at the Texas Ethics Commission with a single entity — Gulf States Toyota — and the agency has no record of a lobbyist working for an entity or individual with the name Friedkin in it, the commission confirmed Wednesday afternoon.
However, Doran checked a variety of non-automotive subject areas in which he is lobbying during this legislative session on behalf of Friedkin’s lucrative distributorship, including “animals,” “parks & wildlife,” “state agencies, boards & commissions,” “environment” and more, his detailed lobby disclosures show.
Doran, director of government relations and senior counsel at the Friedkin Group, did not return phone and email messages left by The Texas Tribune.
Estes said he didn’t have a problem with a governor's appointee engaging in lobbying on issues that affected their private interests, as long as they keep that separate from their state roles.
“I don’t think they should be barred from expressing their views as long as they’re careful to say these are my views, not the views of the agency I’m representing,” Estes said.
But Tarlton, the deer association director, said Friedkin’s use of lobbyists to oppose deer breeders in the Legislature gives the breeders' opponents a huge advantage.
“I think that if the commissioner of Texas Parks and Wildlife is actively lobbying against an industry which his department directly oversees, it absolutely sets up an unfair and closed system of government,” Tarlton said. “The commission is supposed to be the unbiased and equitable oversight for everything wildlife.”
Paddie hopes his amendment to Larsen's ethics bill will even the playing field. He referred to the wealthy Parks and Wildlife chairman (see the 2:29:00 mark in this recorded exchange) when he tacked the appointee-lobbying provision onto Larson’s bill.
Paddie said he’s not singling out anyone. He said it would apply to other powerful gubernatorial appointees in a position to do the same.
“I could have named any number of examples as far as the agencies in particular,” Paddie said. “I want to stop it if anyone serving on any agency is doing this.”
Ryan Murphy contributed to this report.
Disclosure: The Texas Wildlife Association, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Gulf States Toyota have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors is available here.
https://www.texastribune.org/2017/05/12/powerful-abbott-appointees-lobbying-sparks-blowback-legislature/
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2017/05/85th-legislative-session-2017-and-texas.html
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2017
May 27, 2016
Decision Postponed on Chronic Wasting Disease Management Regulations AUSTIN – On Thursday, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission postponed their decision regarding proposed changes to state regulations for managing chronic wasting disease (CWD), until a more thorough review is conducted. CWD is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder that affects cervid species like white-tailed deer, mule deer and elk.
“How Texas responds to the prevalence of CWD in its captive deer herd will have significant effects on the way state wildlife agencies and animal health organizations mitigate epidemiological issues like this from here on out,” said TPW Commission Chairman T. Dan Friedkin. “The commission believes it is important to take some additional time to review the proposed rules, which are the product of months of study and consideration by the department, the Texas Animal Health Commission and a subject matter experts from the medical and deer breeding community.”
Following an extensive public hearing where commission members heard comments from a wide range of stakeholders, landowners and licensed deer breeders, Chairman Friedkin recommended tabling a formal decision on the proposed changes until June, when a special meeting can be held to vote on the changes. Time and location of the special meeting will be announced at a later date...
See;
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2016/05/tpwd-gives-in-to-breeders-again-and.html
WEDNESDAY, JULY 01, 2015
TEXAS Chronic Wasting Disease Detected in Medina County Captive Deer Media
Contact: Steve Lightfoot, TPWD, 512-389-4701, steve.lightfoot@tpwd.texas.gov Callie McNulty, TAHC, 512-719-0728, callie.mcnulty@tahc.texas.gov
July 1, 2015
Chronic Wasting Disease Detected in Medina County Captive Deer
AUSTIN – A two-year-old white-tailed deer in a Medina County deer breeding facility has been confirmed positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). This is the first case of CWD detected in captive white-tailed deer in Texas. CWD was first detected in Texas in 2012 in free-ranging mule deer in the Hueco Mountains in far West Texas.
The Medina County tissue samples submitted by the breeder facility in early June as part of routine deer mortality surveillance revealed the presence of CWD during testing at the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (TVMDL) in College Station. The National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, confirmed the findings on Tuesday, June 30.
An epidemiological investigation to determine the extent of the disease, assess risks to Texas’ free ranging deer and protect the captive deer and elk breeding industry is being led by the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC), in coordination with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Veterinary Services (USDA/APHIS/VS).
Officials have taken immediate action to secure all cervids at the Medina County breeder facility with plans to conduct additional investigation for CWD. In addition, those breeder facilities that have received deer from the Medina County facility or shipped deer to that facility during the last two years are under movement restrictions and cannot move or release cervids at this time. TPWD is disallowing liberation of captive deer from all breeder facilities into the wild at this time pending further review. Additional measures to further minimize risk of CWD spreading into Texas’ free-ranging white-tailed deer herd, and to protect the captive deer breeding industry, will be considered.
“This is a terribly unfortunate development that we are committed to addressing as proactively, comprehensively, and expeditiously as possible. The health of our state’s wild and captive deer herds, as well as affiliated hunting, wildlife, and rural based economies, are vitally important to Texas hunters, communities, and landowners. As such, our primary objectives are to determine the source of the disease and to identify other deer breeding facilities and release sites that may have received deer from affected facilities,” said Carter Smith, TPWD Executive Director. “Working collaboratively with experts in the field we have developed protocols to address CWD, and our implementation efforts are already well under way.”
The TPWD and the TAHC CWD Management Plan will guide the State’s response to this incident. The plan was developed by the State’s CWD Task Force, which is comprised of deer and elk breeders, wildlife biologists, veterinarians and other animal-health experts from TPWD, TAHC, TVMDL, Department of State Health Services, Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine, and USDA.
Since 2002, the state has conducted surveillance throughout Texas for the disease. More than 34,000 samples collected from hunter-harvested and road kill deer have been tested for CWD.
Although animal health and wildlife officials cannot say how long or to what extent the disease has been present in the Medina County deer breeding facility, the breeder has had an active CWD surveillance program since 2006 with no positives detected until now.
“We are working with experts at the local, state and federal level, to determine the extent of this disease, and respond appropriately to limit further transmission,” said Dr. Andy Schwartz, TAHC Epidemiologist and Assistant Executive Director. “Strong public awareness and the continued support of the cervid industry is paramount to the success of controlling CWD in Texas.”
The disease was first recognized in 1967 in captive mule deer in Colorado. CWD has also been documented in captive and/or free-ranging deer in 23 states and 2 Canadian provinces. 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. To date there is no evidence that CWD poses a risk to humans or non-cervids. However, as a precaution, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization recommend not to consume meat from infected animals.
More information on CWD can be found on TPWD’s website, www.tpwd.texas.gov/CWD or at the Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance website, www.cwd-info.org.
More information about the TAHC CWD program may be found at http://tahc.state.tx.us/animal_health/cwd/cwd.html.
2015-07-01
http://tpwd.texas.gov/newsmedia/releases/?req=20150701a&nrtype=all&nrspan=2015&nrsearch=
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2015/07/texas-chronic-wasting-disease-detected.html
https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/diseases/cwd/plan.phtml#:~:text=Upon%20detection%20of%20CWD%20in,sampling%20in%20the%20area%3B%20and
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2021/07/tpwd-emergency-rules-disease-detection.html
WILL TEXAS LEGISLATURE DERAIL MORE REGULATIONS TO HELP STOP CWD TSE PRION AKA MAD DEER DISEASE JUST TO SATISFY DEER BREEDERS?
Captive deer must retain tags
Brian Treadwell, For the Express-News Updated 4:40 pm, Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Texas whitetails, such as this buck bolting into a live-oak thicket while flashing its signature “flag,” differ in the wild from captive deer, bred for hunting.
The captive deer breeder industry has spent a fortune over the last four legislative sessions proposing laws to bulldoze prudent regulation of their industry in an attempt to squeeze more dollars out of Texas bucks. Texans collectively own all wildlife in the state. It is called the public trust.
The deer breeder industry works much like our driver’s license, where Texas Parks and Wildlife Department sells a permit for the privilege to place deer in small high-fenced pens, inside which the breeders manipulate the creatures to grow the biggest pair of antlers.
The House Culture, Recreation and Tourism Committee recently heard the first in a slew of bills the deer breeder industry sponsored. House Bill 2855 by Rep. Chris Paddie, R-Marshall, requests removal of the visible ear tag on captive deer. Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, sat in as a special guest with the committee like a bouncer to help attack opposition to the breeder agenda.
Most of the growth in the deer breeder industry has been in the “put and shoot” canned hunting business. The bread-and-butter of this industry is growing big bucks to be relocated in trailers to semiwild, high-fenced “hunting preserves,” where lots of money is spent to kill the “buck of a lifetime.”
In Texas, there are two kinds of whitetail deer — those that receive pharmaceuticals, and the native, natural, wild kind. For a quick education, there are no drugs manufactured for deer. The deer held in captivity survive on routine medication due to the unnatural environment and density of animals. The deer industry survives on manipulating extra label use of pharmaceuticals to enhance antler growth. Beyond animal welfare, we should be outraged these animals are given any illegal drugs.
Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, proposed House Bill 3723, which would allow deer breeders to sell the meat of rejected deer that routinely have been jacked up on drugs.
The breeder industry falls financially between cattle hide sales, annual wheat harvests and our caged egg industry, but instead of contributing to the state, the breeder industry continues to drain wildlife agency budgets and jeopardize natural resources.
There are lots of private property issues at stake here, and whitetail deer aren’t one. Breeder deer can commingle with wild populations. We need to be able to identify breeder deer visually in emergency situations and before hunter harvests. Lawyers will eventually want to identify specific deer breeders for when escaped breeder deer contaminate a neighbor’s property with chronic wasting disease, or CWD, or other diseases. We need to take steps to make breeder deer more identifiable, and educate our legislators and the hunting public about the two kinds of whitetail deer in Texas.
With recent outbreaks of CWD on ranches in Medina County, real estate prices have begun to take a dive locally, as contaminated land is in low demand. Instead of legislators focusing on increasing the economic benefit to this small industry, we need our elected officials to be more concerned about the negative impact on native wildlife populations. A major disease outbreak unchecked could cause more in damage to rural real estate values than the industry generates as a whole.
Never in our history has there been a group of so-called sportsmen who have spent more money and time whining about game and fish regulations. We must preserve our great hunting heritage and protect the species entrusted to our care. In society, our community is defined by how we treat our natural resources, where the value we put on wild things today defines the world we will pass on to future generations.
Your voice is needed to defend whitetail deer.
Brian Treadwell is a fifth-generation Menard County rancher. The Treadwell Brady Ranch was recognized in 2005 with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Lone Star Land Steward Award, and in 2006 with the Leopold Foundation’s Leopold Conservation Award.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Captive-deer-must-retain-tags-11084739.php
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2017/04/will-texas-legislature-derail-more.html
Powerful Abbott appointee's lobbying sparks blowback in Legislature
In an ironic twist for Gov. Greg Abbott, who has made ethics reform an urgent political priority, the Texas House is taking aim at what critics call a "pay to play" culture among his appointees.
BY JAY ROOT MAY 12, 2017 12 AM
Houston billionaire Dan Friedkin is chairman of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission
When Gov. Greg Abbott tapped one of his top campaign donors to become chairman of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, he didn’t get a part-time appointee who would merely draft rules and implement conservation laws passed by the Legislature.
In Dan Friedkin, the governor got a Houston billionaire — with a team of privately funded lobbyists — willing to use his influence to ensure his wildlife interests are taken into account by the Legislature before they pass those laws, interviews and records show.
On the receiving end of that influence, and not in a happy way, is state Rep. Chris Paddie, R-Marshall. Paddie said a lobbyist working for Friedkin’s business empire, which includes a massive South Texas hunting ranch, has been working against his deer breeder management bill, which many large ranchers oppose. The state Parks and Wildlife Department oversees deer breeding regulations in Texas.
“Many times these appointees are well-heeled, very influential people,” Paddie said. “Overall, I feel that it’s inappropriate for an appointee of a board or commission to have personal lobbyists lobbying on issues related to that board or commission.”
Under Texas law, state agencies are barred from lobbying the Legislature. But the powerful people who oversee them aren’t.
If Paddie and dozens of his colleagues get their way, that practice soon will be a Class A misdemeanor.
Last weekend, Paddie attached a ban on appointee lobbying — which would apply to any issues intersecting with their state responsibilities — to an ethics bill that already had powerful friends of the governor in its crosshairs. The provision was adopted unanimously and the bill sailed out of the Texas House on a 91-48 vote Saturday.
The ethics bill, authored by Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, would bar big campaign donors from getting appointed by governors in the first place. Anyone who contributed over $2,500 would be barred from serving on state boards and commissions.
Larson pointed to news articles documenting the amount of campaign money appointees have collectively given governors. Last year the San Antonio Express-News calculated that Abbott had received nearly $9 million from people he’s picked for appointed office; before that, a widely cited report from Texans for Public Justice found former Gov. Rick Perry had received $17 million from his own appointees.
Larson said 20 years from now, Texans will be reading the same stories about a future governor unless the Legislature does something about it now.
“We’ve read that article for the last three decades,” Larson said during a brief floor speech. “This is your opportunity to say, 'We need to stop this.' The most egregious ethics violation we’ve got in the state is the pay to play in the governor’s office.”
A prodigious fundraiser, Abbott has put plenty of big donors on prestigious boards and commissions. On the Parks and Wildlife Commission alone, he has installed three mega-donors — pipeline mogul Kelcy Warren, who’s given Abbott more than $800,000 over his statewide political career; Houston businessman S. Reed Morian, who has given $600,000; and Friedkin, who personally donated more than $700,000 — while his Gulf States Toyota PAC gave Abbott another $100,000, according to Ethics Commission records.
Passage of Larson’s HB 3305 represents an ironic twist for Abbott, who for the second session in a row has made ethics reform an urgent political priority — resulting in a bill that's now taking aim at his gubernatorial appointments. Abbott, who has made a habit of ignoring tough questions, hasn't made any public statements about the bill, and his office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Friedkin — whose wealth is estimated at $3.4 billion by Forbes — is the owner and CEO of Gulf States Toyota, founded in 1969, which has had the exclusive rights to distribute new Toyotas in Texas and four nearby states. He’d also been a mega-donor to former Gov. Rick Perry, who first appointed Friedkin to the Parks and Wildlife Commission in 2005. Abbott made Friedkin chairman of the commission in 2015.
Requests for comment from Friedkin's office went unanswered.
In addition to his public role as parks and wildlife chairman, a perch that gives him significant influence over deer management issues, Friedkin has private wildlife interests. He owns the sprawling Comanche Ranch in South Texas, according to published news accounts.
The January 2014 edition of Texas Wildlife, published by the Texas Wildlife Association, described Friedkin’s Comanche Ranch as “privately owned and privately hunted” and said it’s “in the business to produce as many trophy bucks as possible, without damaging the native habitat.”
The association, which advocates for private landowners and hunting rights, has locked horns with deer breeding interests at Parks and Wildlife and the Capitol. They compete against each other in the lucrative trophy deer hunting market — and the battle between them perennially spills into the rule-making process at the Parks and Wildlife Commission.
One of their battles centers on how captive deer are tagged so that game wardens and others can distinguish them from native deer. Current law requires a combination of tags and tattoos, and the ranchers and large landowners want to keep it that way. The breeders, meanwhile, favor tagging deer with microchips, which they contend are more accurate and foolproof.
The Wildlife Association said in a Facebook post that removing visible tag or tattoo requirements and allowing microchip tracking “creates real biosecurity risks and blurs ethical lines in the hunting community, as captive deer breeders are allowed to transport and release these animals to be co-mingled with pasture-born deer.” Proponents of the current system say tough rules on breeders are needed to keep out imported deer that may carry Chronic Wasting Disease, which has been found in Texas.
On the other side of the issue is the Texas Deer Association, which represents breeder interests. Executive Director Patrick Tarlton said opposition to his $1.6 billion industry stems less from environmental and health concerns and more from wealthy ranch owners who want to boost profits from trophy-seeking hunters. He notes that Chronic Wasting Disease has been found in both free range and captive deer.
Paddie sided with the breeders by filing House Bill 2855, which would allow breeders to track their deer with microchips instead of relying on physical tags that they say can be torn off.
No one identifying themselves as a Friedkin corporate lobbyist opposed the deer breeding bills during public hearings, according to House and Senate committee records published online.
Behind the scenes, it was a different story.
Paddie said his chief of staff reached out to Laird Doran, one of several lobbyists for Friedkin’s Gulf States Toyota, after hearing that he was trying to convince other legislators to help defeat Paddie's deer microchip bill.
“My chief called him and said, 'Hey, if you’ve got a problem with our bill why aren’t you talking to us?’ ” Paddie said. “He said he represented the Friedkin Group when that happened.”
According to an email from an aide to Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, who is carrying the deer breeding bill in the Senate, Doran also identified himself as a representative of the “Friedkin Group.” That’s the name of the consortium that contains Friedkin's Gulf States Toyota, according to the company’s Linked-In page. He told Estes’ aide that the Friedkin group was opposed to any bill that would “remove requirements for (deer) ear tags,” the senator’s office confirmed.
It’s not clear exactly which Friedkin interests Doran was advancing. Doran is registered at the Texas Ethics Commission with a single entity — Gulf States Toyota — and the agency has no record of a lobbyist working for an entity or individual with the name Friedkin in it, the commission confirmed Wednesday afternoon.
However, Doran checked a variety of non-automotive subject areas in which he is lobbying during this legislative session on behalf of Friedkin’s lucrative distributorship, including “animals,” “parks & wildlife,” “state agencies, boards & commissions,” “environment” and more, his detailed lobby disclosures show.
Doran, director of government relations and senior counsel at the Friedkin Group, did not return phone and email messages left by The Texas Tribune.
Estes said he didn’t have a problem with a governor's appointee engaging in lobbying on issues that affected their private interests, as long as they keep that separate from their state roles.
“I don’t think they should be barred from expressing their views as long as they’re careful to say these are my views, not the views of the agency I’m representing,” Estes said.
But Tarlton, the deer association director, said Friedkin’s use of lobbyists to oppose deer breeders in the Legislature gives the breeders' opponents a huge advantage.
“I think that if the commissioner of Texas Parks and Wildlife is actively lobbying against an industry which his department directly oversees, it absolutely sets up an unfair and closed system of government,” Tarlton said. “The commission is supposed to be the unbiased and equitable oversight for everything wildlife.”
Paddie hopes his amendment to Larsen's ethics bill will even the playing field. He referred to the wealthy Parks and Wildlife chairman (see the 2:29:00 mark in this recorded exchange) when he tacked the appointee-lobbying provision onto Larson’s bill.
Paddie said he’s not singling out anyone. He said it would apply to other powerful gubernatorial appointees in a position to do the same.
“I could have named any number of examples as far as the agencies in particular,” Paddie said. “I want to stop it if anyone serving on any agency is doing this.”
Ryan Murphy contributed to this report.
Disclosure: The Texas Wildlife Association, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Gulf States Toyota have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors is available here.
https://www.texastribune.org/2017/05/12/powerful-abbott-appointees-lobbying-sparks-blowback-legislature/
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2017/05/85th-legislative-session-2017-and-texas.html
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2017
TEXAS, TPWD, WIN CWD COURT CASE AGAINST DEER BREEDERS CAUSE NO. D-1-GN-15-004391 AG Paxton: Judge Upholds Texas Deer Breeding Rules
Monday, September 25, 2017 – Austin Attorney General Ken Paxton today praised a state district court ruling that upholds rules regulating deer breeders, which the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) implemented to curb the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in white-tailed deer. Two deer breeders who challenged the rules were also ordered to pay the state $425,000 in attorneys’ fees. “TPWD’s lawful rules regulating the movement of breeder deer reduce the probability of CWD being spread from deer-breeding facilities, where it may exist, and increase the chances of detecting and containing CWD if it does exist,” Attorney General Paxton said. “The rules also serve to protect Texas’ 700,000 licensed deer hunters, along with the thousands of people in rural communities across the state whose livelihoods depend on deer hunting.”
CWD is a progressively fatal neurological disorder, similar to mad cow disease, that is transmitted through saliva and blood. If it becomes established in an area, CWD can reduce the population of deer. In June 2015, Texas experienced its first case of CWD in a white-tailed deer at a breeding facility in Medina County. A total of 25 white-tailed deer tested positive for CWD at four deer-breeder facilities at the time the TPWD rules were adopted.
https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/ag-paxton-judge-upholds-texas-deer-breeding-rules
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2017/09/texas-tpwd-win-cwd-court-case-against.html
Texas Deer Breeders Continue fight against the state’s wildlife agency and its regulations trying to contain CWD TSE Prion
Texas deer breeders challenge ruling on state’s disease regulations
BUSINESS By Bob Sechler - American-Statesman Staff 1
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials attend a meeting about the state’s policies on chronic wasting disease on July 16, 2015. JAY JANNER / AMERICAN-STATESMAN Posted: 4:19 p.m.
Thursday, February 15, 2018
Some breeders of captive deer for the multibillion-dollar Texas hunting industry are continuing their fight against the state’s wildlife agency and its regulations aimed at curbing the spread of a deadly contagious disease that can infect the animals. A court ruling last fall upheld the authority of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to enact rules to curtail chronic wasting disease, which is fatal to deer, elk and moose, either in captivity or the wild.
A pair of deer breeders who challenged the agency’s regulations — Ken Bailey and Bradly Peterson, who were ordered to pay about $426,000 combined to cover the state’s legal expenses — are appealing, arguing among other things that the court erred by not recognizing that the agency had trampled on their private property rights by issuing rules for the handling of captive-bred deer as well as for wild deer.
“It is undisputed that (the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department) now contends that all deer, including Peterson’s captive-bred deer, are the property of the state,” the appeal says.
Chronic wasting disease was first discovered in Texas in 2012 in free-ranging mule deer in far West Texas. More than 50 cases have been documented since then — including many involving white-tailed deer either in or originating from captive deer breeding facilities, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
snip...
But attorney for Peterson and Bailey called the rules heavy-handed in their appeal of the lower court decision. The wildlife agency “imposed restrictions on Peterson’s (breeder’s) license and his deer, prohibiting him from moving his deer, selling his deer, or to do anything with them … effectively alleging that all captive-bred deer were unhealthy,” the appeal states.
http://www.mystatesman.com/business/texas-deer-breeders-challenge-ruling-state-disease-regulations/kqYUmZ24JaLASqIPRqAUvL/
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2018/02/texas-deer-breeders-continue-fight.html
''CWD has also been diagnosed in several free-ranging white-tailed deer harvested on ranches in close proximity to the remaining CWD positive breeding facilities within Medina County in central Texas. Genetic tests performed on those hunter-harvested deer found that the genetic composition of the subject animals were more closely related to deer in nearby captive facilities, as opposed to those in the surrounding free-range population.''
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS
Testimony Provided By: Carter P. Smith
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
25 June, 2019
Washington, D.C.
__________________________________________________________________________
Introduction
Thank you Mr. Chairman and members of this Committee. I appreciate the chance to come before you today to share a few observations from a state perspective surrounding the management of chronic wasting disease (CWD), a serious and far reaching wildlife based issue that has become front and center for our agency since the disease’s unwelcome discovery in far west Texas in 2012. With the emergence of CWD has come considerable impacts, not only from the increased cost of containing the disease’s spread, but just as importantly, from the implications of how best to attenuate its impacts on social, cultural, recreational, and economic values that Texas and Texans hold dear.
We have learned from other states that in the absence of a targeted, proactive, and comprehensive disease management approach, CWD has the potential to directly and indirectly impact the management of Texas’ bountiful deer herds and other wildlife; the recreational pursuits of sportsmen and women; the livelihoods of people and businesses in rural communities;
the economic value of farm, ranch, and timberland properties; and the sale of hunting licenses, which have long been a primary driver of funding to support conservation of all species, not just game animals. Moreover, the ramifications of CWD for Texas and its multi-billion-dollar ranching, hunting, real estate, and wildlife management affiliated economies are expected to be significant, unless the disease can be successfully contained and controlled.
In short, with so much at stake for so many, complacency with this disease is not an option. …
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2019/06/house-committee-on-natural-resources.html
TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2024
RW TROPHY RANCH, LTD. AND ROBERT WILLIAMS, Appellants V. TEXAS ANIMAL HEALTH COMMISSION; ANDY SCHWARTZ, DVM, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR; AND TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE Fourteenth Court of Appeals NO. 14-23-00242-CV
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2024/03/rw-trophy-ranch-ltd-and-robert-williams.html
TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2024
Monday, September 25, 2017 – Austin Attorney General Ken Paxton today praised a state district court ruling that upholds rules regulating deer breeders, which the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) implemented to curb the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in white-tailed deer. Two deer breeders who challenged the rules were also ordered to pay the state $425,000 in attorneys’ fees. “TPWD’s lawful rules regulating the movement of breeder deer reduce the probability of CWD being spread from deer-breeding facilities, where it may exist, and increase the chances of detecting and containing CWD if it does exist,” Attorney General Paxton said. “The rules also serve to protect Texas’ 700,000 licensed deer hunters, along with the thousands of people in rural communities across the state whose livelihoods depend on deer hunting.”
CWD is a progressively fatal neurological disorder, similar to mad cow disease, that is transmitted through saliva and blood. If it becomes established in an area, CWD can reduce the population of deer. In June 2015, Texas experienced its first case of CWD in a white-tailed deer at a breeding facility in Medina County. A total of 25 white-tailed deer tested positive for CWD at four deer-breeder facilities at the time the TPWD rules were adopted.
https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/ag-paxton-judge-upholds-texas-deer-breeding-rules
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2017/09/texas-tpwd-win-cwd-court-case-against.html
Texas Deer Breeders Continue fight against the state’s wildlife agency and its regulations trying to contain CWD TSE Prion
Texas deer breeders challenge ruling on state’s disease regulations
BUSINESS By Bob Sechler - American-Statesman Staff 1
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials attend a meeting about the state’s policies on chronic wasting disease on July 16, 2015. JAY JANNER / AMERICAN-STATESMAN Posted: 4:19 p.m.
Thursday, February 15, 2018
Some breeders of captive deer for the multibillion-dollar Texas hunting industry are continuing their fight against the state’s wildlife agency and its regulations aimed at curbing the spread of a deadly contagious disease that can infect the animals. A court ruling last fall upheld the authority of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to enact rules to curtail chronic wasting disease, which is fatal to deer, elk and moose, either in captivity or the wild.
A pair of deer breeders who challenged the agency’s regulations — Ken Bailey and Bradly Peterson, who were ordered to pay about $426,000 combined to cover the state’s legal expenses — are appealing, arguing among other things that the court erred by not recognizing that the agency had trampled on their private property rights by issuing rules for the handling of captive-bred deer as well as for wild deer.
“It is undisputed that (the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department) now contends that all deer, including Peterson’s captive-bred deer, are the property of the state,” the appeal says.
Chronic wasting disease was first discovered in Texas in 2012 in free-ranging mule deer in far West Texas. More than 50 cases have been documented since then — including many involving white-tailed deer either in or originating from captive deer breeding facilities, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
snip...
But attorney for Peterson and Bailey called the rules heavy-handed in their appeal of the lower court decision. The wildlife agency “imposed restrictions on Peterson’s (breeder’s) license and his deer, prohibiting him from moving his deer, selling his deer, or to do anything with them … effectively alleging that all captive-bred deer were unhealthy,” the appeal states.
http://www.mystatesman.com/business/texas-deer-breeders-challenge-ruling-state-disease-regulations/kqYUmZ24JaLASqIPRqAUvL/
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2018/02/texas-deer-breeders-continue-fight.html
''CWD has also been diagnosed in several free-ranging white-tailed deer harvested on ranches in close proximity to the remaining CWD positive breeding facilities within Medina County in central Texas. Genetic tests performed on those hunter-harvested deer found that the genetic composition of the subject animals were more closely related to deer in nearby captive facilities, as opposed to those in the surrounding free-range population.''
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS
Testimony Provided By: Carter P. Smith
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
25 June, 2019
Washington, D.C.
__________________________________________________________________________
Introduction
Thank you Mr. Chairman and members of this Committee. I appreciate the chance to come before you today to share a few observations from a state perspective surrounding the management of chronic wasting disease (CWD), a serious and far reaching wildlife based issue that has become front and center for our agency since the disease’s unwelcome discovery in far west Texas in 2012. With the emergence of CWD has come considerable impacts, not only from the increased cost of containing the disease’s spread, but just as importantly, from the implications of how best to attenuate its impacts on social, cultural, recreational, and economic values that Texas and Texans hold dear.
We have learned from other states that in the absence of a targeted, proactive, and comprehensive disease management approach, CWD has the potential to directly and indirectly impact the management of Texas’ bountiful deer herds and other wildlife; the recreational pursuits of sportsmen and women; the livelihoods of people and businesses in rural communities;
the economic value of farm, ranch, and timberland properties; and the sale of hunting licenses, which have long been a primary driver of funding to support conservation of all species, not just game animals. Moreover, the ramifications of CWD for Texas and its multi-billion-dollar ranching, hunting, real estate, and wildlife management affiliated economies are expected to be significant, unless the disease can be successfully contained and controlled.
In short, with so much at stake for so many, complacency with this disease is not an option. …
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2019/06/house-committee-on-natural-resources.html
TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2024
RW TROPHY RANCH, LTD. AND ROBERT WILLIAMS, Appellants V. TEXAS ANIMAL HEALTH COMMISSION; ANDY SCHWARTZ, DVM, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR; AND TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE Fourteenth Court of Appeals NO. 14-23-00242-CV
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2024/03/rw-trophy-ranch-ltd-and-robert-williams.html
TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2024
RW TROPHY RANCH, LTD. AND ROBERT WILLIAMS, Appellants V. TEXAS ANIMAL HEALTH COMMISSION; ANDY SCHWARTZ, DVM, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR; AND TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE Fourteenth Court of Appeals NO. 14-23-00242-CV
FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2024
Texas Hundreds of deer test positive for CWD on Trophy Ranch Texas Hundreds of deer test positive for CWD on Trophy Ranch
State kills hundreds of deer at North Texas ranch, after years of legal fights
BY EMILY BRINDLEY UPDATED MAY 31, 2024 10:53 AM
In a November legal filing, the state wrote that RW Trophy Ranch “now hosts the worst-ever CWD outbreak in Texas.” In a mid-March filing, the department notified the state Supreme Court that there had been 208 positive CWD cases at the ranch over the previous three years. Parks and Wildlife staff said this week that the number continued to rise, and reached 254 by Tuesday morning.
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article288479815.html#storylink=cpy
Texas TAHC TPWD Confirm 132 More Cases of CWD TSE PrP
Jumps from 663 in March, to 795 Positive In May 2024, wow!
https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/diseases/cwd/positive-cases/listing-cwd-cases-texas.phtml#texasCWD
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2024/05/texas-hundreds-of-deer-test-positive.html?zx=b07abd1f3b98ee8d
Texas CWD Surveillance Positives Tracking Page is still outdated, last figures i have were;
Texas CWD total by calendar years
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2024/12/texas-cwd-tse-prion-positive-samples-by.html
TPWD CWD Tracking
https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/diseases/cwd/positive-cases/listing-cwd-cases-texas.phtml#texasCWD
Counties where CWD Exposed Deer were Released
https://tpwd.texas.gov/documents/257/CWD-Trace-OutReleaseSites.pdf
Number of CWD Exposed Deer Released by County
https://tpwd.texas.gov/documents/258/CWD-Trace-OutReleaseSites-NbrDeer.pdf
CWD Status Captive Herds
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/status-of-captive-herds.pdf
Aug 18, 2021
Oh, Deer
Heading Off a Wildlife Epidemic
CWD poses a significant threat to the future of hunting in Texas. Deer population declines of 45 and 50 percent have been documented in Colorado and Wyoming. A broad infection of Texas deer populations resulting in similar population impacts would inflict severe economic damage to rural communities and could negatively impact land markets. Specifically, those landowners seeking to establish a thriving herd of deer could avoid buying in areas with confirmed CWD infections. As they do with anthrax-susceptible properties, land brokers may find it advisable to inquire about the status of CWD infections on properties that they present for sale. Prospective buyers should also investigate the status of the wildlife on prospective properties. In addition, existing landowners should monitor developments as TPWD crafts management strategies to identify and contain this deadly disease.
Dr. Gilliland (c-gilliland@tamu.edu) is a research economist with the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University.
https://www.recenter.tamu.edu/articles/tierra-grande/oh-d
Texas Game Wardens Bust Illegal Deer Operations Across the State Feb. 27, 2025
Media Contact: TPWD News, Business Hours, 512-389-8030
AUSTIN – A recent investigation by Texas Game Wardens resulted in approximately 1,200 pending charges and 22 suspects from across the state involved in the deer breeding industry and black-market wildlife trade.
The suspects and charges are associated with three deer breeding facilities, ten release sites, one deer management pen and three illegal facilities not registered in the Texas Wildlife Information Management Services (TWIMS) database, meaning they were operating or receiving deer in violation of registration requirements and disease monitoring protocols…see full report;
FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2024
Texas Hundreds of deer test positive for CWD on Trophy Ranch Texas Hundreds of deer test positive for CWD on Trophy Ranch
State kills hundreds of deer at North Texas ranch, after years of legal fights
BY EMILY BRINDLEY UPDATED MAY 31, 2024 10:53 AM
In a November legal filing, the state wrote that RW Trophy Ranch “now hosts the worst-ever CWD outbreak in Texas.” In a mid-March filing, the department notified the state Supreme Court that there had been 208 positive CWD cases at the ranch over the previous three years. Parks and Wildlife staff said this week that the number continued to rise, and reached 254 by Tuesday morning.
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article288479815.html#storylink=cpy
Texas TAHC TPWD Confirm 132 More Cases of CWD TSE PrP
Jumps from 663 in March, to 795 Positive In May 2024, wow!
https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/diseases/cwd/positive-cases/listing-cwd-cases-texas.phtml#texasCWD
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2024/05/texas-hundreds-of-deer-test-positive.html?zx=b07abd1f3b98ee8d
Texas CWD Surveillance Positives Tracking Page is still outdated, last figures i have were;
Texas CWD total by calendar years
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2024/12/texas-cwd-tse-prion-positive-samples-by.html
TPWD CWD Tracking
https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/diseases/cwd/positive-cases/listing-cwd-cases-texas.phtml#texasCWD
Counties where CWD Exposed Deer were Released
https://tpwd.texas.gov/documents/257/CWD-Trace-OutReleaseSites.pdf
Number of CWD Exposed Deer Released by County
https://tpwd.texas.gov/documents/258/CWD-Trace-OutReleaseSites-NbrDeer.pdf
CWD Status Captive Herds
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/status-of-captive-herds.pdf
Aug 18, 2021
Oh, Deer
Heading Off a Wildlife Epidemic
CWD poses a significant threat to the future of hunting in Texas. Deer population declines of 45 and 50 percent have been documented in Colorado and Wyoming. A broad infection of Texas deer populations resulting in similar population impacts would inflict severe economic damage to rural communities and could negatively impact land markets. Specifically, those landowners seeking to establish a thriving herd of deer could avoid buying in areas with confirmed CWD infections. As they do with anthrax-susceptible properties, land brokers may find it advisable to inquire about the status of CWD infections on properties that they present for sale. Prospective buyers should also investigate the status of the wildlife on prospective properties. In addition, existing landowners should monitor developments as TPWD crafts management strategies to identify and contain this deadly disease.
Dr. Gilliland (c-gilliland@tamu.edu) is a research economist with the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University.
https://www.recenter.tamu.edu/articles/tierra-grande/oh-d
Texas Game Wardens Bust Illegal Deer Operations Across the State Feb. 27, 2025
Media Contact: TPWD News, Business Hours, 512-389-8030
AUSTIN – A recent investigation by Texas Game Wardens resulted in approximately 1,200 pending charges and 22 suspects from across the state involved in the deer breeding industry and black-market wildlife trade.
The suspects and charges are associated with three deer breeding facilities, ten release sites, one deer management pen and three illegal facilities not registered in the Texas Wildlife Information Management Services (TWIMS) database, meaning they were operating or receiving deer in violation of registration requirements and disease monitoring protocols…see full report;
https://tpwd.texas.gov/newsmedia/releases/?req=20250227b
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2025/02/texas-game-wardens-bust-illegal-deer.html
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2025/02/texas-animal-health-commission-423rd.html
“CWD spreads among wild populations at a relatively slow rate, limited by the natural home range and dispersed nature of wild animals.”
NOW HOLD YOUR HORSES, Chronic Wasting Disease CWD of Cervid can spread rather swiftly, traveling around 50 MPH, from the back of truck and trailer, and Here in Texas, we call it ‘Trucking CWD’…
Preventive Veterinary Medicine Volume 234, January 2025, 106385
Use of biosecurity practices to prevent chronic wasting disease in Minnesota cervid herds
Vehicles or trailers that entered the farm were used to transport other live cervids, cervid carcasses, or cervid body parts in past 3 years in 64.3 % (95 % CI 46.3–82.3) of larger elk/reindeer herds compared to 13.6 % (95 % CI 4.7–22.4) of smaller deer herds.
Snip…
Identifying the exact pathway of initial CWD transmission to cervid herds is often not possible, in part due to many potential pathways of transmission for the infection, including both direct and indirect contact with infected farmed or wild cervids (Kincheloe et al., 2021). That study identified that transmissions from infected farmed cervids may occur from direct contact with the movement of cervids from one herd to another and from indirect contact with the sharing of equipment, vehicles, clothing, reproductive equipment, and potentially through semen or embryos.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S016758772400271X
***> Department records indicate that within the last five years (since January 1, 2020), 30 deer breeding facilities where CWD has been confirmed transferred a total of 8,799 deer to 249 additional deer breeding facilities and 487 release sites located in a total of 144 counties in Texas. <***
https://www.sos.state.tx.us/texreg/pdf/backview/0411/0411adop.pdf
Texas Kimble County Farm Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion Approximate Herd Prevalence 12%
SUMMARY MINUTES OF THE 407th COMMISSION MEETING Texas Animal Health Commission
September 22, 2020
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD):
A new CWD positive breeding herd was disclosed in February 2020 in Kimble County. This herd depopulation was completed in July 2020. Including the two index positive deer, an additional eight more positive deer were disclosed (approximate herd prevalence 12%). Since July 2015 and prior to this discovery, five positive captive breeder herds have been disclosed and four of those are in Medina County. One herd in Lavaca and three herds in Medina County were depopulated leaving one large herd in Medina County that is managed on a herd plan. A new zone was established in Val Verde County in December 2019 as a result of a positive free-ranging White-tailed Deer (WTD). A second positive WTD was also disclosed in February 2020 in the same area.
SUMMARY MINUTES OF THE 407th COMMISSION MEETING – 9/22/2020
Scrapie: The flock identified in April 2016 remains under quarantine in Hartley County.
https://www.tahc.texas.gov/agency/meetings/minutes/SummaryMinutes_CommMtg_2020-09-22
http://web.archive.org/web/20201017124040/https://www.tahc.texas.gov/agency/meetings/minutes/SummaryMinutes_CommMtg_2020-09-22.pdf
“It is interesting to note that, in 2001, the State of Texas shifted its deer management strategies toward the same leanings that Kroll has suggested for Wisconsin. In Texas, the change was brought about via heavy lobbying from the high-fence deer ranching industry. This pressure helped convince the Texas Parks and Wildlife to change their regulations and allow private landowners to select the own deer biologists.”
According to Wisconsin’s White-Tailed Deer Trustee Dr. James Kroll, people who call for more public hunting opportunities are “pining for socialism.” He further states, “(Public) Game management is the last bastion of communism.”
“Game Management,” says James Kroll, driving to his high-fenced, two-hundred-acre spread near Nacogdoches, “is the last bastion of communism.” Kroll, also known as Dr. Deer, is the director of the Forestry Resources Institute of Texas at Stephen F. Austin State University, and the “management” he is referring to is the sort practiced by the State of Texas. The 55-year-old Kroll is the leading light in the field of private deer management as a means to add value to the land. His belief is so absolute that some detractors refer to him as Dr. Dough, implying that his eye is on the bottom line more than on the natural world.
Kroll, who has been the foremost proponent of deer ranching in Texas for more than thirty years, doesn’t mind the controversy and certainly doesn’t fade in the heat. People who call for more public lands are “cocktail conservationists,” he says, who are really pining for socialism. He calls national parks “wildlife ghettos” and flatly accuses the government of gross mismanagement. He argues that his relatively tiny acreage, marked by eight-foot fences and posted signs warning off would-be poachers, is a better model for keeping what’s natural natural while making money off the land.
Dr. Deer Wisconsin Report: Will High-Fence Bias Skew Final Plan?
Categories: Blogs, Daniel Schmidt’s Whitetail Wisdom, Deer News, Featured Tags: antler restricitons, dan schmidt, Dr. Deer, james kroll, James Kroll Wisconsin, qdm, quality deer management, texas hunting, wisconsin deer hunting March 29, 2012 According to Wisconsin’s White-Tailed Deer Trustee Dr. James Kroll, people who call for more public hunting opportunities are “pining for socialism.” He further states, “(Public) Game management is the last bastion of communism.”
OPINION BLOG
These are just two insights into the man who has been asked to provide analysis and recommended changes to Wisconsin’s deer management program. Kroll’s insights are from an article entitled “Which Side of the Fence Are You On?” by Joe Nick Patoski for a past edition of Texas Monthly. If nothing more, the article gives an unabashed look into the mind-set that will be providing the Wisconsin DNR with recommendations on how to change their deer management practices. James Kroll (also known as “Deer Dr.”) was appointed to the Wisconsin “deer czar” position last fall. He was hired by the Department of Administration and instructed to complete a review of the state’s deer management program.
Here’s a sample of the article:
“Game Management,” says James Kroll, driving to his high-fenced, two-hundred-acre spread near Nacogdoches, “is the last bastion of communism.” Kroll, also known as Dr. Deer, is the director of the Forestry Resources Institute of Texas at Stephen F. Austin State University, and the “management” he is referring to is the sort practiced by the State of Texas. The 55-year-old Kroll is the leading light in the field of private deer management as a means to add value to the land. His belief is so absolute that some detractors refer to him as Dr. Dough, implying that his eye is on the bottom line more than on the natural world.
Kroll, who has been the foremost proponent of deer ranching in Texas for more than thirty years, doesn’t mind the controversy and certainly doesn’t fade in the heat. People who call for more public lands are “cocktail conservationists,” he says, who are really pining for socialism. He calls national parks “wildlife ghettos” and flatly accuses the government of gross mismanagement. He argues that his relatively tiny acreage, marked by eight-foot fences and posted signs warning off would-be poachers, is a better model for keeping what’s natural natural while making money off the land.
A trip to South Africa six years ago convinced Kroll that he was on the right track. There he encountered areas of primitive, lush wildlife-rich habitats called game ranches. They were privately owned, privately managed, and enclosed by high fences. He noticed how most of the land outside those fences had been grazed to the nub, used up. “Game ranches there derive their income from these animals — viewing them, hunting them, selling their meat,” he says. “There are no losers.” At his own ranch Kroll has set up a smaller version of the same thing. His land is indeed lush, verdant, with pine groves, an abundance of undergrowth, wild orchids, New Jersey tea, jack-in-the-pulpits, and other native plants. He has also set up a full-scale breeding research center and is one of twenty Texas deer breeders using artificial insemination to improve his herd. “We balance sex and age ratio,” he says. “We manage habitat. We control the population and manage for hunting. I want to leave the deer herd better than it was before we came.”
It is interesting to note that, in 2001, the State of Texas shifted its deer management strategies toward the same leanings that Kroll has suggested for Wisconsin. In Texas, the change was brought about via heavy lobbying from the high-fence deer ranching industry. This pressure helped convince the Texas Parks and Wildlife to change their regulations and allow private landowners to select the own deer biologists.
“That has given landowners more freedom,” Kroll told Texas Monthly. “(However,) You still have to let the state on your land to get a wildlife-management permit.” The key difference here is that 98 percent of Texas is comprised of private land. Wisconsin, on the other hand, consists of approximately 34.8 million acres of land, and 25.5 percent of the state’s 638,000 gun-hunters reported hunting on public land at some point during the season (2010, Duey, Rees).
According to the Wisconsin Realtors Association, more than 5.7 million acres of this land, or 16.5 percent, is publicly owned and used for parks, forests, trails, and natural resource protection. [Note: these statistics do not include the public land used for roads, government buildings, military bases, and college/school campuses.] This 5.7 million acres of public land is owned as follows:
Federal government owns approximately 1.5 million acres (4.4 percent of the state’s land area). Almost all of the federal forestland in Wisconsin is located in Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest.
State government owns approximately 1.6 million acres (4.6 percent of the state’s land area). The land is managed by two agencies, the Board of Commissioners of Public Land (who manages lands granted by federal government) and the DNR (managing land owned by the state).
County government owns approximately 2.6 million acres (7.5 percent of the state’s land area).
Public land is located in 71 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties, with the most public land located in Bayfield County (464,673 acres). [Note: Menominee County does not have any public land, but 98 percent of the land is held in trust by the Menominee Tribe.] Twenty counties have more than 100,000 acres of public land, while only 12 counties have fewer than 10,000 acres.
What does this all mean? My initial reaction, which is one that I predicted when Kroll was named to the state’s deer trustee position, is that his team’s final recommendations — if implemented — will be heavily skewed toward the state’s larger landowners (500+ acres) and folks who own small parcels in areas comprised mostly of private land.
It is also my prediction that the final recommendations (again, if implemented) will do little, if anything, to improve deer herds and deer hunting on Wisconsin’s 5.7 million acres of public land.
Where does this leave the public-land hunter? “It will suck to be you,” said one deer manager who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for his job. “The resources and efforts will go toward improving the private land sector. This is all about turning deer hunting away from the Public Land Doctrine and more toward a European-style of management — like they have in Texas.”
I do, of course, hope these assumptions are wrong. As with all things in life, we should maintain an open mind to change. Life is all about change. However, change for the sake of change is usually a recipe for disaster. Especially when that change is driven by something more than a sincere desire to manage public resources for the greater good.
As noted yesterday (Dr. James Kroll Report: Is That All You Get For Your Money), I will provide more of my opinions and interpretation on this important issue in forthcoming installments of this blog. Read his full preliminary report here.
http://www.texasmonthly.com/preview/2002-02-01/feature5
http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/which-side-fence-are-you
THE CWD TSE Prion aka mad cow type disease is not your normal pathogen.
The TSE prion disease survives ashing to 600 degrees celsius, that’s around 1112 degrees farenheit.
you cannot cook the TSE prion disease out of meat.
you can take the ash and mix it with saline and inject that ash into a mouse, and the mouse will go down with TSE.
Prion Infected Meat-and-Bone Meal Is Still Infectious after Biodiesel Production as well.
the TSE prion agent also survives Simulated Wastewater Treatment Processes.
IN fact, you should also know that the TSE Prion agent will survive in the environment for years, if not decades.
you can bury it and it will not go away.
The TSE agent is capable of infected your water table i.e. Detection of protease-resistant cervid prion protein in water from a CWD-endemic area.
it’s not your ordinary pathogen you can just cook it out and be done
New studies on the heat resistance of hamster-adapted scrapie agent: Threshold survival after ashing at 600°C suggests an inorganic template of replication
http://www.pnas.org/content/97/7/3418.full
Prion Infected Meat-and-Bone Meal Is Still Infectious after Biodiesel Production
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2493038/
Detection of protease-resistant cervid prion protein in water from a CWD-endemic area
https://www.ncbi...nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2802782/pdf/prion0303_0171.pdf
Prions in Waterways
https://vimeo.com/898941380?fbclid=IwAR3Di7tLuU-iagCetdt4-CVPrOPQQrv037QS1Uxz0tX3z7BuvPeYlwIp7IY
A Quantitative Assessment of the Amount of Prion Diverted to Category 1 Materials and Wastewater During Processing
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2012.01922.x/abstract
Rapid assessment of bovine spongiform encephalopathy prion inactivation by heat treatment in yellow grease produced in the industrial manufacturing process of meat and bone meals
https://bmcvetres.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/1746-6148-9-134.pdf
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2019
BSE infectivity survives burial for five years with only limited spread
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs00705-019-04154-8.pdf
So, this is what we leave our children and grandchildren?
Detection of chronic wasting disease prions in the farm soil of the Republic of Korea
Here, we show that prion seeding activity was detected in extracts from farm soil following 4 years of incubation with CWD-infected brain homogenate.
https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/msphere.00866-24
"Additionally, we have determined that prion seeding activity is retained for at least fifteen years at a contaminated site following attempted remediation."
Detection of prions in soils contaminated by multiple routes
Results: We are able to detect prion seeding activity at multiple types of environmental hotspots, including carcass sites, contaminated captive facilities, and scrapes (i.e. urine and saliva). Differences in relative prion concentration vary depending on the nature and source of the contamination. Additionally, we have determined that prion seeding activity is retained for at least fifteen years at a contaminated site following attempted remediation.
Conclusions: Detection of prions in the environment is of the utmost importance for controlling chronic wasting disease spread. Here, we have demonstrated a viable method for detection of prions in complex environmental matrices. However, it is quite likely that this method underestimates the total infectious prion load in a contaminated sample, due to incomplete recovery of infectious prions. Further refinements are necessary for accurate quantification of prions in such samples, and to account for the intrinsic heterogeneities found in the broader environment.
Funded by: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Prion 2023 Abstracts
https://prion2023.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Meeting-book-final-version2.pdf
15 YEARS!!!
Chronic wasting disease prions on deer feeders and wildlife visitation to deer feeding areas
Miranda H. J. Huang, Steve Demarais, Marc D. Schwabenlander, Bronson K. Strickland, Kurt C. VerCauteren, William T. McKinley, Gage Rowden, Corina C. Valencia Tibbitts … See all authors
First published: 10 February 2025
https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.70000
Abstract
Eliminating supplemental feeding is a common regulatory action within chronic wasting disease (CWD) management zones. These regulations target the potential for increased animal-animal contact and environmental contamination with CWD prions. Prions, the causative agent of CWD, have been detected on feeder surfaces in CWD-positive, captive deer facilities but not among free-ranging populations, and information on the relative risk of transmission at anthropogenic and natural food sources is limited. In this study, we established and maintained 13 gravity feeders from September 2022 to March 2023 in a CWD zone in northern Mississippi, USA (apparent prevalence ~30%). We set up feeders up in 3 ways: no exclusion (deer feeders, n = 7), exclusion of deer using fencing with holes cut at the ground-level to permit smaller wildlife to enter (raccoon feeders, n = 3), and environmental control feeders, which were fully fenced and not filled with feed (control feeders, n = 3). We swabbed feeder spouts at setup and at 4 intervals approximately 6 weeks apart to test for prion contamination via real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC). We detected prions 12 weeks after setup on all deer and raccoon feeders. We compared relative transmission risk using camera traps at these feeders, 6 agronomic plantings for wildlife forage (i.e., food plots), and 7 oak mast trees. Weekly visitation rate by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus; hereafter: deer) differed (P = 0.02) among deer feeders (median = 24.5 deer/week, range = 15.6–65.7), food plots (median = 12.7, range = 3.8–24.7), and mast trees (median = 2.0, range = 0.4–5.1). Contact rates between individual deer also differed between site types (P < 0.01): deer feeders (median = 2.1 deer-to-deer contacts/week, range = 0–10.1), food plots (median = 0.1, range = 0–4.0), and mast trees (median = 0, range = 0–0.3). Raccoons also visited feeders at greater rates than food plots and mast trees (P < 0.04). Finally, we swabbed 19 feeders in 2 areas where CWD was newly detected, finding prion contamination on swabs from 4 feeders. We show that deer feeders in free-ranging populations with high CWD prevalence become contaminated with CWD prions quickly, becoming a potential site of exposure of deer to CWD prions. Our results also demonstrate the ability to find evidence of prion contamination on deer feeders, even in areas where CWD is newly detected.
Snip…
We found that supplemental feeding increased the risk of exposure to CWD prions due to contamination of feeders, increased deer visitation, and increased deer-to-deer contact.
The 12-fold increase in deer visitation to feeders compared to mast trees and 2-fold increase compared to food plots demonstrates increased risk for direct disease spread.
https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jwmg.70000
Artificial mineral sites that pre-date endemic chronic wasting disease become prion hotspots
The detection of PrPCWD in soils at attractant sites within an endemic CWD zone significantly advances our understanding of environmental PrPCWD accumulation dynamics, providing valuable information for advancing adaptive CWD management approaches.
https://int-cwd-sympo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/final-agenda-with-abstracts.pdf
Chronic wasting disease detection in environmental and biological samples from a taxidermy site
Results: The PMCA analysis demonstrated CWD seeding activity in some of the components of this facility, including insects involved in head processing, soils, and a trash dumpster.
Conclusions: Different areas of this property were used for various taxidermy procedures. We were able to detect the presence of prions in i) soils that were in contact with the heads of dead animals, ii) insects involved in the cleaning of skulls, and iii) an empty dumpster where animal carcasses were previously placed. This is the first report demonstrating that swabbing is a helpful method to screen for prion infectivity on surfaces potentially contaminated with CWD. These findings are relevant as this swabbing and amplification strategy may be used to evaluate the disease status of other free-ranging and captive settings where there is a concern for CWD transmissions, such as at feeders and water troughs with CWD-exposed properties. This approach could have substantial implications for free-ranging cervid surveillance as well as in epidemiological investigations of CWD.
Prion 2022 Conference abstracts: pushing the boundaries
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19336896.2022.2091286
https://intcwdsympo.files.wordpress.com/2023/06/final-agenda-with-abstracts.pdf?force_download=true
***> Infectious agent of sheep scrapie may persist in the environment for at least 16 years
***> Nine of these recurrences occurred 14–21 years after culling, apparently as the result of environmental contamination, but outside entry could not always be absolutely excluded.
JOURNAL OF GENERAL VIROLOGY Volume 87, Issue 12
Infectious agent of sheep scrapie may persist in the environment for at least 16 years Free
https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.82011-0
Rapid recontamination of a farm building occurs after attempted prion removal
First published: 19 January 2019 https://doi.org/10.1136/vr.105054
The data illustrates the difficulty in decontaminating farm buildings from scrapie, and demonstrates the likely contribution of farm dust to the recontamination of these environments to levels that are capable of causing disease. snip...
This study clearly demonstrates the difficulty in removing scrapie infectivity from the farm environment. Practical and effective prion decontamination methods are still urgently required for decontamination of scrapie infectivity from farms that have had cases of scrapie and this is particularly relevant for scrapie positive goatherds, which currently have limited genetic resistance to scrapie within commercial breeds.24 This is very likely to have parallels with control efforts for CWD in cervids.
https://bvajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1136/vr.105054
***>This is very likely to have parallels with control efforts for CWD in cervids.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30602491/
SUNDAY, MAY 04, 2025
Texas Senate Bill 2651 establishment of a pilot program to breed deer resistant to CWD TSE Prion, what could go wrong?
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2025/05/texas-senate-bill-2651-establishment-of_4.html
Texas S.B. 2843 Directs TPWD to conduct a comprehensive study of current measures to control chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer
Trying to legislate CWD is what got Texas in this CWD mess to begin with, how did that work out$$$ Legislators and Politicians need to stay away and let TPWD and TAHC et try and contain this mess that Legislators and Politicians got us in, called CWD TSE Prion…terry
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2025/04/texas-sb-2843-directs-tpwd-to-conduct.html
Terry S. Singeltary Sr.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.