Bakersfield Department of Recreation and Parks

Transcription

[Narration] In July of 2012, samples from two mule deer were confirmed positive for Chronic Wasting Disease. This occurred in the Hueco Mountians of far West Texas, just north east of El Paso. These are the first cases of Chronic Wasting Disease detected in Texas deer and Wildlife officials are asking hunters for their help in determining the prevalence and geographic extent of this disease in far West Texas. [Mitch Lockwood] Well hunters can help us by bringing deer to our check stations so that we can collect samples from those deer and have them tested for chronic wasting disease, or CWD. The primary goal of our chronic wasting disease management plan is to contain the disease to that area which it currently exists but in order to be effective in achieving that goal we need to be able to determine what the geographic extent of that disease is. Is it isolated to that Hueco Mountain population and what proportion of the deer in that population have the disease? So we have identified three different CWD zones out in West Texas. We have a Containment Zone which includes El Paso and Hudspeth Counties and even the western edge of Culberson County. It's basically all land north of Interstate 10 and west of Highway 54 that runs north out of Van Horn. And any deer that is harvested in that Containment Zone must be brought to a check station so one of our biologists can collect a sample and have it tested for Chronic Wasting Disease. And those check stations will be at the Van Horn Convention Center and at May's Café in Cornudas and more information about those locations and the hours of operation will be on our CWD webpage. Surrounding the Containment Zone is an area we designated a High Risk Zone. The High Risk Zone includes Hudspeth County, most of Culberson County and some of Reeves County. This is an area where we won't be surprised if CWD is detected and we're going to depend on hunters who harvest deer in this High Risk Zone to bring their harvested deer into some voluntary check stations that we have established in Alpine, Sanderson, Bakersfield and Midland and we want to try to collect as many samples of West Texas deer as possible this year to help us better determine what the geographic extent of this disease is. Basically, we're wanting to test any deer that's collected in West Texas and the western part of the Panhandle. We'll take as many samples as we receive at the check stations. For all those deer we sample in West Texas, we're going to post those test results on our website as soon as we receive them from the diagnostic lab at Texas A&M University. The hunter is going to receive a receipt from us. It will also serve a s a proof of sex document and that receipt will have a sample number on it that they can reference on our website to see what the test result was for that deer they harvested. [Narration] Chronic Wasting Disease has been detected in 22 states and 2 Canadian Provinces. [Mitch Lockwood] in most cases it's not widespread throughout those states but there are some populations particularly in Wyoming and Colorado where the prevalence of the disease is quite high and we're seeing a mule deer population decline as well. Chronic Wasting Disease does infect not only mule deer but whitetails as well. In fact, there are some other susceptible species including elk, red deer, sika deer, all of which occur in this state. The biologists in most state agencies will tell you that it's not a matter of if they're ever going to detect Chronic Wasting Disease but more a matter of when they're going to detect it. We've been sampling for this disease for 10 years now. We've tested about 27,000 wild white-tailed deer and mule deer in this state. [Narration]. Chronic Wasting Disease was detected in Texas in the summer of 2012, through a strategic surveillance effort conducted with the Texas Animal Health Commission, USDA- Wildlife Services, UT- Lands, and private landowners. [Mitch Lockwood] I think that the fact that we have had an intensive surveillance program for this disease for a decade now, gives a lot of comfort to the hunters and landowners in this state that this disease probably is limited to or restricted to that area in far West Texas. We're going to be collecting a lot of samples at those check stations in West Texas this year because that is the one part of the state where we haven't been able to collect very many samples over the years, just because there's not nearly as many deer out there , not nearly as many deer hunters out there, we don't have as many cold storage facilities out there like you have in the Hill Country for example and so it's been hard to get many samples out there without implementing some of these check stations. [Narration] During the 2012-2013 season, 298 samples were collected from deer that hunters brought to these check stations. Chronic Wasting Disease was detected in 4 additional deer from the Hueco Mountains. Biologists are encouraged that no other deer were detected with the disease anywhere else in West Texas. [Mitch Lockwood] A common question that we get from hunters is, "What do they do with those inedible carcass parts? What do they do when they field dress a deer or when they quarter a deer out, what do they do with that part they're not going to keep?" The most preferred option for disposing of those inedible carcass parts would be burying them at least six feet deep, either on the site where they were harvested or at a landfill. But a lot of times that's not practical and when it's not, then we strongly encourage those hunters to leave those carcass parts on the ranch, one the site where those deer were harvested because if that animal is infected it is likely that it has already been shedding preons on that same site and so we would just ask that what they don't take home to process themselves and eat, they leave there on the site. I think it's important to note that there is no evidence that people can be infected with Chronic Wasting Disease. However, there are some people prefer not to eat the venison of a deer in which this disease has been detected and it would be legal for them to discard that meat if the disease was detected in an animal that they harvested. Many times an animal that's infected with Chronic Wasting Disease doesn't show any symptoms. This is a disease that has a long incubation period and they can have this disease for, for years before they start showing signs but certainly in the later stages of this disease it does include symptoms such as emaciation, the deer look really, really skinny. The deer may be even salivating. They could be circling, walking in circles. There's many symptoms of this disease but unfortunately, they're not unlike the symptoms of many other diseases but we do certainly ask for hunters or anyone who sees deer that appears to be in really poor shape to contact Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and give us as accurate a location as possible so we can try and locate that animal and have it tested for Chronic Wasting Disease. [Narration] For more information on Chronic Wasting Disease, go to the Chronic Wasting disease page on our website.