Author: Tex Hunter

Get Deer Tested for CWD

“In the wake of our increased concern about CWD we are ramping up our sampling effort state wide,” said Mitch Lockwood, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Big Game Program Director. “We will be collecting samples from deer and elk, and other cervid species, in every county where deer hunting occurs.”

With the recent discovery of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in two captive deer breeding facilities in south-central Texas, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department will be stepping up efforts to strategically test hunter harvested deer for CWD at a greater level during the 2015-16 hunting season.

Hunters are encouraged to assist with this statewide monitoring effort by voluntarily submitting samples this fall. TPWD biologists will collect and submit samples to the Texas A&M Veterinary Diagnostic Lab at no cost to the hunter. Tissue samples from the heads of harvested deer must be collected within 24 hours of harvest, up to 48 hours if kept chilled. It is very important that the deer head not be frozen.

CWD Testing in Texas

Since 2003, TPWD biologists have been monitoring the state’s free-ranging deer population for CWD. Using statistical sampling tables commonly used by animal disease experts, biologists set a sampling goal that would detect the disease with 95 percent confidence if at least one out of every 100 deer was infected. Thus far, biologists have collected nearly 30,000 samples from hunter-harvested deer across Texas’ eight ecological regions, in most cases surpassing 95 percent confidence standards. To date, CWD has not been found in Texas free-ranging white-tailed deer.

The sampling strategy for the 2015-16 hunting season is being refined to target disease risk levels within the state’s 33 unique Resource Management Units (RMU); wildlife conservation areas that TPWD uses for all other deer management decisions. Criteria for establishing risk levels include factors such as deer density, susceptible species importation history, proximity to a CWD-positive site, etc.

CWD Testing Goals

Sampling goals will rely upon hunter harvest submissions ranging from 60 to 433 (lowest to highest risk) deer for each RMU, and if biologists can achieve these goals, will result in excess of 7,000 samples. TPWD will also specifically target sampling efforts within a 5-mile radius around the CWD index facility in Medina County to determine the prevalence and geographic extent of the disease in that specific area.

The finding of Chronic wasting disease in the Texas Hill Country has rattled the deer hunting community within the state. As the fall hunting season approach, government agencies and hunters are both trying to figure out how things are going to play out, especially since the number of captive deer (bucks) moved out of breeder facilities prior to the hunting season has likely increased substantially in recent years. With state agencies looking to stop the spread of CWD, what will be the movement status of active deer breeders in Texas? Well…

Texas deer breeders will be able to resume animal movements under a plan finalized yesterday by staff of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) and the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC). The Breeder Deer Movement Qualification Standards Plan will take effect upon the filing of Emergency Rules by TPWD and will be in place through the 2015-16 Texas hunting season.

Key elements of the deer movement status and qualification plan:

• A framework giving breeders who met previous movement qualified standards an option to move and liberate deer. Movement qualification is also dependent on administrative compliance with deer breeder permit regulations and statutes.
• Enhanced options for closely-monitored herds with a status of “fifth year” or “certified” in the TAHC Monitored Herd Program. There are no additional release site requirements for ranches that receive deer only from these herds.
• Additional Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) testing in deer breeding facilities. Under the plan, the vast majority of the 1,300 permitted deer breeders in Texas can gain movement qualified status by testing two or fewer animals.
• There will be CWD testing requirements for a proportion of deer that are harvested on some release sites.

The goal of the Movement Qualification Plan is to provide deer breeders with options prior to the September 22 deadline for movement and liberation of bucks and before the 2015-16 hunting season. This is just one of many steps Texas is taking to mitigate the spread of CWD after it was detected in deer from a Medina County deer breeding facility earlier this summer.

“We have received and tried to be responsive to the extensive feedback from the state’s many and varied deer management interests in developing this revised plan,” said Carter Smith, TPWD Executive Director. “In the development of this framework, both agencies are balancing the need to minimize the risk of unwittingly allowing the movement or liberation of Chronic Wasting Disease-positive deer on the Texas landscape while adopting reasonable movement qualification standards that allow qualified deer breeders to begin moving and liberating captive deer. The complexity associated with the development of this framework is immense.”

A joint agency CWD Working Group will now focus efforts on developing individual herd plans for affected deer breeders and develop a plan for strategic sampling of hunter harvested deer from free-ranging populations this fall. “Our goal was to protect the health of free-ranging and captive breeder deer, while maintaining business continuity for the breeder industry,” said Dr. Dee Ellis, TAHC Executive Director. “We believe this plan accomplishes those goals.”

Factors such as level of connectedness to the index facility, level of testing in the TAHC Monitored Herd Program, relative percentage of the overall herd that has been tested, and variable liberation criteria are all being considered in development of the herd plans. The TAHC and TPWD are continuing the investigation of the index facility in Medina County, where 42 deer have been euthanized and tested for CWD.

“The results from the partial testing of the animals in the Index Facility, as well as samples from the CWD-exposed herds, are important to making reasonable, prudent, and responsible decisions for the remaining captive herds, neighboring landowners, and wild deer,” said Clayton Wolf, TPWD Wildlife Division director.

The discovery of chronic wasting disease in Central Texas breeder deer last month is still ringing through the wildlife community within Texas. The Texas Wildlife Association, the Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society, the Boone & Crockett Club, Quality Deer Management Association, the National Wild Turkey Federation, Borderlands Research Institute, Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas State Rifle Association and Texas Wildlife and Fisheries Management Council to support implementation of prudent regulatory protocols in response to Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), which was first discovered in a captive deer breeding facility in Medina County in late June, 2015. The groups were all signatories to a recent resolution initiated by the Texas Wildlife Association.

The latest organization to join the cause, Texans for Saving Our Hunting Heritage. “It is important to all of us that the conservation, hunting and land steward community is galvanized in response to the finding of CWD in Medina County,” Jenny Sanders, executive director of Texans for Saving Our Hunting Heritage, said. “We need to ensure that our actions are guided by science, caution and a sense of utmost concern for our wild deer herds, hunting markets and rural economies.”

Chronic Wasting Disease

Source: CWD, an always-fatal, infectious brain disease that affects members of the deer family (Cervids, including white tailed and mule deer, elk, reindeer, red deer and sika) has been a known threat for many years, with documented cases in 21 states and 2 Canadian Provinces, including West Texas mule deer in 2012. Captive deer—purposefully confined in high concentrations, potentially shipped to and through multiple deer breeding facilities and then liberated to co-mingle with wild deer—could greatly amplify the speed, volume and geographic distribution of CWD.

Texas Mountain Ranch, where a diseased buck was first detected in June, has shipped 825 deer to 147 properties in the last five years, potentially exposing 66 Texas counties to this deadly disease.

Robert Patterson, owner of Texas Mountain Ranch, says four more deer from his deer breeding facility in Medina County have tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD). Patterson has been working with the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) since one of his captive white-tailed deer tested positive for CWD in June.

Patterson stated that 42 total whitetail deer have been killed and tested for CWD since July 28, and three additional positives were the result. He added that all four deer confirmed to have the CWD disease were males from the same buck, which leads him to believe the problem is genetic.

The Texas Mountain Ranch owner said he expects to have a final herd plan from TAHC and TPWD within the next couple weeks.

TPWD spokesman Steve Lightfoot said the test results were from a lab at Texas A&M and that they were being sent to a national lab in Iowa to confirm they are not false positives. He said the state agencies are still in discussions with Patterson about how to proceed now that CWD has been confirmed on the property.

The CWD task force advisory committee was given updated test results during a meeting in Austin on Thursday. The next meeting is not yet scheduled, according to Lightfoot, but it will be interesting to see how the movement of breeder deer and the deer hunting season within the state play out now that Texas is no longer CWD free.

The Louisiana Office of State Parks is offering lottery deer hunt opportunities for hunters wishing to participate in 2015-2016 season lottery deer hunts available on Coochie Brake State Park and Big Cypress State Park. Both Coochie Brake State Park in Winn Parish and Big Cypress State Park in Bienville Parish are undeveloped Office of State Parks properties.

Applications are available on the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries website. The application is displayed under the DEER – OFFICE OF STATE PARKS category.

These special lottery hunts are restricted to hunters selected through the lottery application process. These hunts offer the opportunity for selected hunters to experience an enjoyable, high-quality deer hunting experience on these areas.

Details on the qualifications, application requirements, and dates of the draw hunts are listed on the application forms. Also, for those interested, this site has information about Texas draw hunts for this fall.

Applications must be received by 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 4. The application form, along with a $5 administrative fee payment, must be sent to the specific address listed on the application form. For more information on these lottery deer hunts on Louisiana park property, contact Britt Evans at 225-342-1587 or bevans@crt.la.gov at the Office of State Parks.