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.