CWD Found in North Missouri

Any new news? I heard there are several states that have closed thier borders to MO. I know OK. is one of them I had deer going there this coming week and now I am being told they can not go. What is the point of being 5+ years CWD if when it is found in your state others even states that already have CWD won't let you in I just don't get it.

Missouri is the 21st state have a confirmed CWD case.There has been a plan in place for several yaers that was ready to go when the first case was detected, if you look long enough and hard enough CWD will be found, regaurdless of where your looking.Missouri is fortunate to have leaders like Sam James, Bill Pittenger,Kevin Grace, Eric Pingston, Jerry Campbell and the MWBHRA, with the combined efforts of these people and NADEFA we will get through this I guarantee you.The deer farmers of Mo. will be ready to help when CWD shows up in other states. This is the Show- Me state.

Rough country, there is a meeting set for Thursday. The Powers that be will talk about what actoins should be taken. There are several states that have had cases of CWD that now allow the movement of deer in and out of that state, lets see what happens at that meeting. Gotta go feed my deer.

From: Martin, Karen

Date: 03/01/10 08:39:39

To: Undisclosed recipients:,

Subject: Chronic Wasting Disease Found in Captive Missouri Deer





February 25, 2010



Chronic Wasting Disease Found in Captive Deer



The Missouri Departments of Agriculture, Conservation and Health and Senior Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced today that a captive white-tailed deer in Linn County, Missouri has tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). CWD is a neurological disease found in deer, elk and moose.



"There is no evidence that CWD poses a risk to domestic animals or humans," said State Veterinarian Dr. Taylor Woods. "We have protocols in place to quickly and effectively handle these situations."



The animal that tested positive for CWD was a white-tailed deer inspected as part of the State's CWD surveillance and testing program. Preliminary tests were conducted by the USDA National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa.



Upon receiving the confirmed CWD positive, Missouri's departments of Agriculture, Conservation and Health and Senior Services initiated their CWD Contingency Plan. The plan was developed in 2002 by the Cervid Health Committee, a task force comprised of veterinarians, animal health officers and conservation officers from USDA, MDA, MDC and DHSS working together to mitigate challenges associated with CWD.



CWD is transmitted by live animal to animal contact or soil to animal contact. The disease was first recognized in 1967 in captive mule deer in the Colorado Division of Wildlife captive wildlife research facility in Fort Collins, Colorado. CWD has been documented in deer and/or elk in Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and the Canadian Provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. There has been no evidence that the disease can be transmitted to humans.



"Missouri's proactive steps to put a testing protocol in place and create a contingency plan years ago is proving beneficial. We are in a solid position to follow pre-established steps to ensure Missouri's valuable whitetail deer resource remains healthy and strong," said Jason Sumners Missouri's Deer Biologist.



For more information regarding CWD, please contact Dr. Taylor Woods at (573) 751-3377.

The only information Oklahoma Dept of Ag has right now is what has been officially given them. It is Oklahoma's protocol to quarantine until the trace outs are done. There may be no traceouts in this case, but until thats verified by the officials, there is no way they know the circumstances surrounding this case. I can tell them but that does not matter. I have no idea how long this will take but it is not a ban. We are all on your team but there is a protocol and we will have to live with the time frame of what is done.

I wish you all the best.

I guess its time to jump in!



Tim, our state vet Dr. Taylor Woods will be calling OK to verify this. I have plenty of does sold to OK and plan on moving them as soon as they get this straightened out.



First of all I want to say that Missouri was more than ready for this. Our CWD task force which is made up of the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Health, the Conservation Department, the Missouri Whitetails Breeders and Hunting Ranch Association, USDA reps, APHIS reps, and a few state legislators has met countless times since it was formed in 2001. We talked about and knew that it was a matter of "When" not "If" we finally un-covered a positive. We have a “Contingency Plan” for a CWD positive and have implemented the plan. We will be meeting as a task force on Thursday to discuss how we can move forward and contain the damage from all the bad press.



As we see it, our biggest problem is going to be with others perception!



Here is what we know:



1. The lab in Ames IA has determined that a sample sent to them was positive for CWD in both the brain stem and the lymph nodes. The way I understand it, they did the test 2 times and it came back positive both times. Since they don’t send any real explanation on how the test is performed or any pictures or video, I guess we just have to trust them. I saw a copy of their report and it claimed that “This manually prepared report is being provided to you during a system outage of our Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) When LIMS service is restored, a final report will be released to you by our LIMS, per standard operating procedure”. Now if that doesn’t instill confidence in the lab, I don’t know what will! I wont get into how I really feel about all this!



2. The positive was located on a hunting ranch in the North Central part of the state.



3. The positive came from a healthy hunter harvested deer (yes, I am going to tell everyone the fact that this deer was in perfect health) with no tags in a high fenced preserve that totaled over 1000 acres.



4. The positive was sent in with 28 other samples that all came back negative. The area had been sampled every year since 2003. I have not heard the total number of samples but am guessing that about 200-300 samples have been taken, all negative. We’ll have better statistics in a few days.



5. The samples were collected during the season, foramalin-fixed, placed in jars, and sent in at the end of the season. I don’t think the actual head or carcass was located. There was no “extra” sample kept for DNA.



6. Of course the entire herd was placed under quarantine and a herd plan will be made up with the help of the USDA, the MDC, the MWBHRA, and the herd owner. At this time, Dr. Woods has indicated that some further sampling will probably be conducted.



7. No deer have ever left this area. So the trace out will probably result in no trace out.





This is all just what I’ve been told by talking with Dr. Woods and the herd owner. I have not yet talked to the USDA or MDC. We should learn more on Thursday and I’ll keep you informed after the task force meeting. Since I have deer moving to WI, MN, IA, IL, LA, IN, OK, OH, and PA it will be interesting to see how all the states react. I will also post that here. Of course all of our herds are at least 6-7 years CWD monitored. It shouldn't matter that we have a positive 150 miles from here. But somehow I just know better!

Sam,



Thanks for the info.

Sam,

You know what I think of CWD, but me telling these facts have no bearing. I have told them all of these things last week when it first broke. Until they get official word of what the situation is they will keep the quarantine on. At this time not knowing the facts they feel they cannot let deer move. They don't know that the deer was not bought 150 miles away and feel they would jeprodize our industry if it turned out different than we have been told. We will assist you guy's as soon as the officials give us a way to do so. I feel that our department will be fair, but I also understand the need to expidite due to the time of year we are in. Keep us informed and we will assist in any way possible.

Good luck,

Tim

Tim,



Like I said in the post, Dr. Woods plans on calling OK tomorrow. If they don't listen to him, then we are in trouble. He also said he would call any state that we asked him to. He has been great so far.



Thanks for the help!

Sam,what do you think our chances with Indiana are?

At least until recently, I know that Indiana would not let deer in from WI since we have had CWD. I also know what Missouri is going through - since we were one of the first states it really wasn't much fun! Until they have found it in every state - there will always be some states that think they are protected by not moving deer in - I think we can conclude that isn't true.

Indiana is a tough one because they really hate deer farming. And while they have some great deer and people, they are one of the worst mid-west deer farming states as far as regulations and dealing with regulatory authorities (MI being one also). They just don't care to make any sense and look for any opening or crack to push their personal opinions and agendas (or those of the hidden organizations like USHS or Peta). We need open borders FOR EVERY state to push this industry on a national level. The mentality to keep borders closed to help the industry within a state is very short sighted and goes against all capitalistic ideals. Thats one reason I am very suprised that Texas borders remain closed. They are usually very conservative and back basic capitalism principles like free trade! To use the disease excuse is just..well a handy excuse. Nobody who knows the facts can look me in the eye and say they are worried about CWD as a threat to any whitetail population. They are kidding themselves, and know it! They are simply worried about competition.



In order to have a viable, growing industry we HAVE to be able to move our products.



Whoops I think I'm on the wrong thread...Sorry!

SJames is so right. Talk to so of your friends in Alabama and condiencs them to see the light .

Today, I found out the Louisiana Dept. of Agriculture "temporarily" closed its borders to the importation of WT deer. This was done until tracability issues from the Missouri case of CWD have been resolved.

This is causing an interesting domino effect I didn't expect to see through the industry. I figured states would close their borders to MO deer but not to everyone. Here's an interesting thought though. What if they find that there is no tracability? What if this is a random occurance of CWD? The researchers can't seem to find 100% proof of who this disease is spread so it could be simply possible that it will randomly pop up. I guess I'm just frustrated to see people over reacting to a "disease" that doesn't seem to kill the deer off like "experts" claim. CWD was found in Wisconsin they went in and killed who knows how many deer and spent way to much money doing yet oddly the deer in that area aren't dropping like flies. It hasn't spread from that area like wildfire (which tells me its not highly contaigous). Now one case of CWD has states shutting down their borders to deer imports? This thought process bothers me. The officials are being reactive instead of proactive.

Good Point ....acutting

They found it in Virgina and they got no deerfarms to blame.

I think most states are just shutting down until they hear the details from our State Vet, Dr. Woods. We were issued permits to move deer today to several states after they were informed of the details. I anticipate that all the states that were open before, will open back up in a matter of days. I guess you can't blame them for wanting to know the details. Even IN has shown some signs of letting deer come in after a short time. CWD is a lot like global warming. Over a period of years, very suspicious, non-scientific data was manipulated to help move an agenda while other opposite good data was ignored. It only takes time before all the predictions are proven untrue and people start thinking that maybe all those people were just wrong! It would be quite refreshing to have at least one of them stand up and say "Man I screwed that up, Sorry"!



I just wish the press would print the headline "Earlier CWD predictions all proven wrong over time". I'm holding my breath!

I think closing the border until the traceout is confirmed is proactive. The question is what will happen after the trace out. If everything returns to normal that would be a great improvement over the past. It seems as if MO has a good plan assuming they follow it and do not become histerical.

I hope that we could start to develop a plan in Alabama. A good plan should help control personal agenda's and over reacting. I believe what Sam James said about when and not if CWD is found in MO. Each of us is probably in the same boat as to "when not if" CWD comes to our state. That is why I hope MO can be an example of how to correctly handle a positive test. We don't need the fiasco's of the past. I say congratulations to MO for being prepared!

I have to agree border closing should happen as part of any contigincey plan for any outbreak in any state for it's own protection and its neighbors.But how other states react and the actions taken by them after the final outcome should be based on the facts of cwd and the fact that Mo. is the 21st state to show up with cwd and i'm sure we wont be the last! Lets all stand together as an industry and help get FACTS about cwd out there and not the MYTH, That those ignorant to the truth keep trying to push out to the people! Sam, I know i speak for the MAJORITY of Mo. deerfarmers when i say we know you,Bill and all the other leaders in our state org. HAVE GOT YOUR "DEER FRIENDS" BACK IN THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you to all the people in my state and others working to get this problem resolved!