Chronic Wasting Disease is a topic that's getting hotter all the time. How serious it is, no one knows for sure, but it has game managers across the nation spooked. Whether natural selection preserves the deer herd or the disease wipes deer out is anyone's guess, but deer managers have spoken. States have rules that they hope will slow its spread, and whether we want to or not, we need to play by the rules.
So check with your state's game agency and make your plan on how to handle meat, antlers, skull plates, and other tissues. Times have changed.
Photo: CWD-positive deer can appear to be healthy. Only in the late stages, sometimes years after the onset of infection, do clinical symptoms appear. (Courtesy of Pennsylvania Game Commission)
See what I have to say about this in this week's column, "CWD — Know Your State’s Rules" in the Jamestown (NY) Gazette.
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