Does the presence of CWD affect your application strategy?

[Plainsman79]

Asking around to see if anyone else takes the presence of CWD into account when applying for tags.
As an example, say a unit has a positive test rate for bucks over 4.5 years old of 35+% but winter kill has been mild the last 10 years.
Could the presence of CWD and its mortality rates be compared to another unit that has historically tough winters on the herd but still continues to produce big mature bucks?

Does the presence of CWD in any unit have a substantial effect on the unit’s ability to produce trophy class (180+”) bucks?
Does the presence of CWD have roughly the same long term effects on a herd that’s affected by winter mortality every year?

 

[highcountrymuley]

No.
I dont get into brains or spinal fluid and i would feel fine even with an old buck in a high prevalence area. of course, if a deer looked sick i would not want to eat it. if it's head was full of antlers i still might shoot it!!

 

[MuleyFever]

No

 

[cnelk]

Never has. Never will.

 

[Ratbeetle]

No.
I dont get into brains or spinal fluid and i would feel fine even with an old buck in a high prevalence area. of course, if a deer looked sick i would not want to eat it. if it's head was full of antlers i still might shoot it!!

How are you going to mount it without cutting through the spinal column, at minimum.

 

[Rangerpants]

It definitely does. I am in a totally CWD free area and am always nervous about importing it, plus I am not excited to eat anything with a poorly understood disease. Since it tends to kill deer after a few years, I am sure it has an effect on age structure and therefore trophy quality as well.

I will hunt in places with low incidence and get the test done before I eat the meat, but I steer clear of high incidence areas.

 

[Fordguy]

It does and it doesn't. Im less likely to apply in a high prevalence area, because I eat what I hunt. However, I also have everything tested. So it's not a hard "no" to hunting a unit with high cwd numbers, it just makes it more likely that I'll pick a different unit. All anyone can tell you with certainty is that cwd hasn't been proven to be transmissible to humans from cervids YET. I'd hate to be the first.

My state claims that its cwd free, despite being surrounded by states with cwd. The fact that we have a very high coyote population that eliminates the vast majority of deer that would ve symptomatic, coupled with the fact that the testing numbers are extremely limited- well, it just doesn't give me a lot of faith in their assessment.

 

[406life]

It doesn't affect mine at all.
To answer your last two questions:
I have not seen any studies specifically regarding CWD and trophy quality.
Winterkill can have more of impact year to year than CWD, but longterm CWD might edge it out since its presence persists and the spread can be exponential.

 

[Rangerpants]

406, that is exactly my thought. I know of nothing concrete out there now, but I can't imagine it wouldn't have an effect on trophy quality over time. The degree of the effect is a big mystery at this point.