Learning about chronic wasting disease is a challenge. Even when we’re receiving accurate information, it can be misleading simply due to the complexity of this deer disease. Conveying new information in a brief headline can change the nature of the information and how we receive it, creating bad news out of good.
I saw a recent example in this headline: “North Carolina finds 13 new CWD Cases.” That sounds bad, right? But if you dig into the details – and you often must do it yourself because most stories in the news media don’t spend the time necessary to do it for you – you get a different take. The news in North Carolina, at least in the context of a fight against CWD, is actually good.
With 99% of results back from 36,146 statewide samples last deer season, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (WRC) found 13 positives. That’s only 0.03% positive statewide, and no new counties were added to the CWD list with these 13 cases. Good news!
In the northwest core area, Stokes County added one new case out of 1,207 samples (0.08%). Surry found five out of 1,144 (0.4%). Yadkin found two out of 989 (0.2%). This is very low prevalence. Good news! In the southeastern core area, Cumberland County added five new cases out of 385 tested (1.3%), also low prevalence. Good news!
Thanks to a tremendous effort by hunters, NCWRC staff, taxidermists and deer processors, high percentages of the deer harvest were tested. In Stokes, 40.5% of hunter harvest was tested; in Surry, 42.7%; in Yadkin, 52.2%; and in Cumberland, 42%. The total statewide sample of over 36,000 deer blew away the previous year’s sample of 16,720 deer. This was made possible especially with the help of taxidermists and deer processors (known as Cervid Health Cooperators or CHCs), who accounted for 79% of the 36,000 samples collected last season. All good news!
North Carolina is in an early-stage, low-prevalence fight. They have the opportunity to keep prevalence low through action, such as targeted removal in core areas like they do in Missouri and Illinois. If it’s just a monitoring effort, then you’re sitting on the sidelines watching as prevalence climbs and deer lose the game.
CWDMAP: A Unique Program
I asked North Carolina’s deer biologist April Boggs Pope if WRC planned any proactive steps against CWD in the management zones.
“We are not currently doing any kind of targeted removal/targeted sharpshooting at the moment in the CWD areas – it has not been planned, but we are keeping the option on the table,” April told me in an e-mail. “We are mostly focusing on encouraging hunter harvest in CWD surveillance areas, including a program that issues extra tags to be used on properties close to positive CWD cases.”
April was referring to a program launched last season that WRC calls “CWDMAP,” much like the popular Deer Management Assistance Programs (DMAP) found in most states. Hunters who own, lease or control exclusive hunting rights on property within a CWD Primary Surveillance Area or within 5 miles of any CWD positive can apply for CWDMAP, and there’s no minimum acreage.
- Applicants get three either-sex deer tags immediately, regardless of acreage, plus two more for every 50 acres enrolled.
- Tags don’t count toward your season bag limit and are valid in any open deer season using weapons allowed during the respective seasons.
- Hunters are required to submit every deer for CWD testing at drop-off or check stations or participating taxidermists and processors.
On the surface, CWDMAP is essentially a targeted removal program – trying to harvest a few extra deer each year in close proximity to the known locations of deer that previously tested positive for CWD. The difference is, CWDMAP is operated by hunters, not by agency personnel or professional sharpshooters. That’s a good thing, as long as North Carolina’s deer hunters take ownership of the program and make it work. In its first season, CWDMAP accounted for 58 additional deer harvested in Primary Surveillance Areas. That’s a start.
If you are a North Carolina hunter in an eligible area for CWDMAP, I urge you to apply and participate. At an early stage of low prevalence like you have, it can seem like there’s no problem and you don’t need to take action yet. But if you wait until CWD is so prevalent that you’re noticing trouble, it’s too late. At that point, prevalence has grown beyond your ability to suppress it again.
Beyond Headlines, The News is Good
Step 1 in the fight against CWD is to slow the spread. Step 2, when it does spread, is to catch it early. Step 3 is to hold prevalence low through management. North Carolina caught it early. Now they need to take advantage of that good fortune and work to hold prevalence low.
By the way, the article I mentioned at the beginning did eventually provide a quote from Brad Howard of WRC in which he said the news was encouraging in some ways.
“Working with our hunters, taxidermists, and processors, we tested roughly 19% of the total reported harvest statewide,” said Howard. “Not finding CWD in any new counties this year is extremely encouraging.”
Of course, this was buried in the very last paragraph of the article. We must expect news media to lead with negative, alarming or sensationalized headlines. We must learn to dig deeper and find the details that paint a more complete picture. The more deer hunters understand the fight against CWD, the more we’ll see through alarming or gloomy headlines that shouldn’t be.