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Deer species, known as cervids, spread chronic wasting disease through deer-to-deer contact, contact with urine, feces, saliva and body parts of infected deer or infectious materials in soils. There are no knowns cases in Louisiana. (Submitted Photo/Courtesy of John K. Flores)

CWD about to impact state's deer hunters

By JOHN K. FLORES

For years, you’ve planned. You’ve scrimped and saved every penny you could. Now, the moment of truth has come. As you peer through the scope of your rifle, mentally, you know the instant you pull the trigger the hunt will be over.
It’s been an amazing challenge. Your every muscle aches from days of hiking, climbing and crawling, trying to get close enough to your trophy to make a clean and humane kill.
As the seconds tick by, you’ve become conscious that your breathing is now more controlled and your heart rate steady. With all your senses alert, you squeeze the trigger.
Annually, hunters across Louisiana leave the state to hunt whitetail deer, mule deer, elk and moose in places like Colorado, Wyoming, Texas and Utah. In short, places with magnificent beauty and intrigue to make their dream hunts.
Following every kill, no matter how big or small the animal is, there is work. When it comes to big game animals, few hunters really know how to completely cape and prepare the animal for the taxidermist.
What’s more, if your outfitter services do not include game processing, quite often, you’re on your own.
The vast majority of out-of-state hunters who intend to mount their trophy animals skin them from just behind the shoulders to the base of the skull and separate the head from the carcass. Afterwards, they ice the head and hide down as best they can and beat feet home.
It’s the same with the meat. Venison is typically cut and quartered, bones and all, and then iced down for transport home.
This all may change and will impact Louisiana’s out-of-state hunters, as the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries prepares to take precautionary steps to prevent the introduction of chronic wasting disease into the state.
Currently, 23 states and two Canadian provinces have known documented CWD cases. Two states are Arkansas and Texas.
Chronic wasting disease is a neurodegenerative disease found in deer species. It is infectious and always fatal.
According to a July Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries press release, CWD is part of a group of diseases know as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. It is similar to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease. Both of these diseases cause irreversible damage to brain tissue, which leads to salivation, neurological symptoms, thinness due to malnutrition and death.
Mutated proteins normally found in the body, known as prions, cause the disease. The prions kill nerve cells and cause holes in the brain tissue.
Moreover, CWD is spread through deer-to-deer contact or through contact with urine, feces, saliva and body parts of infected deer or infectious materials in the soil.
The release said that decomposing body parts of dead, infected deer also contaminate the soil. Plants growing in that soil can take up the prions. Deer feeding in areas with contaminated soil or plants can ingest the prions and become infected.
During the July Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission meeting, an importation ban on carcasses of cervids (deer, elk, moose, etc.) harvested out-of-state was proposed and is in the “public comment period.”
Here’s where the handling and processing of game animals by inexperienced hunters becomes a problem: Proper caping of trophy mounts requires skinning of the animal beyond the jaw/base of skull/neck area. It requires skinning around the horns, eyes, ears, lips and nose.
It also requires cutting the skullcap off the deer with the horns attached. Again, most hunters lack the skinning skills and knowledge to properly do what’s required to prepare a trophy mount.
Moreover, they do not want to risk damaging their animal, thus deferring to a professional taxidermist to perform the task once getting home with it.
The proposed ban would prohibit the importation of cervid carcasses except for de-boned meat, antlers, clean skull plates with antlers, cleaned skulls without tissue attached, capes, tanned hides, finished taxidermy mounts and cleaned cervid teeth.
Currently, there are no known cases of CWD reported or found in Louisiana.
“We’ve been monitoring for more than 10 years and have checked 7,000-plus deer and not discovered it,” said Jimmy Ernst, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ Deer Management Assistance program coordinator. “We are being proactive because it’s in our neighboring states and its close enough that we need to be on guard.”
Public comments can be submitted in writing by mail to: Johnathan Bordelon, LDWF Wildlife Division, P.O. Box 98000, Baton Rouge, LA 70898-9000, or via email to jbordelon@wlf.la.gov until 4:30 p.m. Monday.
Many who hunt no further than across the state line in Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas will be impacted by the new regulations. It’s important that hunters and taxidermists express their opinions in writing to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries by the deadline.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Flores is The Daily Review’s Outdoor Writer. If you wish to make a comment or have an anecdote, recipe or story to share, you can contact Flores at 985-395-5586, at gowiththeflo@cox.net or visit his Facebook page, GowiththefloOutdoors.

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