Ep. 937: What Happens If We Let CWD Rip?
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What is chronic wasting disease (CWD) and why is it the biggest issue for deer hunters today?
This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Meat-eater and best-selling author Brian Burrow present Gunfighters, a new podcast series about the American West and the violence that made its most legendary figures infamous. Gunfighters.
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this is the meat eater podcast coming at you shirtless severely bug bitten and in my case underwearless you
can't predict anything brought to you by first light when i'm hunting i need gear that won't quit first light builds no compromise gear that keeps me in the field longer no shortcuts just gear that works Check it out at firstlight.com. That's F-I-R-S-T-L-I-T-E.com. All right, man. Joined today by Jason Sumners, who's the director of Missouri's State Fish and Game Agency, which is called the Missouri Department of Conservation. He's a deer biologist by training, worked his way up from being a guy, a biologist out in the field, to run in the whole show there also sits on the board of national deer association. What we're going to talk about primarily, we're going to talk about whitetail deer and deer management, mostly going to focus on what I think, what, what, what in my mind is the number one issue impacting deer and deer hunting and deer hunters today, which is chronic wasting disease.
And when I say that it's number one issue, is even for you listeners, and I know there are many, even for you listeners that feel that it's overblown, it's all hysteria, it's like it impacts all conversations about deer. It impacts decisions about deer management. It impacts how money is spent on deer management. For people out there that are worried about the future of deer herds, you know what I'm talking about. For people that are worried about the potential for human transmission that a disease would jump from deer to humans you know what i'm talking about even people that that the whole subject of cwd drives them nuts they spend time and energy explaining why the conversation drives them nuts this is the there is no other issue that comes close
to chronic wasting disease, and when it comes to impacts, again, to deer, deer hunting, deer management. It is the issue of the moment, and at this point, the moment is decades long.
agree or disagree? No, no, I completely agree, Steve. It's one of those that I've, you know, we found chronic wasting disease in Missouri in, in 2010. And I, I often tell folks that there's pre CWD state fish wildlife agency, and there's post CWD state fish wildlife agency, just because of, yeah, the very things that you mentioned, it is a challenging topic and, and it's one that we just have to deal with. It's challenging and it,
and it is we'll touch on this it is from my view this is me talking right i don't want to i don't want to conflate my viewpoint your viewpoint but it is also contentious and it's contentious be um and and it's contentious different than kind of the playful arguments that we have around deer where you know you could have like i'll debate bodies of mine about whether you should be shooting crossbows at deer during archery season or not like this these are like the old debate should you um is the guy that shoots forkies is he a bad player because he's not letting deer grow up are the big buck blowhards ruining deer hunting for everybody else because they're chasing numbers and not quality of experience like all these little pet fights there's all these little pet fights about deer but this one is like this one takes on an existential
It has an existential tone to it. Because we're talking about, in some ways, we're talking about what will the future of deer hunting look like? Beyond any kind of regulatory question. Like, it's gotten to, will there be deer around? Right? And these are some of the things I want to explore with you. And we've had, if you listen to this show, you might have noticed over the years that this show, there's some things we talk a bunch about.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is chronic wasting disease (CWD) and why is it the biggest issue for deer hunters today?
0:00–15:24
2
How did CWD first appear in Missouri and what early detection efforts were made in the 2000s?
15:24–30:14
3
What sampling strategies did Missouri use to catch CWD early and why did they shift to testing adult males?
30:14–44:27
4
How do the Illinois and Wisconsin management models differ, and which proved more effective at keeping prevalence low?
44:27–59:40
5
What are the current localized removal tactics (e.g., ‘boxes’) and how do they aim to reduce disease spread?
59:40–1:13:09
6
How are hunter attitudes, mistrust, and changing harvest practices influencing CWD management?
1:13:09–1:27:22
7
What does the future look like for deer populations if CWD is allowed to spread versus if aggressive management continues?
1:27:22–1:50:52
8
What actions can hunters and landowners take now to help control CWD and preserve healthy whitetail herds?
1:50:52–2:08:37
Speakers
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