Cervid covid spreaders

[stagpanther]

This very interesting article ran in the New York Times today which appears to establish cervids, and probably other animals, as reservoirs for the possible spread and even mutation of the disease. My state, Maine, is one in which deer live in very close contact with humans.

This isn't something new, in a way, when Lyme disease started becoming prevalent most people in the medical community where I live initially chose to ignore or even deny the connection between deer and the spread of the disease-carrying ticks. I am certain that is how I contracted the disease years ago. My community bans the hunting of deer, I tried several times to get a modest hunting season open, mostly just to scare deer away from living among the houses and yards, through petitioning local government and state wildlife officials--and failed--but people were insistent they wanted to have the cute critters in their yards for their children and tourists to watch and enjoy.

 

[buck460XVR]

Link won't allow me to open it. But, have read other articles on the same topic. Since the virus originated in wild animals and crossed over to humans, it's not hard to imagine it crossing over to Cervids too. Have heard claims that you pet dog can pass the virus too.

 

[stagpanther]

Wouldn't surprise me if it's eventually found in most livestock as well. Maybe one day we'll be able to buy McCovids.

 

[Mainah]

I moved from Maine to North Carolina a few years, and the snakes down here don't scare me. The ticks up there did.

 

[stagpanther]

I moved from Maine to North Carolina a few years, and the snakes down here don't scare me. The ticks up there did.

Plenty of ticks (deer) down south as well. Maine used to be an affordable place to live, but influx of rich people buying investment rental properties is driving up the costs of everything. I love the woods here and relative freedom, but I don't know how much longer I can afford to stay.

 

[reinert]

Personally, and this is JUST me and MY thoughts on the covid issue, and now,
an article stating an issue of wild ruminants "possibly" spreading covid-19:

My wife and I both went through covid-19 at the end of Christmas, 2019. We were both sick for well over a month, both of us lost quite a bit of weight, lost our appetites, lost our tastes for COFFEE (still don't believe that), along with the horrible dry cough that persisted until we thought ribs would crack, or maybe break, and also along with the body aches, pains and fatigues. We both got through it, we're both fine, and we haven't been sick with anything since (I'm 71, my wife's 69). Neither of us have ever been that sick in our lives, and we both totally agree on that, the absolute worst!

We travel, so we both got the triple tap on the vax. Personally, I'm a firm believer in personal choice on the vax, and where I live in Wyoming, I don't wear a mask unless it's ABSOLUTELY necessary (my wife's the same). Both my wife and I respect others who wear a mask, so we keep our distance from those folks when we're out. We're all, my neighbors and friends, working on what might be thought of as a track to normalcy once again. We both always do have masks with us when traveling, as we know it's totally necessary in many places when we're "away." (end of disclaimer here).

So, FWIW, and that ain't much, this is what I think:

We have enough of a problem with CWD in my area here in Wyoming that any ruminating, deer family critter (mulie, whitetail or elk) that fall to my bullet or arrow, then eviscerated and tagged will forevermore be tested for CWD. We have a great retired Game Warden friend who is my go-to mentor on any questions regarding critter biology, or Wyoming hunting law. A great guy, and a great friend. He told me that as far as he knew, and studies that he knew of during his warden tenure, no human was ever harmed by eating meat that tested positive for CWD. But knowing that, anything he hunted, killed and tested, if it tested positive for CWD, he wouldn't eat it. I've had a couple of deer through the past few years that tested positive and then got the results of the test after the butchering was done, packaged and in the freezer. That's a sickening throw-away that ends up in the landfill, and by law, you'd better not take it out to the country and dump it somewhere in secrecy. There is a possibility it could cause more problems with the issue. That's enough scientific (CWD is pretty much settled science) problems for me during the hunting season to deal with, other than a controversy from the NYT reporting covid might ("possibley") be transferrable to humans from wild ruminants. Again, just MY personal thoughts on the "possible" concern here.

And BTW, I couldn't open the NYT article, and I'll be da---- if I'll subscribe to that rag. Yeah? And I just heard last evening that the new mayor of NYC wants everyone to become vegans. I wonder if there's some sort of wonderment/correlation with the NYT report and a "possible" scare for folks who might want to hunt for a whitetail to eat. A warding/scaring off of a newbie hunter? Just wondering, just me... and nothing more,

 

[zeke]

Personally, and this is JUST me and MY thoughts on the covid issue, and now,
an article stating an issue of wild ruminants "possibly" spreading covid-19:

My wife and I both went through covid-19 at the end of Christmas, 2019. We were both sick for well over a month, both of us lost quite a bit of weight, lost our appetites, lost our tastes for COFFEE (still don't believe that), along with the horrible dry cough that persisted until we thought ribs would crack, or maybe break, and also along with the body aches, pains and fatigues. We both got through it, we're both fine, and we haven't been sick with anything since (I'm 71, my wife's 69). Neither of us have ever been that sick in our lives, and we both totally agree on that, the absolute worst!

We travel, so we both got the triple tap on the vax. Personally, I'm a firm believer in personal choice on the vax, and where I live in Wyoming, I don't wear a mask unless it's ABSOLUTELY necessary (my wife's the same). Both my wife and I respect others who wear a mask, so we keep our distance from those folks when we're out. We're all, my neighbors and friends, working on what might be thought of as a track to normalcy once again. We both always do have masks with us when traveling, as we know it's totally necessary in many places when we're "away." (end of disclaimer here).

So, FWIW, and that ain't much, this is what I think:

We have enough of a problem with CWD in my area here in Wyoming that any ruminating, deer family critter (mulie, whitetail or elk) that fall to my bullet or arrow, then eviscerated and tagged will forevermore be tested for CWD. We have a great retired Game Warden friend who is my go-to mentor on any questions regarding critter biology, or Wyoming hunting law. A great guy, and a great friend. He told me that as far as he knew, and studies that he knew of during his warden tenure, no human was ever harmed by eating meat that tested positive for CWD. But knowing that, anything he hunted, killed and tested, if it tested positive for CWD, he wouldn't eat it. I've had a couple of deer through the past few years that tested positive and then got the results of the test after the butchering was done, packaged and in the freezer. That's a sickening throw-away that ends up in the landfill, and by law, you'd better not take it out to the country and dump it somewhere in secrecy. There is a possibility it could cause more problems with the issue. That's enough scientific (CWD is pretty much settled science) problems for me during the hunting season to deal with, other than a controversy from the NYT reporting covid might ("possibley") be transferrable to humans from wild ruminants. Again, just MY personal thoughts on the "possible" concern here.

And BTW, I couldn't open the NYT article, and I'll be da---- if I'll subscribe to that rag. Yeah? And I just heard last evening that the new mayor of NYC wants everyone to become vegans. I wonder if there's some sort of wonderment/correlation with the NYT report and a "possible" scare for folks who might want to hunt for a whitetail to eat. A warding/scaring off of a newbie hunter? Just wondering, just me... and nothing more,

While off topic from op, gave up deer hunting partly because cwd made it up north. CWD, which is a prion based disease, has similar counterparts in various species. Cow, sheep and humans. Prion based diseases have been proven to be able to cross species (cow/sheep if i remember correctly). Our state started out saying there is no "proven" cases of cross from deer to humans, then adjusted and directed people should throw the meat out.

 

[stagpanther]

CWD is scary, I've been watching it's progressive spread over the years.

 

[Scorch]

Wildlife can be a reservoir for many diseases we thought were under control in livestock and humans. Brucellosis, tuberculosis, eosinophilic myositis, anthrax, various tapeworms and flukes, and CWD among them. Yes, and you thought nature was clean and civilization was dirty. There's a reason our great-grandparents got rid of all the critters they could (rats, racoons, rabbits, bears, coyotes, you name it).

 

[doofus47]

Covid wasted no time jumping from species to species. "My CAT HAS COVID!" was a headline back in 2020. In 2021 the lions at the denver zoo ended up with Covid. This is why no one should have thought covid would "go away" when the vaxx came out. I hadn't heard about deer being affected before this, but I can't imagine why not.
I"m still applying for a deer tag for this fall.

 

[taylorce1]

So deer have COVID, everything can have COVID these days.

Here is my take on COVID, I'm not going to let it stop me from living my life. My wife and I were both considered essential workers from the onset of COVID, we both worked even when others were sent home to quarantine. Neither one of us contracted COVID until Oct 2021, when my wife and I came down with it. We both survived, I had the least amount of issues as it was just sinus congestion for me. My wife had a little harder time spiking fever of 105⁰.

I'm not going to say COVID isn't a serious thing, I personally know four who have died from/with COVID. I know three more who have had to go on ventilators and and two had be in induced comas that we don't know the long term damage on yet. I live near a rural town of 700 residents, and work in a town of about 3000 residents for some perspective.

Take care of yourself best you can, life is a one way ticket. Keep doing the things you love to do as we don't know when we're getting off. If you choose to live scared you can't enjoy the ride.