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and If you beleive that stat there is some beach front property...
You know the rest.
I made an extensive study of CWD after i first heard of it and there were some scientists saying.. "look out colorado could loose their ENTIRE deer population to this disease." (for those of you that don't know chronic wasting disease is a disease like mad cow disease passed through mutant proteins called prions. This disease creates spngelike holes in the brains of those infected and affects the animal;s behavior until it ultimately starves or becomes confused enuff to fall easliy to a predator or car orvetc tec etc. This disease POSSIBLY (not proven) spread from sheep and there was a DUocumented outbreak at DOW's Fort Collins Office years ago ) Sorry i don't have ALL the facts at hand but i read everything i could about it.
as far as "documented cases" go that means theat 200 dead deer and elk heads have sufficiently been tested and tested positive. The deer population is down radicly on the front range and in the poudre river basin specificly. THE place where most CWD cases were reported. This rapid decilne in #'s is not due to predators, in fact MORE deer licenses were issued to thin the herds to slow the spread of the disease. More licenses were issued and LESS deer were taken. Consider how many field officers work for DOW, vs. how many deer there are in the state.. and the likelyhood of coming across one that has died in a given area and by what means it met its demise.
The good news is that it doesn't look like CWD has jumped from deer to people.. still i would not handle the spinal fluids/brains without surgical gloves. (like when you cape it or remove the horns)
SOMETHING is killing off the deer and its not coyotes.. and if its NOT CWD then its possible ther is another unknown pathogen running in the deer population (at least on the front range)
For the record the ONLY hunter that's been known to "overhunt" or "kill for fun" is Man, nature ispretty good at thinning out things her own way too.
just some food for thought.
Dr.Rob
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