TB in Indiana

I was speechless to see this....absolutely sucks, especially that it is a wild whitetail deer not a farm.

Not at all. An old coworker of mine killed does two years in a row with ear tags that had gotten out of a farm in that area. That was 15 years ago.

I'm in southern Fayette county. I can walk to Franklin county in five minutes. I'll try to do my part for the tests and whatnot.

I live in western franklin county so I keep my eye out in the deer I kill this year

Attention deer hunters in Fayette, Dearborn and Franklin Counties:

Below is our management and surveillance plan for Bovine Tuberculosis for 2016

Bovine Tuberculosis Management Zone
For 2016, the area south of State Road 44 in Fayette County and all of Franklin County has been designated a Bovine Tuberculosis Management Zone and the primary activity in this area will focus on reducing the prevalence of the disease and reducing the population of wild white-tailed deer to reduce the spread of the disease. Surveillance for the disease in the Bovine Tuberculosis Management Zone is considered a secondary objective.

Management activities will consist of:
• Removing additional deer from the bovine tuberculosis affected property and/or the surrounding properties will occur as soon as possible. If hunters have access to surrounding properties, IDNR will partner with them to collect targeted samples.
• Additional opportunities to harvest deer will be provided to allow hunters to assist in the reduction of the deer population.
o A second buck tag will be issued to anyone submitting a buck that meets the established requirements (see below).
o Landowner permits will be available to landowners desiring to reduce the deer population on their property for the purposes of disease management.
• Surveillance
o Hunters will check-in their deer on-line within 12 hours of harvest and obtain their registration number.
o Voluntary surveillance for hunters in Franklin and south Fayette counties who are concerned about bovine tuberculosis in their harvested deer can either use 2-3 established drop-off and/or staffed locations, or they can contact a biologist using the toll-free number to arrange a time and location for heads to be sampled.
o A collectable Deer Cooperator Patch will be issued to all cooperating youth and adult hunters who submit deer for bovine tuberculosis surveillance.
• A ban on feeding deer and other mammalian wildlife in the Bovine Tuberculosis Management Zone will be implemented.
• The IDNR will work to establish a base-line population size/density for the area using spotlight counts and/or other methods.
• Active white-tailed deer population reduction will begin in January until early April using a combination of landowner permits and sharpshooting with the goal of reducing the number of infected individuals in the area and the density of deer to reduce the spread of the disease among wild white-tailed deer.

Bovine Tuberculosis Surveillance Zone

For 2016, sampling protocols were redesigned in an attempt to detect bovine tuberculosis at lower prevalence rates by conducting bovine tuberculosis surveillance in Dearborn County north of State Road 48 during the 2016 deer hunting season. The IDNR will need to collect samples from between 350 and 1,100 deer, depending on sex and age class of the animal. While any age and sex of white-tailed deer can become infected with bovine tuberculosis, surveillance from other states has demonstrated that sampling bucks older than 2 years of age is more likely to detect the disease. Therefore, obtaining samples from older age bucks will result in less total deer that need to be tested (approximately 350). If most samples come from does or bucks less than 2 years old, then more deer will need to be sampled. In general, a buck older than 2 years old equals about 10 yearling bucks from a bovine tuberculosis surveillance perspective. Therefore, our objective is to sample as many hunter-harvested bucks greater than 2 years old as possible and obtain the remaining samples with hunter-harvested does and younger bucks.

To meet this objective, the following strategies will be employed:
• The Surveillance Area is Dearborn County north of State Road 48 and will consist of a period of mandatory and voluntary check in at Biological Check Stations.
o Mandatory check-in of deer will be required at IDNR Biological Check Stations on September 24 & 25, 2016 and from November 4 through November 27, 2016. During the mandatory check-in period, hunters must check in their deer on-line and obtain their registration number within 12 hours of harvest and then bring the deer to a Biological Check Station within 12 hours of harvest.
o Voluntary sample submission will occur October 1 through November 3, 2016 and December 3 through December 11, 2016. Hunters that harvest deer in Dearborn County will check in their deer on-line and obtain their registration number within 12 hours of harvest. During the check-in process, hunters will be instructed to contact the IDNR using a toll-free number to facilitate participation in the bovine tuberculosis surveillance effort.
 A sample collection team based in Dearborn County will be on call to meet with hunters to sample their deer or hunter can visit Biological Check Stations.
 The samples needed are found in the head and neck of the deer, so this should be preserved if deer are processed in the field.
 Hunters that wish to have their deer mounted or processed can provide the name of the taxidermists or processor so that arrangements can be made to collect the samples from that location.
• A second buck tag will be issued to anyone submitting a buck that meets the established requirements (see below)
• A collectable Deer Cooperator Patch will be issued to all cooperating youth and adult hunters who submit deer for bovine tuberculosis surveillance.
Additional Buck Tag
During 2016, hunters who harvest a buck 2 years old or older from the bovine tuberculosis surveillance and management areas and allow a sample to be collected (either by IDNR staff, taxidermist, or at a processor) will qualify for an additional free buck tag that can be used to harvest a second older-aged buck from the bovine tuberculosis surveillance or management area. A buck older than 2 years old can typically be estimated in the field by the spread of the antlers and the number of antler points. The age will be confirmed by tooth wear replacement by a biologist. To judge a deer in the field, hunters can look for:
• An antler spread that is equal to or greater than the width of the ears when the ears are in the alert or outstretched position.
Deer that are presented to a biologist that meet this criterion will qualify for an additional buck tag. Deer that do not meet these criteria, but are judged to be older than 2 years old by tooth wear by a biologist will also qualify for an additional buck tag.
The 2nd buck that is harvested must meet the same criteria as the 1st buck and must also be presented for sampling before hunters can obtain their registration number. Hunters will be allowed to keep antlers and the deer from both the 1st and 2nd buck.
Additional buck tags will be available at Biological Check Stations or by arrangement with biologists by calling the toll-free number listed on the CheckINGame System.
Time Frame
Hunter harvested samples will be collected starting during youth weekend and continue through early December. Active management in the Bovine Tuberculosis Management Zone will begin immediately on the affected properties.
Agency Sharpshooting for Surveillance
If an adequate number of samples to meet the surveillance goal are not collected through hunter-harvested deer, personnel from DNR and USDA APHIS Wildlife Services will be utilized to remove deer from the bTB Surveillance Area (northern Dearborn County) in early 2017. There are typically enough deer harvested by hunters in the surveillance area to meet the surveillance objective; however, we estimate that the vast majority of the deer older than 2 years old will need to be sampled. It is critical that hunters participate in the surveillance to eliminate the need for sharpshooting. It is also important that hunters encourage each other to participate in the surveillance. Indiana DNR considers sharpshooting for surveillance purposes an undesirable option; however, it may be necessary if successful hunter participation in the surveillance effort is low.

For more information on bovine tuberculosis in Indiana visit the Board of Animal Health’s website on bovine tuberculosis at www.in.gov/boah/2396.htm
Questions about the surveillance of bovine tuberculosis in Indiana’s deer should be directed to Joe Caudell, State Deer Biologist with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources at 812-334-1137.

This hits my area hard. I hunt northern Dearborn and southern Franklin counties.

What are you trying to say??.....explain

It takes a sample of brain matter to detect bTB. Older age class bucks are more susceptible to it. Either it gets caught and eradicated now, or those "healthy" looking deer might all be dead in a couple years.

Deer are extremely resilient creatures. We could completely wipe out the population in the effected area and within 5 years have an over abundance problem. Deer management is a long term activity. A few down years is way better than herd elimination and the destruction of the entire cattle industry in Indiana.