Post by MuzzleLoader on Oct 21, 2016 10:22:58 GMT -5
Deer population levels could go back to 1970s
Oct 19, 2016
By John Estridge, Editor
Not many people recognize the name Mary Mallon. Call her by the nickname she was given in the early 1900s, and many more people recognize her as Typhoid Mary.
Working as a cook, she carried the disease to all the families she cooked for. It is believed, by some, she caused as many as 50 deaths before she was locked away in quarantine.
What is happening in Franklin County is not that serious, but for deer hunters and those who own cattle it is unprecedented. Department of Natural Resources (DNR) authorities announced at a meeting in Brookville on Friday morning, Oct. 14, the deer population in Franklin County will be brought down to 1970s levels.
That is because the DNR and the Board of Animal Health (BOAH) believe some of the white tail deer are carriers of Bovine TB and are moving the disease around to different cattle herds in the county.
Background
There have been a few cases of Bovine TB in Franklin County and one in northern Dearborn County since 2008. They are:
*In 2008, there was a single beef cow trace to a farm in the Laurel area but with no other positives.
*In 2009, a herd of captive elk, deer and other cervids were found to be infected. They were down the road from the initial contact. The herd was depopulated.
*In 2010, two steers that were sold through Eaton, Ohio and were found in a Pennsylvania slaughterhouse were found to have Bovine TB lesions. It was not discovered where the two steers originated.
*In 2011, there was an outbreak in a farm in northern Dearborn County.
*In April 2016, it was found two locations owned by the same farmer, one off U.S. 52 west of Metamora and the second off Duck Creek Road, were positive for Bovine TB. Officials said 70 percent of the herd was found to test positive for Bovine TB. Officials found one fence-line contact case, but they have not found any new cases. The herds were depopulated.
While the herds were depopulated, the DNR also came in and depopulated the wild animals found on the two farms in the latest incident. All of the wild animals were tested. A two-and-a-half-year-old whitetail doe and a raccoon were positive for the Bovine TB.
DNR and BOAH officials are not concerned about the positive raccoon because raccoons do not travel that far; however, the finding of Bovine TB in a wild whitetail doe set off alarms that are still ringing.
Prior to finding the infected deer, researchers were puzzled by the Bovine TB outbreaks in Franklin County and northern Dearborn County separated by time and distance. But with the finding of the positive wild deer, the pieces began fitting together. All of the Bovine TB cases have been genetically linked back to the elk farm in the Laurel area. It is believed infected deer have traveled from farm to farm, and through contact with cattle or the cattle's feed and water the Bovine TB has spread.
Deer
Bucks have a greater range and can travel many miles, officials said. Therefore, the DNR set up a management zone in Franklin County and southern Fayette County south of Ind. 44. There is a surveillance zone in northern Dearborn County, north of Ind. 48. It is treated differently than the management zone in Fayette and Franklin counties. However, that would change if an infected deer is found in Dearborn County.
Joe Caudell, DNR wildlife biologist, said the state has decided to take the Minnesota approach over the Michigan approach to Bovine TB in the whitetail deer population.
In Michigan, it was first identified in 1994, and now that state has a 2.3 percent prevalence across the range. Michigan has learned to live with it. In Minnesota, it is 0.37 percent prevalence across the range, and Minnesota has aggressively managed it since it was first detected in 2005. It took five years of intensive management practices to get rid of it, Caudell said.
They are now monitoring the deer in Minnesota, Caudell said.
“Once we identify the disease in whitetail deer, we switch over to management,” Caudell said. “For this particular disease in whitetail deer, we only have two different options left to us. One is to reduce the population of whitetail deer to slow the spread – once you have a lower density they can't come into contact as frequently, and two, you remove the infected animals from the population.”
Thus, Caudell said the DNR is going to start in the area where the two farms are located and work out from there within the management zone.
“That's the most likely area we'll find the problem deer,” he said.
When he talks about reducing the number of deer, he is talking about reducing the number of deer. He suggested the deer population in Franklin County and southern Fayette County will go back to 1970s levels.
“That's what they were able to do in Minnesota, (greatly) reduce the deer population and then let them repopulate because you would remove all the (infected) deer,” Caudell said in answer to a question concerning whether DNR wanted to wipe out the deer population in Franklin County. “In this area, that just can't happen. Hunting won't be the same as it is now. It will be more like it was back in the 70s when you had to wait on the deer where now 10 or 15 come through at a time.
“It is impossible to get rid of all the deer,” he continued. “There's still going to be deer out there. It's just going to be a lot harder to hunt and you're going to be spending a lot more time in your tree stand while this is going on.”
Since the infected doe's age was 2.5 years old, it is more concerning to everyone involved, Caudell said.
“It means it's very likely it is more than one generation (that has been infected) moved through the population,” Caudell said because the original elk farm is about five miles away from where the doe was located.
If the doe had been eight or nine years old, the officials might have thought the deer was part of the original infection. But that is not the case.
Immediately, there is a ban on feeding deer for any reason. Deer sharing feed is one of the main ways for deer to share diseases, Caudell said.
Hunters must check-in their deer online within 12 hours. There is voluntary testing for anyone concerned about Bovine TB. DNR is supplying additional buck tags for people giving their bucks for testing purposes. Bucks for testing must be more than two years old and the additional tags must be used by Dec. 11.
DNR wants lymph nodes out of the deer's neck, so if people want the antlers, cut them off before submitting the deer for testing. If the hunter wants to mount the deer head, give the taxidermist contact information to DNR, and DNR officials will contact the taxidermist and get the lymph nodes they need.
After the hunting season is complete, then they will allow extra hunting via landowner permits. Sharpshooters will be brought in to further reduce the herd. Meat from those deer taken by the sharpshooters will be distributed to the public.
DNR is going to be asking permission from county landowners to go onto their properties to take deer, Caudell said.
Caudell said DNR does not know how many deer are in Franklin County. It does not know how many deer it needs to depopulate. It does not know at this point when to stop the depopulation, and once it is stopped, it does not know how long it will take to repopulate the county.
What is known is if there are 1,400 more deer tested and none are discovered to be positive for Bovine TB, that means the incidence of Bovine TB in deer in Franklin County is still 0.25 percent, Caudell said.
“And we know there are at least two more deer infected (her offspring),” Caudell said. “And odds are there's not just the one deer infected.”
Little is known of this strain of Bovine TB in whitetail deer so it is not known how infectious it is.
Coyote are being used as sentinels around the 10-mile circle around the infected farms, Caudell said. Coyotes are dead-end hosts. They can get Bovine TB, but it takes close contact with another animal for the disease to be passed on. When a coyote gets close to another animal, it eats the other animal, Caudell said.
Thus, coyotes around the 10-mile zone are being tested for the disease to see if the zone should be moved.
Hunters are warned to wear gloves when field dressing their deer. The lone death in Michigan to Bovine TB of a deer hunter came about from a hunter who cut his hand while field dressing the deer, Caudell said.
Hunters who turn in their deer for testing will be able to see their individual results online within six to seven days. And 99.5 percent of the results should be negative, Caudell said.
Collection stations are: 3-D Mart at BP gas station 27968 Ind. 1, West Harrison; gravel lot behind FCN Bank, 226 North Meridian St., Sunman; Mustin’s Taxidermy & Processing, 1660 W CR 350S, Connersville; Frame’s Outdoor, 855 Ind. 101, Liberty; Mounds State Recreation Area, 14108, Ind. 101, Brookville; Hunters Choice Deer Processing, 6164 Highland Center Road, Brookville; and Orschein Farm and home, 181 South Tanners Creek Dr., Lawrenceburg. The headquarters is the Hampton Inn at Batesville.
There will be biologists at 52 Pik-Up, 11183 U.S. 52, Brookville, to take samples.
For more information, contact Caudell at jcaudell@dnr.in.gov.
Cattle
It is very important for the cattle in Franklin County to be tested, according to the officials. If they are not tested within the timespan allotted for the testing, Franklin County could lose its TB-free status and it could become more expensive for area farmers to move livestock and may become impossible to even do the simple things such as show animals at the state fair.
At this point, there are 112 farms that have been tested with 274 more farms to go, with Feb. 12, 2017 as the deadline for the testing, according to Dr. Jim Hollis, the District 9 veterinarian for BOAH. The officials would like to get the testing completed by the end of the calendar year.
Local veterinarians are doing the bulk of the testing, with BOAH vets doing some of the testing. They are using low-level prison offenders to help in the testing.
No other animals have tested positive to date, Hollis said.
For more information, contact jdoerflein@boah.in.gov.
Oct 19, 2016
By John Estridge, Editor
Not many people recognize the name Mary Mallon. Call her by the nickname she was given in the early 1900s, and many more people recognize her as Typhoid Mary.
Working as a cook, she carried the disease to all the families she cooked for. It is believed, by some, she caused as many as 50 deaths before she was locked away in quarantine.
What is happening in Franklin County is not that serious, but for deer hunters and those who own cattle it is unprecedented. Department of Natural Resources (DNR) authorities announced at a meeting in Brookville on Friday morning, Oct. 14, the deer population in Franklin County will be brought down to 1970s levels.
That is because the DNR and the Board of Animal Health (BOAH) believe some of the white tail deer are carriers of Bovine TB and are moving the disease around to different cattle herds in the county.
Background
There have been a few cases of Bovine TB in Franklin County and one in northern Dearborn County since 2008. They are:
*In 2008, there was a single beef cow trace to a farm in the Laurel area but with no other positives.
*In 2009, a herd of captive elk, deer and other cervids were found to be infected. They were down the road from the initial contact. The herd was depopulated.
*In 2010, two steers that were sold through Eaton, Ohio and were found in a Pennsylvania slaughterhouse were found to have Bovine TB lesions. It was not discovered where the two steers originated.
*In 2011, there was an outbreak in a farm in northern Dearborn County.
*In April 2016, it was found two locations owned by the same farmer, one off U.S. 52 west of Metamora and the second off Duck Creek Road, were positive for Bovine TB. Officials said 70 percent of the herd was found to test positive for Bovine TB. Officials found one fence-line contact case, but they have not found any new cases. The herds were depopulated.
While the herds were depopulated, the DNR also came in and depopulated the wild animals found on the two farms in the latest incident. All of the wild animals were tested. A two-and-a-half-year-old whitetail doe and a raccoon were positive for the Bovine TB.
DNR and BOAH officials are not concerned about the positive raccoon because raccoons do not travel that far; however, the finding of Bovine TB in a wild whitetail doe set off alarms that are still ringing.
Prior to finding the infected deer, researchers were puzzled by the Bovine TB outbreaks in Franklin County and northern Dearborn County separated by time and distance. But with the finding of the positive wild deer, the pieces began fitting together. All of the Bovine TB cases have been genetically linked back to the elk farm in the Laurel area. It is believed infected deer have traveled from farm to farm, and through contact with cattle or the cattle's feed and water the Bovine TB has spread.
Deer
Bucks have a greater range and can travel many miles, officials said. Therefore, the DNR set up a management zone in Franklin County and southern Fayette County south of Ind. 44. There is a surveillance zone in northern Dearborn County, north of Ind. 48. It is treated differently than the management zone in Fayette and Franklin counties. However, that would change if an infected deer is found in Dearborn County.
Joe Caudell, DNR wildlife biologist, said the state has decided to take the Minnesota approach over the Michigan approach to Bovine TB in the whitetail deer population.
In Michigan, it was first identified in 1994, and now that state has a 2.3 percent prevalence across the range. Michigan has learned to live with it. In Minnesota, it is 0.37 percent prevalence across the range, and Minnesota has aggressively managed it since it was first detected in 2005. It took five years of intensive management practices to get rid of it, Caudell said.
They are now monitoring the deer in Minnesota, Caudell said.
“Once we identify the disease in whitetail deer, we switch over to management,” Caudell said. “For this particular disease in whitetail deer, we only have two different options left to us. One is to reduce the population of whitetail deer to slow the spread – once you have a lower density they can't come into contact as frequently, and two, you remove the infected animals from the population.”
Thus, Caudell said the DNR is going to start in the area where the two farms are located and work out from there within the management zone.
“That's the most likely area we'll find the problem deer,” he said.
When he talks about reducing the number of deer, he is talking about reducing the number of deer. He suggested the deer population in Franklin County and southern Fayette County will go back to 1970s levels.
“That's what they were able to do in Minnesota, (greatly) reduce the deer population and then let them repopulate because you would remove all the (infected) deer,” Caudell said in answer to a question concerning whether DNR wanted to wipe out the deer population in Franklin County. “In this area, that just can't happen. Hunting won't be the same as it is now. It will be more like it was back in the 70s when you had to wait on the deer where now 10 or 15 come through at a time.
“It is impossible to get rid of all the deer,” he continued. “There's still going to be deer out there. It's just going to be a lot harder to hunt and you're going to be spending a lot more time in your tree stand while this is going on.”
Since the infected doe's age was 2.5 years old, it is more concerning to everyone involved, Caudell said.
“It means it's very likely it is more than one generation (that has been infected) moved through the population,” Caudell said because the original elk farm is about five miles away from where the doe was located.
If the doe had been eight or nine years old, the officials might have thought the deer was part of the original infection. But that is not the case.
Immediately, there is a ban on feeding deer for any reason. Deer sharing feed is one of the main ways for deer to share diseases, Caudell said.
Hunters must check-in their deer online within 12 hours. There is voluntary testing for anyone concerned about Bovine TB. DNR is supplying additional buck tags for people giving their bucks for testing purposes. Bucks for testing must be more than two years old and the additional tags must be used by Dec. 11.
DNR wants lymph nodes out of the deer's neck, so if people want the antlers, cut them off before submitting the deer for testing. If the hunter wants to mount the deer head, give the taxidermist contact information to DNR, and DNR officials will contact the taxidermist and get the lymph nodes they need.
After the hunting season is complete, then they will allow extra hunting via landowner permits. Sharpshooters will be brought in to further reduce the herd. Meat from those deer taken by the sharpshooters will be distributed to the public.
DNR is going to be asking permission from county landowners to go onto their properties to take deer, Caudell said.
Caudell said DNR does not know how many deer are in Franklin County. It does not know how many deer it needs to depopulate. It does not know at this point when to stop the depopulation, and once it is stopped, it does not know how long it will take to repopulate the county.
What is known is if there are 1,400 more deer tested and none are discovered to be positive for Bovine TB, that means the incidence of Bovine TB in deer in Franklin County is still 0.25 percent, Caudell said.
“And we know there are at least two more deer infected (her offspring),” Caudell said. “And odds are there's not just the one deer infected.”
Little is known of this strain of Bovine TB in whitetail deer so it is not known how infectious it is.
Coyote are being used as sentinels around the 10-mile circle around the infected farms, Caudell said. Coyotes are dead-end hosts. They can get Bovine TB, but it takes close contact with another animal for the disease to be passed on. When a coyote gets close to another animal, it eats the other animal, Caudell said.
Thus, coyotes around the 10-mile zone are being tested for the disease to see if the zone should be moved.
Hunters are warned to wear gloves when field dressing their deer. The lone death in Michigan to Bovine TB of a deer hunter came about from a hunter who cut his hand while field dressing the deer, Caudell said.
Hunters who turn in their deer for testing will be able to see their individual results online within six to seven days. And 99.5 percent of the results should be negative, Caudell said.
Collection stations are: 3-D Mart at BP gas station 27968 Ind. 1, West Harrison; gravel lot behind FCN Bank, 226 North Meridian St., Sunman; Mustin’s Taxidermy & Processing, 1660 W CR 350S, Connersville; Frame’s Outdoor, 855 Ind. 101, Liberty; Mounds State Recreation Area, 14108, Ind. 101, Brookville; Hunters Choice Deer Processing, 6164 Highland Center Road, Brookville; and Orschein Farm and home, 181 South Tanners Creek Dr., Lawrenceburg. The headquarters is the Hampton Inn at Batesville.
There will be biologists at 52 Pik-Up, 11183 U.S. 52, Brookville, to take samples.
For more information, contact Caudell at jcaudell@dnr.in.gov.
Cattle
It is very important for the cattle in Franklin County to be tested, according to the officials. If they are not tested within the timespan allotted for the testing, Franklin County could lose its TB-free status and it could become more expensive for area farmers to move livestock and may become impossible to even do the simple things such as show animals at the state fair.
At this point, there are 112 farms that have been tested with 274 more farms to go, with Feb. 12, 2017 as the deadline for the testing, according to Dr. Jim Hollis, the District 9 veterinarian for BOAH. The officials would like to get the testing completed by the end of the calendar year.
Local veterinarians are doing the bulk of the testing, with BOAH vets doing some of the testing. They are using low-level prison offenders to help in the testing.
No other animals have tested positive to date, Hollis said.
For more information, contact jdoerflein@boah.in.gov.
