Episode 703: Chronic Wasting Disease From Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Perspective

What this episode covers

When it comes to whitetail deer, I don’t believe you’ll find a more controversial topic than Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). On this week’s show we sit down with Texas Parks and Wildlife Whitetail Deer Program Lead Alan Cain. I think we can all agree that the main issue with CWD is that we still don’t know enough about it. That being said, Alan’s division has put together some new recommendations to try and prevent further CWD spread. We discuss a few of those and the potential impact on the average Texas deer hunter. What about the incubation period of this disease and how it spreads? We also hit on CWD when it comes to deer breeders and transporting captive bred deer. What about a property that hasn’t had a CWD positive test, but has deer that can be traced back to a ranch/facility that has had a positive? We even discuss what (if any) impact CWD could have on our robust free range and captive axis deer populations. I might not agree with everything TPWD is doing regarding CWD but I want to be very clear, it seems like a thankless job that is going to tick some folks off regardless of what they do. I don’t envy Alan on that front.