I am implying That Horace Gore is no authority on CWD, care to argue I'm game.
My post was supporting that Gore misinterpreted the findings written in the papers.
I knew Bet Williams personally and I do take umbrage at his pointed words about her.

Sorry if I offended you but none of my comments were directed at you personally. Don't know Shuler and never commented on her findings or reputation. What I wrote is correct also.

You wont get the USDA brainiacs to admit they almost exterminated the blackfooted ferret either in their captive breeding program

Wytex, my bad, I misunderstood what you were saying...We are sailing the same seas...

I agree, just a misunderstanding.

Now on the ferrets, my spouse worked on that program for 9 years, most at the breeding facility in Sybille. I can talk all day about whatever you're implying danny. Care to give some specifics?

Sure. When it started they let them all die of disease. Luckily, they found a few more in he wild they were unaware of and started over

Are you saying they didn't pen deer elk and scrappie infected sheep together at CSU before shipping the deer and elk out to captive breeding programs all over the country?????????????????????

Another thread probably but "they " didn't let them die. The BFF was thought extinct until one was brought in to a ranch house by a dog. Then all they could find were caught up and taken to a captive breeding facility in Wyoming, Sybille. There they were bred for years, crossed with polecats and then moved to facility in Ft Collins for more breeding.
Spouse had hands on those captive ferrets for years . Numbers increased under their program. Not sure how they are doing now but I can sure find out.
BFF s have been released in may areas now and some are doing ok but not really taking off. We've been on releases in Wyoming and he has been down to Arizona on a release site.

And the facility in CO never shipped CWD infected animals to breeding facilities anywhere, they were shipped to Wyoming for study about CWD at Sybille Research facility. Yes, elk and deer were put in the scrapie pens for study then those animals were shipped for study not breeding.

Sorry to rant but I don't like misinformation when I know different.

You left out how disease killed 100% of the first ferrets captured for breeding due to negligence. It was assumed they were then extinct. Then another population was found on a different ranch. So they were captured and captively bred. The original capture were all allowed to die

I dont care to argue because I dont know anything about CWD other than talk from a few elk ranchers I know and a few articles i have read. Interestingly the elk ranchers I know have said much the same thing that Horace did. .So are you saying that there is evidence that CWD has in fact killed deer? In the article Horace seemed pretty adamant that it hasnt. Why would he say that if he could easily be proven wrong? Thats probably a dumb question considering the times.. Again, Im not arguing with you. You seem very knowledgable on CWD. Im not, but am interested in it from a hunting/ wildlife management perspective. I worry that maybe its like the coggins nonsense they have been pushing on horse owners for a few years now....and I know a lot about that.

Were you around in the 70's when those animals were all shipped out?

" CWD" was unknown .

In my state of AR, when CWD was first detected, several deer were noticed by local citizens to be sick. They called G&F and by the time G&F got there, the deer had died. Those deer tested positive for cwd. I cant say positively CWD killed them, but they appeared to be very sick, died, and tested positive for CWD. Doesnt seem like too much of a stretch to say CWD killed them.

Here in Michigan our resident expert on CWD has TWO jobs to pay him well.

Still employed at the DNR of Michigan and employed at Michigan State University(appointed bt Gov. Whitmer)
as a biological teacher to brain wash the students.

If you ask him anything at all about CWD, he will step up into your face, (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) his head and tell you, "He has the data to prove it"!

Data is easy to adjust if your the one prompting the issue.

danny, first sorry if you take this as a personal sort of attack or anything. I don't mean it that way at all..

This is a pretty well written article on CWD and it's origins from folks who were around back then. I guess I'll also ask you were around and saw animals being shipped to other states from the Ft Collins facility ?
This article touches on all of this and has interviews with the researchers that were there.
A WG&F lab director was asked point blank at our local meeting how long he think's it has been around, he said since the 1950's.

https://www.coloradoan.com/story/ne...g-disease-linked-fort-collins/878097002/

On the negligence part of disease killing the first captive BFF, that was not negligence just bad science as they tried a distemper vaccine that worked on domestic ferrets. It gave the BBFs distemper. They had no other means to try and protect them form the disease. Now, breeding programs are doing quite well. It took time to get it down though and yes losses did happen.
Here is an older paper written about the program to that date.
Page 9 talks about the early days.

https://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2005/5293/report.pdf

Anyway, good discussion even if we all don't agree. I'm learning from it.

Clay a lib......awe common man! To quote one who is! lol

Wytex no need to apologize I never thought you were being offensive.

I saw the animals in the pens. Had no personnel knowledge of where they got shipped. I believe that scrappie mutated in the wild animals.

I don't believe him to be a lib, but have seen him hanging around one. It may warrant further investigation anyway.

It probably came from another us funded and or ran lab just like covid did.

CWD is pushed by the anti hunting groups. It didn't start out that way.
Remember the click bait headlines
ZOMBIE DEER

CWD is devastating some of what was once among the best mule deer country in the world here in Saskatchewan. If you didn’t know that you really honestly don’t know much about where world class mule deer hunting is and what is going on in those areas.

To say it is a hoax would get you punched right square in the face by any passionate mule deer Hunter or rancher who cares for wildlife in any small town Saskatchewan bar in these areas.

We can doubt or poo-poo the CWD in wildlife if we choose to. If linked to scrapie then we best pay attention for the future. It was long believed that scrapie was or is not transmittable to humans due to the species (sheep) barrier. That fact is now being researched as there is concern that scrapie may well be transmittable to humans. We will need to wait on those results. Probably a large variation in becoming infected but it sure seems cervids re easily infected and thus can transport widely as is being documented.

Bryce