DEER FARMERS ASSOCIATION PLAYING AN IMPORTANT PART IN REDUCED PREVALENCE OF CWD

By: Gail Veley • Sponsored by PDFA

The PDFA for years has developed new ways to support and benefit its membership, said Vice President Lloyd Stoltzfus, “Our Board of Directors has secured a 50% discount for all PDFA members who use the newly developed www. cwdbreeding.com website for promoting their breeding bucks. As deer farmers in Pennsylvania continue to serve as land conservation models and navigate CWD waters, hope appears to be right around the corner,” he said. *Promo codes are available through the PDFA office*

The ability to list your breeding buck, or to research and choose a breeding buck that suits the needs of your deer farm, is readily available through the website www.cwdbreeding.com.

Designed and launched by Josh Newton, President of the Pennsylvania Deer Farmers Association, COO of Cervid Solutions as well as Founder of Deer Wizard, LLC, the website allows users to sort and search for breeding bucks that may be, among other characteristics, less susceptible to developing CWD. The overall goal? “To demonstrate that as conservation minded individuals we are uniquely positioned through our genetic knowledge to get ourselves out of this CWD situation,” Newton explained. “We as owners of private deer farms who have developed private/public partnership through grant opportunities with entities such as The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), are producing more durable deer.”

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), believed to occur when whitetails possess a misfolded prion in their gene sequence or DNA, causes erratic behavior, loss of the fear of humans, weight loss and eventually death. In the wild, whitetail deer have been known to live up to 15 months after manifestation of CWD while mule deer have been known to survive for up to 23 months. The mission to create more durable farmed deer has never been felt more emphatically than it is now, as deer farmers in numerous states are honing-in on GEBV’s (Genetic Estimated Breeding Values) and the PRNP codon with alleles such as G or SS to make wise breeding decisions and “move away” from the disease.

Upon first finding CWD in wild whitetail deer in Pennsylvania in 2012, The Pennsylvania Game Commission initiated a Disease Management Area (DMA) program. It was designed to increase surveillance and establish protocols for controlling CWD, by identifying the disease in its earliest possible stage, containing it in the smallest possible space and closing that space to contain it. “It literally looked like animals with CWD may have walked across the southern border of Pennsylvania from West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland. These states all have had CWD for years prior to

Pennsylvania,” Newton said. “The first case of CWD in farmed deer in DMA 2 (Bedford County) was January 2017.” As more samples were collected through the years, CWD positive’s continued to grow. Today, DMA 2 covers 14 counties in Pennsylvania.

As a result, close to 1,400 positive CWD cases have been found in wild deer and approximately 20 farms have tested positive within DMA 2. Overall, six DMA’s are active in Pennsylvania. “We are dedicated to working with regulators,” Newton said. “Deer farmers are an important piece in the management and reduction of CWD through our research and relevant breeding decisions.” Strengthening a deer farmer’s ability to continue to be the voice of management are tools such as Newton’s CWD breeding website. While NADR registered bucks can be listed on the website for an annual fee, it is designed to allow farmers to showcase their bucks while disclosing any pertinent information they may voluntarily wish to share, including genetic breeding values and breeding successes. “This could help pave a successful path for healthy whitetail herds both on farms and in the wild,” Newton said.

Cinco de Mayo

17. Voyaging

18. Excessive use of power

20. Not lasting long (2 wds.)

22. Mae and Adam

11. Spring bloom

12. Uproar

13. Rather and Quayle

19. Gulp

21. Corny

24. Sunrise

25. Ringlet

26. Gathers crops

27. Publish

28. Ore beds

30. Gardening implement

31. ____ Gras

32. Criminal burning 33. Gazes

36. Golfer’s cry

38. Pretzel seasoning

39. “Back to ____ Future”

41. Calendar numbers

44. Area of land

47. Isn’t, slangily

48. Rock band ____ Dan

49. Self-assurance

51. Church feature

52. Fine spray

53. Female singer

54. Bed support

55. Sycamore or oak

56. Give up

57. Done

58. Dock

59. Shade trees

61. Building extension

Answers to Sudoku and Crossword puzzles will be available in the next issue, or can be found on our website: www.deersites.com

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