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Free CWD Webinar - TONIGHT

jagermeister

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Ohio
BHA Presents: Conservation Conversations
Installment 1 - CWD in Ohio

Tonight at 7:30 pm EST

Join Ohio BHA for the first in our series of webinars, Ohio BHA presents: Conservation Conversations-CWD in Ohio. We will be joined by Ohio Division of Wildlife Deer Program Administrator Mike Tonkovich, and Ohio Division of Wildlife Deer Biologist Clint McCoy, to discuss the recent discover of Chronic Wasting Disease in Ohio, and what the future of Ohio’s deer herd and hunting may look like for the Buckeye State.

This is sure to be a webinar full of information so be sure to join us Monday April 19th at 7:30pm, as we kick off the first of what will hopefully be many conservation conversations to come!


CLICK LINK BELOW TO REGISTER
 

jagermeister

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18,060
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Ohio
Hmm... The webpage said 7:30 pm but my RSVP email says it starts at 7:00 pm. I guess I'll try to get on at 7:00 and see what happens.
 
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jagermeister

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Ohio
JB, do you have too sign up for anything? Or just go too the link?
Just go to the link and RSVP through the webpage. I guess you could say it's a sign-up... I don't know whether it will include a lifetime of annoying BHA emails or not. They will confirm your RSVP via email and give you a link to invite others to join the webinar as well.
 

jagermeister

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
18,060
223
Ohio
To help save some confusion...

It looks like it is starting at 7:30 pm. The confirmation email I received really didn't have any instructions on how to join the webinar. So I went directly to the Crowdcast website and found the link. See below.

 
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whitetailjunky3

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It wasn’t bad in my opinion but didn’t take a lot away from it either. I took me a rather long time maybe 20 min to get in I gave up till I came here and seen jagermister posted a link. I did learn it is rather expensive to have your deer tested for cwd yourself and they are having a meeting in a few weeks to determine how to handle the kill deer plains situation.
 

jagermeister

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Supporting Member
18,060
223
Ohio
It was a pretty decent presentation. Nothing earth-shattering, but then again I didn't really expect anything like that either. Tonk gave a great synopsis of Chronic Wasting Disease, how it's typically spread, and a general summary of the fluid situation in Wyandot County (i.e. positive CWD wild deer).

Overview: 1 positive case was identified through routine sampling/testing (sample pulled by local taxidermist) back in late-October/early-November. This was from a mature buck killed in Wyandot County, on private land, but not far from Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area. For reference, KDPWA is a ~9000 acre public area which includes a very large (1000 acre +) refuge where only limited controlled hunts take place. Deer density in and around the refuge is very high. After the first positive case on private land, all harvested deer from the remaining controlled hunts at KDPWA were sampled and tested for CWD. After season closed, ODOW staff culled an additional 72 deer in order to "cast a bigger net" and sample even more deer from KDPWA. Of the controlled hunt samples and DOW-harvested samples, one 1 positive CWD case was found. So 2 cases TOTAL in Wyandot County. That is what is currently known. What is unknown?... How many more are out there, where did it come from, did they harvest the only 2 deer that had CWD (highly unlikely), etc.

The plan going forward: A CWD surveillance zone will be established in the townships of Wyandot County containing and adjacent to the positive CWD cases. Sampling efforts will continue and will likely be enhanced, in both the surveillance zone and likely the rest of the State. Supplemental feeding/baiting inside the surveillance zone will be prohibited. Transporting deer or whole deer carcasses outside of the surveillance zone will also be prohibited. This will most likely be a 3-year plan, or longer, depending on results.

Bottom line: There are too many unknowns at this point to really know what to expect for the deer herd and deer hunting in Ohio. The outlook does remain positive and there is hope that we have caught the leading edge of the assault though.

---

There was quite a bit more that was covered but my memory isn't what it used to be and I was too lazy to take legitimate notes. Like I said, there weren't any major groundbreaking revelations shared. It was mainly just a debriefing of sorts, sharing the state of affairs since coming out of deer season.
 
In my mind CWD has always been in some deer herds it's now the testing of deer that is confirming that. If deer were dying all over in the hundreds I'd say there is a problem however just as the first case was found it was random sampling and I would bet that deer exhibited no signs of having it. Same with the culled second positive case.