The other day I was listening to a podcast, and they were talking about CWD or Chronic Wasting Disease in deer populations. Naturally, as we all are just now entering what seems to be the true end of the COVID-19 pandemic, we all seem to think that we are experts in all things disease and virus and deserve an honorary degree in all things epidemiology. I certainly know I am no epidemiologist and I know that I have minimal knowledge of Chronic Wasting Disease. However, I had an interesting thought process as they talked about diseases facing wildlife and the parallels I see between wildlife and people.
Before I get into my rambling thought process, here is some quick background on CWD. The first CWD case was reported in the 1960s, however, CWD has been growing in concern amongst the hunting community since the early 2000s. The number of states to have confirmed CWD cases has nearly doubled in the last twelve years.
One of the biggest factors in the spread of CWD is high deer populations in concentrated areas. This can happen in both fenced and unfenced areas. Deer farming operations throughout the United States have always had their supporters and people who were in contradiction of them. However, amid CWD cases being on an unremitting rise with no end in sight, many people are looking at these deer farming operations as a huge issue.
What happens is as deer get more concentrated the more efficiently CWD can spread. CWD is spread through body fluids such as urine, saliva, blood, or feces. When there are high concentrations of deer in one area, such as deer farms the exchange of these bodily fluids amongst the deer herd become more regular.
Deer farms are certainly not the only place where there are high levels of disease transmission. Another place scientist and people concerned with deer populations are looking for these high transmission areas, are at feeders put out for deer. Many hunters who reside in states where the use of these feeders are legal will set them up to draw in deer. Many of these feeders are on an automatic timer to spit out feed one to three times a day. Feeders are so effective that it is common for deer to start moving towards the sounds of the wheels and gears used to shoot out feed being activated on the feeder. As deer congregate and eat around the feeders, they start to pass bodily fluids, whether it be nose-to-nose, on the ground, or even on leftover feed. Consequently, feeders are another hot spot for CWD transmission.
As I listened to the podcast and began to do a little background research on CWD and other diseases in wildlife I began to think about diseases and viruses in the human population. Although I’m sure most of you are thinking that I should probably not bring up the hot topic of viruses and diseases, during a time when those topics can cause some unpleasant riff amongst others. I assure you that I have no political or ethical argument to share with you, but simply my thoughts and ramblings as I listened and learned.
Many times, we will hear about a new disease facing wildlife, and many times we hear about how a disease took out an enormous percentage of a wildlife population. However, it is extremely natural on a long-term scale to see these large drop-offs and return in the population of animals. I would go so far as to make the argument that it is unnatural for them not to happen. Of course, as stewards of the land, we believe it is our job to try to protect these animals which include trying to shield them from large decreases in population. This is where I see the large parallel when it comes to diseases in wildlife and people. In the same way, we generally take measures to stop large amounts of death in populations of animals we do the same with people. One way we try to keep control over these transmittable diseases in wildlife is by managing the population of said animal and keeping it at a healthy level. This can many times mean decreasing the population in a specific area so that the animals are not so concentrated. Of course, being in a well-functioning society we don’t typically subscribe to the idea of using population management and population decrement tools on people.
As I begin to ponder all the ways that we keep fighting off natural diseases and/or other natural causes of death it makes me think that eventually, our system will just break. If you look at the human population as just another organism on this planet it certainly seems that at some point, we too will have a maximum carrying capacity. So, I pose the question, in the long term, whether it be one hundred years or one thousand, is the constant prevention of all these natural causes of death going to catch up to us? And as we fight them off repeatedly, eventually is there an exponentially worse natural cause of death that is far greater than if we just bit the bullet and took the loss on the others?
As you can tell I have no answers to these questions. And I am certainly not saying that we just stop our medical advances and start biting the bullet on any cause of death that comes our way. These are simply the rambling thoughts that came to my head as I listened to a few guys talk about disease in wildlife.