Bovine T.B.

[TONK]

I read that after all the studies and all the tests that M.S.U. did, they could not connect bait piles with the spread of bovine tb. I believe our D.N.R. felt they needed to do something to appease the public, so they guessed that deer eating at baitpiles is how the disease was spread and began regulating deer baiting and feeding. Bovine T.B. is an air-borne disease, meaning its transferred through the air. An infected deer would need to sneeze into the face of another deer exactly when it took a breath, to spread the disease.

[spotforkids.org]

In my opinion, things are kinda fishy with the way the D.N.R. handles some things, but there is some logic to restricting baiting in reguards to the spread of an airborne illness. Have you ever seen how far particles travel when you sneeze? They say up to 9 ft. It may be a little smaller for deer, I don't know- but they have pretty powerful lungs. An infected buck could easily transfer to many does by the simple act of mating. Bait piles that put deer in very close proximity to each other can spread airborne illness rather easily. Even the 10'x10' two gallon limit puts deer at risk, but a lot less than pre-regulation times when people would dump a truck full in one spot.

The big question, in my opinion, is whether or not all our efforts to restrict or outlaw baiting will prove fruitless come winter when the deer yard up by the hundreds. There is never a time when so many deer are concentrated in one small area than when they yard up. Come spring when the herds are still assembled, they roam in large groups in search of the small patches of new growth popping up- grabbing what they can-nose to nose.

I opened a thread dedicated to that very question in this site. I wait...

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