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A debate involving corn piles and shed prions is brewing in Kansas, where last month state wildlife officials alluded to a potential ban on baiting for deer. In a news release<\/a> issued by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks on July 3, the agency said it had \u201ctaken the first steps in what will be a multi-year exploration of issues surrounding baiting wildlife.\u201d They cited growing concerns about the potential connection between baiting deer and the continued spread of chronic wasting disease.<\/p>\n By the end of the month, many hunters there had interpreted KDWP\u2019s cautiously-worded announcement as the first step toward a statewide bait ban. Kansas already prohibits the use of bait on public land, so any future ban would affect private lands, which comprise roughly 98 percent of the state. Some deer hunters are unhappy about the potential restriction.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are looking to take away baiting rights in Kansas,\u201d hunting personality Travis \u201cT-Bone\u201d Turner wrote in an Instagram post<\/a>, which included the phone numbers of several members of the Kansas Wildlife and Parks Commission. \u201cWhether you\u2019re a resident or nonresident, that affects us all\u2014not to mention all the residents who are not hunters but make a living off selling corn and bait.\u201d<\/p>\n Turner\u2019s call to action drew responses from hundreds of hunters in Kansas and beyond. Some voiced their support of a bait ban. Others attacked it. The back-and-forth that followed was a familiar re-hashing of the same debate that has played out across multiple states in recent years:<\/p>\n Is there a real connection between the use of bait and the spread of CWD? And, are hunters willing to give up their corn piles and mineral blocks? Even if they\u2019re not, will the state force them to quit baiting anyway? <\/p>\n The state\u2019s concerns come amid the increase of CWD cases in Kansas\u2019 wild deer herd. Since the disease was first detected in 2001, it\u2019s been detected in 738 cervids<\/a>\u2014all but three of which were free-ranging whitetails. The number of positive detections recorded annually has also been creeping upward, and a map of CWD in the state shows a noticeable uptick starting in 2014.<\/p>\n Kansas, of course, isn\u2019t the only state in the region grappling with CWD. And as different state agencies have tried to mitigate its spread, they\u2019ve enacted a range of regulation changes aimed at both deer breeders and everyday hunters. This includes different levels of mandatory testing<\/a>, the establishment of CWD checkpoints and containment zones, and bans on the movement of deer parts\u2014all of which can help slow the disease\u2019s spread. Bait bans are just one of the strategies used to fight CWD. According to the National Deer Association<\/a>, five CWD-positive states have banned deer baiting over the last five years.<\/p>\n The logic behind a baiting ban is that corn piles, mineral blocks, and other forms of bait concentrate deer in a very specific area. Because CWD is known to spread through the exchange of saliva and other bodily fluids, it makes sense that these concentrations of deer are at a higher risk of contracting CWD.<\/p>\n \u201cBaiting and feeding deer tend to concentrate deer at small points on the landscape, often with the trails leading to the feeding sites resembling the wheel spokes of a bicycle,\u201d KDWP notes on its website. \u201cAnytime animals are concentrated at this type of \u2018hub,\u2019 the likelihood of disease transmission increases in a herd.\u201d<\/p>\n The use of bait has always been a divisive subject in deer hunting circles. There are important ethical and cultural sides to the debate, especially in Midwestern and Southern states where baiting deer has long been the norm. <\/p>\n Hunters who support baiting will often point to food plots and cattle tanks where deer often congregate in agricultural areas. How are those food and water sources much different than baiting? <\/p>\n As NDA\u2019s Kip Adams pointed out in a recent article, food plots are different than baiting because they still allow deer to spread out while they\u2019re feeding. After deer browse plants in a specific area, they move to a different spot in the plot. Plus, there are several peer-reviewed studies<\/a> that have looked at the effects of bait on cervid populations, and more specifically, how the use of bait contributes to the spread of other diseases such as mange and brucellosis. (Read Adams\u2019 full article here<\/a> to get an in-depth perspective on the connection between the use of bait and the spread of CWD.)<\/p>\n \u201cFeeding can lead to increased potential for disease transmission either directly (via direct animal contact) or indirectly (via feed functioning as fomite, spreading disease into the adjacent environment and to other animals,)\u201d researchers concluded in one such study<\/a> from 2014. \u201cWe identified numerous diseases that currently pose a significant concern to the health of individuals and species of large wild mammals across North America, the spread of which are either clearly facilitated by the application of supplemental feeding or baiting.\u201d<\/p>\nCWD in Kansas<\/h2>\n
What Does the Science Say?<\/h2>\n