BONNER — General rifle season is in full swing in Western Montana, but with a disease outbreak affecting some deer populations, hunters are helping out by getting their harvests checked out.
One buck made its debut on opening day afternoon, brought in by Isabel Janzen, who bagged it with her husband and their hunting buddy Sarge.
"He's so old, so sometimes he gets cranky and tired," Janzen said. "Isn't that right, Sarge?"
Janzen's harvest is helping Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks' monitoring of several diseases this season — Chronic Wasting Disease, Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease, Blue Tongue Disease and more.
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But with an EHD outbreak reported in and around Missoula, biologists are working to prevent CWD from taking hold.
"It’s helpful for us to get a number of samples from a variety of hunt districts in the region so we have a better chance at detecting it early if it does show up, which can be very helpful," FWP Wildlife Biologist Lee Tafelmeyer said.
Tafelmeyer manages the check station in Bonner, where hunters like Janzen have to make a quick pit stop on their way to and from the field.
"It catches a lot of hunters as they come down Highway 200 on their way back to Missoula or areas down valley," Tafelmeyer said. "They're required to stop here at the check station where we collect data on animals they've harvested."
While CWD cases have popped up in the Flathead — Missoula remains in the clear.
"If it does arrive here, then we can detect it early and maybe have some opportunity at managing it to keep prevalence low and keep the spread as contained as possible," Tafelmeyer said.
Samples from lymph nodes, the brain stem and teeth help test for diseases while monitoring overall herd health.
Most hunters who stopped for testing were happy to lend their harvest to science.
"I always want to give FWP as much info as I can," Janzen said.
Tafelmeyer and some seasonal techs are also accompanied by wildlife biology students from the University of Montana's Hunting Check Station Class.
"It’s super cool to get hands-on experience and try it out before dedicating your whole job to doing it," said Gavin McMeekan, a wildlife biology major at the University of Montana.
For successful hunters, techs are ready to collect samples on the spot.
From field to freezer, the samples head to Missoula's Fish Wildlife & Parks Office and Ryan Klimstra, the wildlife biologist who handles diseased deer all the way from Missoula to Idaho.
"So right now we’re experiencing an EHD outbreak, which is Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease," Klimstra said. "That's a hemorrhagic disease virus that's transmitted by biting midges, which are like little flies. Typically, the disease pops up early fall, late summer."
The disease itself affects the blood vessels in the cell walls of white-tailed deer, mule deer and sometimes elk, according to Klimstra.
"They essentially hemorrhage internally, leak out the fluid inside of their body, develop an infection and a fever, become dehydrated and ultimately die," Klimstra said.
While there have been dozens of mortalities from EHD, Klimstra said they’re in areas with an extremely high deer density.
"We’re getting lots of calls from the Frenchtown area, Huson, Grass Valley. That seems to be the epicenter of where the outbreak is occurring," Klimstra said. "Which is also where an outbreak happened previously in 2012. What's different this year is we're getting some calls from the Potomac Valley, where there have been possible diseased animals."
People in those areas can expect to see a few fewer deer in the coming years, but he said FWP will be monitoring it closely as they receive more reports.
"And there’s no worry that either the midges biting people or people touching deer, that there can be any contamination or infection across the species barrier there," Klimstra said. "It can affect livestock and elk, but they don't typically show as severe of an infection from the virus as white-tailed deer."
While it's safe for humans, biologists are concerned about EHD and CWD making unwanted moves across the landscape.
"We encourage people to not dump carcasses or just leave or throw carcasses out in an area where they didn’t harvest the animal," Tafelmeyer said. "There are landfills where you can dispose of carcasses and CWD does offer a number of carcass disposal sites which you can also find on our website."
To help biologists stay ahead of these unwelcome visitors, volunteer your harvest for testing on your way home, or just swing by the Montana FWP office on Spurgin Road in Missoula.
