Deer Bait

[DOUBLELUNG]

Does anybody know the law on baiting deer before opener. Can a person do it, and whats the time frame up to opener?

[harvey lee]

Welcome to Fishing Minnesota. Looking up to your right you will see a search tab. You can do a search about baiting and see all the other posts anywhere on FM in regards to baiting laws.

You could also search the DNR laws where the answers are also. If after those searches and you cannot seem to find what you are looking for, please fire away and I'm sure your questions will be answered. The search is there for looking up any talked about info from the past and present and should help you in many other ways.

Again, Welcome and we look forward to your contributions to Fishing MInnesota.

[sparcebag]

Did you read last year where the DNR busted lots of people for deer baiting?and they are cracking down on it.

[DOUBLELUNG]

Nope. Thought I heard somewhere that a person could do it upto like a week or two before opener. Then had to have everything out of the woods.

[DOUBLELUNG]

Maybe someone was misleading me?

[xedge2002]

I believe that you have to have it all gone within 15 days of opener. I didn't look that up but I am pretty sure that is what the rule is.

[Mark Christianson]

Page 72 in the hunting regs

• Hunters are not allowed to use bait or hunt in the vicinity of bait that

the hunter knows about or has reason to know about or hunt in the

vicinity where bait has been placed within the previous ten days.

[Hotspotter]

Be careful with this one too. A local in our area interpreted this law a bit too literally, and placed a few hundred pounds of shelled corn 10 days prior to gun season. Deer, squirrels, and turkey tried their best, but couldn't polish it all off.

Opening day, he was hunting over bait and was caught. He tried saying, "Well I placed it more than 10 days ago!" Needless to say, it didn't work out so well for him.

Hunting over bait in MN is illegal, and I'd stay as far away from the fringes of this law as possible to avoid a ticket.

Joel

[lcornice]

Quote:

---

Does anybody know the law on baiting deer before opener. Can a person do it, and whats the time frame up to opener?

---

Page 72 of the 2007 Hunting regulations addresses baiting.

[DOUBLELUNG]

Thanks for the INFO.

[troutmaster]

i thought baiting was how CWD spreads, why would anyone want to bait?

[Nate McVey]

Actually baiting is one of the ways that contributes it's spread, but not the only way. It is spread between cervids through contact with body fluids such as blood, saliva, urine and feces. It is not from contaminated feed, but rather from methods of feeding that may concentrate herds. This can come from food plots, watering holes, salt licks and yes baiting. Michigan allows baiting and as of today has no instances of CWD in the Upper or Lower Penninsula. Kind of puts a hole in that theory......

[troutmaster]

oh ok good point shiner

[lcornice]

Quote:

---

Actually baiting is one of the ways that contributes it's spread, but not the only way. It is spread between cervids through contact with body fluids such as blood, saliva, urine and feces. It is not from contaminated feed, but rather from methods of feeding that may concentrate herds. This can come from food plots, watering holes, salt licks and yes baiting. Michigan allows baiting and as of today has no instances of CWD in the Upper or Lower Penninsula. Kind of puts a hole in that theory......

---

Correct on CWD, but they do have bovine tuberculosis, which IS spread by baiting and feeding of deer.

[DOUBLELUNG]

My concern if it is a concern, is if this stuff is spread with saliva and it stays in the area for awhile then what about mineral licks and food plots?

[DOUBLELUNG]

Oh and I forgot all those farmers out there that plant all those fields of corn and soybeans. Would those fields that are concentrated on by many deer be spreaders of those diseases?

[Nate McVey]

Quote:

---

Correct on CWD, but they do have bovine tuberculosis, which IS spread by baiting and feeding of deer.

---

Not neccesarily the case....TB is passed through respritory secretions (coughing and sneezing) with close contact animals. High density areas are the most affected because there are more animals to help in the spread. It just so happens that baiting is a way to control the deer population/density so it is attributed to the spread. TB can also be contracted through contaminated food, but that can be any source, not just bait piles. When deer graze through infected cow pastures or non cervid animals eat infected carcasses, the disease is spread with more frequency.

Sorry to highjack the thread........

[chucker34]

Mineral licks would be prime candidate for the spread of disease as well. Food plots to a lesser degree.

Hypothetically, and perhaps logically, deer would be less likely to contract the diseases from grazing in a field where infected animals had been or were eating as they and their grazing sites would be spread apart further than a big ole corn pile every animal in the area is chewing on.

I'd like to see some empirical data - research, surveys, journals, etc. - before I would say that a pasture is just as likely to spread disease as a corn pile.

Also, baiting is seen as a way to prevent disease when you're talking about sharp shooters sent in to wipe out the entire population. Not the lone hunter who picks off a few and leaves dozens of others to keep spreading the disease.

[Nate McVey]

Here's an artilce from the State of Michigan. I'm certainly not saying that baiting does not aid in the spread of disease, rather that other factors contribute as much if not more.

Transmission and Development

Transmission

The disease primarily affects the respiratory tract but can also spread to other parts of the body. The primary route of transmission is the exchange of respiratory secretions between infected and uninfected animals. This can be achieved through nose-to-nose contact or by the inhalation of aerosol droplets that have been exhaled by an infected animal. Animals may also become infected with M. bovis by ingesting the bacteria. This could occur by ingesting feeds that have been contaminated with M. bovis by other infected animals. Carnivores may become infected with bovine TB by eating infected carcasses.

Various factors affect the efficiency in which M. bovis is spread within a cattle herd. The number of infected animals shedding the organism, as well as the number of susceptible animals present within a herd can have an impact on the transmission of the bacteria. For example, the more animals within a herd that are shedding M. bovis, the greater the chance of an uninfected animal coming into contact with an infected animal. The animal density of a herd also influences the efficiency of M. bovis transmission. Transmission of M. bovis among animals housed in confinement facilities may be greater because of close contact. Cattle infected with bovine TB may shed bacteria in their feces, urine and milk, but these are felt to be a minor source of bacterial transmission.

Environmental contamination with M. bovis may play a role in the spread of bovine TB. Survival of M. bovis in the environment is primarily affected by exposure to sunlight. Reports on the length of survival of M. bovis vary from 18-332 days at temperatures ranging from 54-75 F. Under laboratory conditions, M. bovis has been isolated for up to 8 weeks from various feeds kept at 75 F and 14 weeks from various feeds kept at 32 F. However, under field conditions, it is difficult to isolate M. bovis from pastures grazed by animals known to be infected with bovine TB.

Development

Tuberculosis is due to a small bacterium known as Mycobacterium. There are many different types of Mycobacterium but the two most important, M. tuberculosis and M. bovis are the only ones which can be spread between humans and animals. Examples of other types of Mycobacterium include M. avium, M. kansasii and M. fortuitum. Many of these can infect other animals and may also be recovered from soil and water. For example, M. avium organisms are widespread in nature and have been grown from water, soil, plants, and other environmental sources. Bacteria are very small and cannot be seen without using a microscope. Scientists look at bacteria to see their size, shape, internal structures and to see how they move. This information allows the laboratory scientist to make an early determination about what kind of bacteria are present. To see them with a microscope, bacteria must be stained so that they have more contrast and can be more easily seen.

The Mycobacterium are unique among the bacteria because they have a lot of waxy material in their cell walls. Because of the waxy material (known as mycolic acid), the usual stains for looking at bacteria with a microscope do not work. The mycolic acids give the Mycobacterium the ability to hold onto special bacterial stains, allowing them to be seen with a microscope. The special stain is called an acid fast stain and the Mycobacterium will be red while the other non-Mycobacterium will be blue.

Disease caused by mycobacteria often develop very slowly and may take months to years to develop. These bacteria grow very slowly and only replicate every 12-20 hours. While the pathogenic species (those which can cause disease) such as M. tuberculosis and M. bovis can infect a human or an animal, often the individual does not know that he has been infected. In humans, those infected but without active disease can be treated to prevent disease from occurring. To prevent other animals from being infected, a diseased animal must be culled from the herd.

[Nate McVey]

Here's one from MN, as far as I know, MN does not allow baiting and I don't think too many deer and cows are coming nose to nose, so it has to be transmitted through feed, pasture and watering holes. I'm no expert, but I have done a lot of reading on the subject.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) conducted surveillance for the disease in hunter-harvested deer within a 15-mile radius of the infected farms in 2005 and 2006. Two bovine TB-infected deer were discovered in 2005 and five presumed TB-infected deer were discovered in 2006. All infected deer have been adult animals, and 70 percent were males. Final results of 2006 sampling are still pending. The bovine-TB positive deer from 2005 and the five presumptive positive deer taken last fall were taken within five miles of a cluster of four bovine TB-infected cattle operations.

[chucker34]

shiner, thanks for the clarification and additional information. My thoughts are just along the lines of let's not promote something that has the potential to help spread the disease. We need to raise cattle to eat beef. But we don't need to feed deer. To that extent, yes, I'd be willing to give up mineral licks.

[Nate McVey]

I just hate to see baiting get such a bad rap. It really has helped the deer herd in the U.P. With all the disease that is around, I agree that there are some changes that could be made to some laws and I am certainly not pushing for MN to take on baiting. It works in MI, and the 5 deer rule seems to work in MN.

Just my $.02