One of the biggest misconceptions that I keep seeing is about CWD. It is not alive, it is not a virus, it is not a bacteria, you can't "kill" it as it is not alive.
It is a prion, a misshaped protein. Sick animals shed these prions, in tears, urine, feces. These proteins can stay in the soil for over 10yrs. The more prions shed, the easier chance that an animal will ingest these prions and they can then start folding the normal cells in the brain and boom more CWD.
If you have sick animals bunched up and come to the same spot over and over and over for feed you are just concentrating the prion in one spot where the likely hood of ingestion is greater.
A field will not have deer in one spot, day after day after day feeding in large groups. Keeps the possible amount of CWD causing prions at a smaller risk. Land is worked up, new crops planted and rotated.
You can't look at this like a disease like the flu or aids or anything. It's not alive.
I don't believe that we need baiting in Alberta.
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