The Deer Initiative

Eastern England Region News

Autumn 2009

News update from David Hooton, East England Deer Liaison Officer

Events

Deer Stalkers Evenings

Following on from our successful events over the past couple of years, BDS BASC and DI agreed to hold two more joint evening events in autumn 2009.

November 12th 2009 Royston Area: Peter Green was our guest speaker at this event, which was very well attended and enjoyed by everyone who came along.

The next event is:

26th November 2009  at Carleton Road Village Hall NR16 1NQ   at 7.00 for 7:30pm

Speakers for this event will be   

• Norma Chapman - Muntjac                   
• Trevor Banham – Carcass handling best practice from shot to table                   
• Zeiss Optics – Representatives from Zeiss will provide a display of optics and talk about current products

BASC Deer Officer Chris Brooks will also be on hand to discuss the stalking schemes run by BASC for its members

These events are free and booking is not essential, but it would be useful that you let either Simon Reinhold, Nick Rout at BDS or David Hooton at DI know if you are intending to attend.

South Suffolk Priority Area

Deer management planning and support is ongoing in Suffolk. The biggest challenge continuing to face this project is the diverse landownership within the area, the range that the fallow population uses and the small size of our woodlands in the region.

Collaborative management of the herd of fallow around Ickworth has continued to be a success with more collaborative culls planned for next season. Collaborative management here is being actively supported by both landowners and deer managers. Local landowners are reporting a probable stabilization and reduction of deer numbers in some parts of the group area; this though has been due in part to part of the fallow population using an area of ground away from the main group area. What continues to be encouraging though is the continued will by those involved either as landowners or deer managers to recognise the need for effective management of the fallow population in this priority area.

Woodland monitoring for deer activity and impact was carried out by Harry Barnet this spring: Disappointingly there has been no significant change in scores from last year. Although there has been a large increase in stalker time on the ground, particularly in two areas, the fallow deer population is high, very mobile and regularly uses areas where there is no deer management taking place. This is probably the largest single contributing factor to the continued issues in this area.

Hertfordshire Priority Area

Having spent much of the past 3 years working closely with the main organisations in this area I spent some time this spring working with one of the large private estates in the area. Landscape management of all deer species is vital for the long term sustainable management of these areas. The deer management group for this area is due to meet in the autumn.

  Venison Marketing

Having been working on this project for the past 2 years we finally have a completed feasibility study. A meeting with EEDA took place in September 2009 to discuss the findings and to develop a project proposal with them.

Deer-Vehicle Collisions Project

Work with the Highways Agency has been ongoing this year, it has been recognized that one way to help reduce accidents and the severity of these accidents is to raise driver awareness. Through the DVC working group a driver information programme is being launched this autumn.

Best Practice Guides (England and Wales)

Keep checking our Best Practice page as new guides are frequently published.  The guides are ‘live' documents so if you have comments on any of the published guides please let us know.

East of England Deer Forum

The East of England Deer forum continues to meet twice a year, at the recent meeting in March, hosted by the BTO at Thetford, 22 members attended. Discussion ranged across a number of current issues, including agricultural impacts, that seem to be increasing throughout the region, venison markets, and the continued requirement for collaborative working. Essex Wildlife Trust reported on the success of their woodland management work in conjunction with pro active deer control.

Dogs for Deer

Niels Sondergaard is a highly respected tracking dog handler from Denmark where the requirement to follow up wounded deer is law. Niels has recently published an excellent book in this country “Working with dogs for deer” available from BASC and the BDS.

BASC are currently planning introductory and training courses. Contact Chris Brooks for more information.

Disease surveillance

Quantification of the role of UK deer in the epidemiology of arthropod-borne infections

Research into the prevalence of tick-borne diseases carried by deer has been undertaken by three academic institutions University College London, Liverpool University and the Veterinary Laboratories Agency to try and coordinate a number of research projects that have been proposed to maximise the results from the minimum number of samples, The scientists have agreed to share the samples which will preclude having to do the same exercise 3 times, the sampling phase started in April.

A project brief by Dr Silvia Alonso, Royal Veterinary College.

Background

In the light of the current increased interest in the understanding of the epidemiology of vector-borne diseases in the UK and in Europe in general, it has become essential to investigate the role that different wildlife species present in the country may have in disease dynamics.

The medical and veterinary importance of diseases transmitted with vectors in the UK, and in Europe in general, appears to be rising. Of particular concern are infections transmitted by ticks or midges. A recent national survey, aimed at documenting the popular view of landowners, farmers, gamekeepers and the general public in the UK that ticks have increased in abundance and distribution over recent years, confirmed these suspicions, and concluded that one of the key correlates with these rises was the well-documented increase in abundance and range of the deer population. That these two parameters are linked is unsurprising since deer have long been considered one of the most important hosts for Ixodes ricinus , the most common tick species in the UK. Ixodes ricinus is the vector of a number of infectious agents including Borrelia burgdorferi , the agent of Lyme disease, Anaplasma phagocytophilum , the agent of tick-borne or pasture fever, Babesia divergens , the agent of redwater fever, and louping ill virus. However, the exposure and susceptibility of deer to these infections, and the frequency of disease transmission from deer to livestock and humans is still unclear and has not been rigorously tested. The exposure and susceptibility of deer to bluetongue, a midge-borne viral infection, is also unknown. This, and the shortfalls discussed above may have significant implications for disease control in the UK.

Research proposal

In the light of these gaps in appropriate knowledge of the role of deer in the transmission of these important diseases, a common project proposal was prepared by researchers in three main research institutions in the UK:

• Dr Silvia Alonso, Royal Veterinary College

The role of wild deer in Lyme disease emergence in the UK

• Dr Richard Birtles, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Liverpool

Quantifying the role of deer in tick-borne fever and red water fever transmission in the UK

• Dr Chris Oura, Institute for Animal Health, Pirbright

Assessing exposure to bluetongue virus among the UK deer population

A proposal was submitted to the British Deer Society in December 2008 to obtain financial support for collection of approx 1,000 samples from deer across the country. This joint proposal aims to assembling an archive of clinical material collected from the UK deer population in a structured way from, in the first instance, January 2009 until September 2009. This archive will be shared among co-investigators (and other interested parties) as a resource for the epidemiological investigation of specific infections.

BDS supported the proposal and contributed £4,000 to cover the expenses derived from sampling.

Sampling strategy

Members of the Forestry Commission across England and Wales, and a number of BDS members, have agreed to coordinate and carry out the collection of blood samples and ticks from deer in the context of the annual culling of these animals. To date, the analysis of samples has not yet started in any of the research institutions. But it is expected to start by the end of summer 2009, when sample collection may have finished ( this has now been extended to the end of the 09/10 doe/hind season ). It is expected to collect a total of over 1,000 blood samples.

Wild Deer and Bovine TB

Defra have published two reports recently that build on the evidence base on bovine TB in deer.

The first is the final report from the South West England and Cotswolds Survey of Tuberculosis in Deer, the second is a related quantitative risk assessment of the risk posed to cattle by wild deer.

The results of the deer survey show that on Forestry Commission land in the South West Peninsula, bovine TB is present at a very low level (less than 1 per cent, except in one area where it is present at 3.8 per cent in fallow deer). In the Cotswolds, high prevalences were found in two of the three areas sampled (15.9 per cent and 8.1 per cent) particularly in fallow deer. In all areas surveyed, fallow deer were the species most likely to have the highest level of infection with M. bovis.

The key results of the second report, the quantitative risk assessment, indicate that deer are likely to pose a lower TB risk to cattle than badgers throughout most of South West England and Wales.

While TB is not currently a significant risk in wild deer, deer stalkers and managers should take the disease risk into account when establishing any management programmes. Defra will be working with the Deer Initiative to share this information with the industry and to help inform future plans.

Both reports can be found on the Defra website.

Amendments to the Hunters Exemption in the Wild Game Guide

The following amendments have been received from the Food Standards Agency

Hunters and Hunter Exemption

For the purposes of the food hygiene regulations, hunters are people who shoot alone or are active members of a hunting party (includes non-shooting gamekeepers, ghillies, beaters and pickers-up, but not mere spectators).

The Hunter Exemption

The hunter exemption recognises the close relationship between the producer and the consumer. It is separate from the primary producer exemption and allows you to supply wild game meat . You can benefit from this exemption if you shoot alone or if you take an active part in a hunting party.

Members of hunting parties and individual hunters are exempt from :

•  having to develop their premises into an approved game handling establishment (AGHE). All game must have been shot by hunting party members (it cannot be sourced from others) and can be prepared into meat by any one (or more) of the party. As with the primary producer exemption , only small quantities may be supplied, either direct to the final consumer or to local retailers that directly supply the meat to final consumers (but not to retail outlets that only supply other retailers).

It is the premises where you prepare meat that have to be local to the retailers you plan to supply and not the place(s) where you shoot. So you can shoot on other people's estates and then bring the game back to your own premises.

The hunter exemption does not exempt you from :

•  being considered as a food business operator;

•  registration of food businesses , traceability , FBOs' responsibilities , HACCP , maintaining the cold chain and the probable need to provide a chiller (see game larders , including temperature controls);

•  requirements for hygienic transport including maintaining the cold chain (both for the in-fur/in-feather game you bring from the shooting area and for the meat you deliver to final consumers/retailers).

The structural and operational hygiene requirements for the premises that you use cover both the way you store primary products (in-fur and in-feather game) and the way you prepare food from them. If a private dwelling house or temporary/movable premises are to be used, then some of the general requirements are adapted.

Estates

•  Where an estate organises shooting, only those who play an active part in the shoot are entitled to the hunter exemption for preparing game meat. Onlookers would be excluded from this category, but non-shooting gamekeepers, stalkers/ghillies or those responsible for gundogs, as beaters, for picking up, etc would be included in this category. So any of these people could be responsible for preparing game meat from carcases back at the designated premises because they were members of the hunting party.

•  If an estate wishes to use its facilities to prepare game meat from game shot or purchased from elsewhere then it must become an approved game handling establishment (AGHE) . Please also see the note on the proposed UK Pilot Project on varying veterinary controls at certain AGHEs.

More details and the full guide can be found here on the Food Standards Agency website.

Publications

Deer in the East of England - A deer awareness leaflet
This leaflet describes the deer found in the East of England and looks at some of the impacts. These leaflets are for the promotion of deer and deer issues. They are provided to raise awareness at events such as regional shows, or passing onto members of your organizations. Please let me know if you would like copies of this leaflet. You can view or download this leaflet as a 2-page pdf on our Downloads page.

Other useful publications and advice notes relating to deer management are also available from the Forestry Commission Library