2024_06_18 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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June 18, 2024 - GMAC Minutes KL: OK. So, they did a study – Penn State – and this group in Southern Queensland – this guy Daren Marshall – there’s a great video that isn’t that long, where he talks about how they’re doing it and one of the, oh, shoot, I stopped sharing, um… LT: Sorry, just because we’re tracking on time I know we have questions. KL: So really the – this is the meat of it. The only other – they’re doing disease testing – one of the really interesting things to come out of that Puna meeting was to learn that of the swine that have been tested on this Island – the ferals – 15% of them are coming up positive for brucellosis which causes abortions in and can be transmitted to cattle and humans, actually, I don’t know that it causes abortions in humans, but it certainly does in cattle. So that is something I wasn’t aware of but there you go, and this is what keeps me awake at night. If you follow that QR code there’s a really stunning set of images of I think all of them are from Hawaii county, maybe not… AA: These photos fenced areas just to clarify the \[unclear\]. KL: Yes, fenced areas - this – no hoofed animals here – unfenced high numbers of hoofed animals. LT: Where is this again, I’m sorry. KL: It’s on Hawaii Island. LT: It’s at the bottom of a lava flow area whatever flow that is. KL: So, if you take a picture of that, that QR code you’ll see a whole slew of them where you can see the x-closures and the rapid ohia death’s spread, yeah. So that’s all I have to say. LT: Thank you very much for that presentation. Thank you for sharing all that information with us. Right now we’re gonna move forward to a discussion – from the Commission – any questions or discussion from the Commissioners for the presentation? BL: Brian – District – 4, what you don’t mention is that cotton seed is not recommended for poultry or any sort of birds and we’re also not mentioning when you make cotton seed oil that it is highly processed and it’s removing the gossypol, so this is cottonseed oil in itself. Cotton seed is toxic. It has to be refined to be fed and even after it is refined it’s not good for birds, we have. How many endangered birds on the Island, you know, pigs are notorious for being sloppy eaters – we set up these feeders – what is it doing? There’s no research doing – what it’s doing to the birds. Native, non-native, game birds or whatever. What it says right on there – when I went online yesterday and it says do not feed to poultry, do not feed to birds \[unclear\] what you guys are saying is classic good animal feed. It’s not animal feed for everything \[unclear\] and brucellosis, that’s a hot topic – brucellosis is species specific \[unclear\] certain type of Brucellosis, we get this propaganda that the pigs are spreading brucellosis to the cattle – the cattle already have brucellosis – the question is, is how brucellosis get to the Island – years ago when it first showed up Florida and Alabama and Hawaii were the only 3 states. How’s it get here, you know, USDA needs to take some responsibility \[unclear\] Department of Ag for letting this get in here – stuff like that and, these fencing things – everyone gets these fencing – 15