Can we talk Roe scouring please?

[Tralle]

Copper has only been allowed as a trace element for sometime at very low levels.
Zinc Oxide for prevention of post weaning scour has more recently been banned.
So the uptake theoretically in grazing should diminish to very low levels if it were a contributing factor.

All because of the export market and REACH compliance.

It has only been theories.
All the research done since 2004 have found no "smoking gun" on what caused the roe collapse on Funen.

A lot of people have speculated wildly on what it was/is.
At the moment research is on bloodborne disease spread by ticks and other vectors

You can run this link through a translator if you like.

My take is that a combination of things in their environment is to blame, both related to industrial farming, pollution, climate and management.

Could be a cocktail effect of herbicides, pesticides, heavy metals, pfas/pfos, etc, perhaps in combination with changes in farming practices, have a negative effect on the roes immune system in some way.
Combined with a dense population, bad mangement and feeding practices makes it possible for vira, bacteria and/or parasites to run rampant.

The cocktail effect is still present, but the population is less dense, hence we dont see the mass deaths anymore.

But that is just my wildly ueducated guess.

 

[TringSaint]

So, I have only been a regular deer stalker for the last 10 years and every day remains a school day stalking-wise in some way or another. Over the years, I have associated scouring in roe to be a seasonal/dietary issue, with our recent cold snap and wet conditions contributing to the current flush of observations. I however have a significantly more experienced stalking colleague who sees this very differently, associating it with internal parasites/infection and avidly promotes culling. I am more relaxed about this and always factor in the overall condition, size, age of the animal, the prevailing weather conditions and the time of year, invariably leaving nature to take its course on most occasions. Winter invariably seems to bring on some instances but usually its more a Spring occurrence which I associate with the change in nutrient content of the grass upsetting their stomachs.

Having been advised of a buck kid in poor condition by rough shooters earlier this week, I caught up with it yesterday, dead. It was indeed in very poor condition, probably weighed less than 5 kg and had I believe only succumbed the previous night when temperatures were below zero. Had I caught up with this animal earlier, his overall condition was such that I would not have hesitated to take a welfare cull out of season. This provoked the usual diatribe of shoot them followed by "adults normally get over it but kids normally don't especially buck kids".

Now, my question to experienced roe stalkers, and particularly our very helpful veterinarians on here from a scientific perspective (@Buchan et al), what is your experience of roe scouring please? In our cull forecasting we take account of fecundity so my view is that this is nothing new just sadly part of the natural cycle, or am I missing something here?

In our sheep, scouring is usually a sign that something isn’t right, ie worm burden, or that they are eating something that loosens them up (ie lots of very fresh grass or other vegetation).
When we see scours the first thing we do is give them a dose of wormer and electrolytes just to be sure.

I shot a cwd that was a bit scoury the other week - all ok but no body fat. It was a buck that had not long before been in the middle of the rut, so maybe was a bit knackered and the parasites were having a greater effect than normal.

 

[bobo]

Pictures of the dead roe buck kid showing the extent of the scouring:

This is same problem we had here. It's sad to walk through the forest and find a sight like this 3-5 times on a 2 hour walk.
It came to southern Jutland around 2020, within a year, over half of the Roe deer were affected.
The population suffered badly, but this year it finnaly seems to have completely disappeared, I have neither seen nor heard of it for the 2025-26 season.

In the areas where roe deer have been severely affected, no cases have been recorded in red deer, so it apparently only affects roe deer.
It should be mentioned that in southern Jutland there was a very high population density of roe deer when the disease struck. I believe the same was true in other parts of Denmark where the disease has ravaged.

 

[Tralle]

This is same problem we had here. It's sad to walk through the forest and find a sight like this 3-5 times on a 2 hour walk.
It came to southern Jutland around 2020, within a year, over half of the Roe deer were affected.
The population suffered badly, but this year it finnaly seems to have completely disappeared, I have neither seen nor heard of it for the 2025-26 season.

In the areas where roe deer have been severely affected, no cases have been recorded in red deer, so it apparently only affects roe deer.
It should be mentioned that in southern Jutland there was a very high population density of roe deer when the disease struck. I believe the same was true in other parts of Denmark where the disease has ravaged.

I live in the South western part of Jutland, and the roe population is not nearly as dense as it is in other parts of Denmark.
Perhaps that is part of the reason we have not been that affected by it.

I was "lucky" enough to get to stalk roe deer in the northern part of Funen before the collapse. It was wild, you could count more than a hundred roe during a drive around in the dusk.

 

[bobo]

I live in the South western part of Jutland, and the roe population is not nearly as dense as it is in other parts of Denmark.
Perhaps that is part of the reason we have not been that affected by it.

I was "lucky" enough to get to stalk roe deer in the northern part of Funen before the collapse. It was wild, you could count more than a hundred roe during a drive around in the dusk.

I'm original from the southeast Jutland. But today lives in Østbirk, Central Jutland.


Our population was way too high. On our hunting permit in the southeast, we have 45 hectares, and we still shot 7-9 roe deer every year without it being noticeable.
On a sunny winter day with snow like these days, you still see at least 25 roe deer middle of the day in the open on our 45 hectares.
Before the disease, the population was much higher, and in one year we shot 20 roes on the 45 hectars without it being noticeable.

 

[Dickie]

I've seen it where they have been hitting the pheasant feed to much but also that seems to bloat them, also seen where they are on very wet moor ground, many years ago we found a mature buck that had been spotted by a stable owner as being unsteady and not very mobile when we found it the next day very dead the backside was as your picture, I think we just put it down to age and the poor weather at the time.