Opinion

I call myself 90, but I don’t know just how old I really am but I was a good sized gal when we moved from Georgia to Texas. We come on a big boat and one night the stars fell. Talk about being scared! We all run and hid and hollered and prayed. We thought the end of the world had come.

No country has been spared from the repercussions of China’s coronavirus missteps and cover-up that accelerated the current global pandemic. However, the coronavirus crisis is not the first time the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has demonstrated it is an untrustworthy competitor.

It is once again hunting season in Oklahoma. Here is some good advice from Dwayne Elmore, Extension State Wildlife Specialist. As hunters find success in the field and harvest wildlife, it is important to consider how to safely handle the carcasses to stay safe. Wildlife can be infected with various zoonotic diseases that are transmissible to humans. Additionally, wildlife often harbors ticks and fleas which are disease vectors and can transmit diseases. Some of the diseases that may be encountered in Oklahoma and can infect hunters include ehrlichioses, leptospirosis, Lyme disease, tularemia, trichinosis, rabies, Rocky Mountain spotted tick fever, salmonella, and swine brucellosis. Hunters often become wary when they observe odd behavior in wildlife or notice injury or signs of disease on animal carcasses. However, the absence of these obvious signs should not cause complacency in the safe handling of harvested animals. Any animal should be treated as a potential source of infection.