Major hunting seasons loom just around the calendar’s bend.

When assembling supplies such as ammunition, ice chests and camping gear, include latex gloves in the mix. Stick a few gloves into the pockets of every hunting jacket and wear them while you’re cleaning game. If nothing else, the inexpensive gloves make cleanup a snap.

They could also be an important barrier between you and some pretty nasty diseases. I’m not talking about diseases that the major news media have popularized – chronic wasting disease (CWD) and H5N1 avian flu. Although nothing is impossible, the odds of getting either of those maladies from wildlife are infinitesimal.

That doesn’t stop federal and state agencies from spending a fortune to test for avian flu and CWD in response to media frenzy. Texas, for instance, has tested 14,000 white-tailed deer for CWD. Every test has been negative. Furthermore, the states where CWD is best known – Colorado and Wisconsin – still have normal wildlife populations. It doesn’t seem like CWD is much of a threat to the overall numbers of the deer and elk it infects, much less humans.

Don Davis, assistant professor in Texas A&M’s Department of Veterinary Pathology, said CWD may have been present in nature for centuries. Only in recent years have humans learned to recognize CWD. Predictably, we have blown the threat way out of proportion.

Since H5N1 bird flu first was reported in the late 1990s, Alaska has tested more than 30,000 migratory birds. None carried the virulent flu, though several tested positive for some form of bird flu. Flu is often present in wild birds.

“Most forms of bird flu are nothing to worry about,” said Dave Morrison, Texas Parks and Wildlife’s waterfowl program leader. “You should exercise common sense in dealing with birds that you shoot, but the 250 deaths blamed on bird flu were all poultry farmers in Third World countries who live with their birds.”

TP&W will test 1,000 waterfowl this year. Every state is involved in bird-flu testing programs. About 8,000 birds will be collected for testing in the Central Flyway alone.

While we’re awaiting the pandemic, there are 78 known diseases that could be transmitted to humans by Texas wildlife. Anthrax is probably the most dangerous. Anthrax outbreaks occur every few years in southwest Texas, usually in dry years such as this one.

If you hunt in an anthrax area, do not pick up skulls, bones or any other body parts from any dead animals, wildlife or livestock.

The most common and arguably the most dangerous disease spread by wildlife is swine brucellosis, carried by feral hogs.

Wearing latex gloves when you clean any game animal makes good sense.

Wild animals have always carried diseases. Most of the diseases are not a problem for humans.