Chronic Wasting Disease

[Corley5]

I asked the biologist today about it and got some interesting info.  It's symptoms are confusion, lethargy, lack of fear of man or other predators, and just looking sick in general.  It is caused by an organism called a preon.  Don't know if that is the spelling or not.  It is all but impossible to kill or get rid of this thing.  Lab tools must be heated to very extreme temps to sterilize them.  No other things like alcohol or bleach will work.  At a test facility out west they tried to sterlize the holding pen where infected animals were kept by stripping out the top two feet of dirt.  It was still found there.  It is apparently highly contagious and passed by contact between individuals,  possibly aerosols like sneezing and coughs and from contaminated soil.  The only good news is that humans don't appear to be affected by it.  No one who has worked with any of the infected specimens has been infected.  There is no cure or treatment for infected animals.  These preons are similar to a virus but even less complex and don't repond to any known drug.  It is diagnosed by taking a tissue sample from a suspect animal's brain stem slicing it thin and staining it and looking for the tell tale holes that it causes in the tissue.  It attacks nerve tissue and causes a general disruption in communication between the cells.  The cases in Wisconsin are thought to have come from domestic deer imported into the state.  This is what I was told this morning when I asked about it.  It sounds really serious to me.  

[CHARLIE]

It is serious. That's why they are killing thousands of deer in an area of Wisconsin just to make sure they get the less than 1% that have the disease.

One thing that bothers me is that the British government told thier citizens that Mad Cow disease (which is Chronic Wasting Disease) couldn't be transfered to humans. Guess what.....they were wrong.

[Ron Scott]

Yes, something very serious. Michigan is to stop baiting in the UP counties bordering Wisconsin.

[CHARLIE]

Jury is still out on the safety of CWD-infected meat

Dr. Greg Poland and Dr Allan Bieber have a lot in common. They're both physicians and researchers at Mayo Clinic. They're avid deer hunters who love a good venison steak, and they're eating the deer they shot last fall.

But as scientists, neither is reassured by the often-repeated statement, "There is no conclusive scientific evidence that chronic wasting disease (CWD) can be transmitted from an infected deer to a person who eats it."  Poland, director of Mayo Vaccine Research Group and a professor of medicine and infectious diseases, doesn't doubt  the accuracy of the above claim, but offers a significant caveat. "Nobody knows whether the experiment has accidentally been done, where someone has definitely eaten a CWD-infected deer and then been followed," he said.  "It could have happened and we don't know about it, or it could have happened and the time it takes between being exposed to the (disease) and the development of symptoms is sufficiently long that we just haven't seen it yet."

There are precedents that support Poland's concern. CWD is among a little understood family of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, the most well know of which appeared in England 16 years ago when cattle began losing weight, behaving strangely and dying. By 1992, more than 37,000 cattle had been diagnosed with bovine spongiform encephalopahathy (BSE), now widely known as "mad cow disease."

Health officials said the disease was no threat to humans. However, in 1995, nine years after the disease appeared in cattle, the first human case of mad cow disease, caused by consumption of an infected animal, appeared. The disease is always fatal, and dozens more patients developed it in the years that followed.

The similarity between mad cow disease and CWD is what concerns researchers. Both diseases appear to be caused by a pathogen known as a prion, a protein that lacks DNA and is capable of transforming other proteins into its own image. In both humans and animals, its destructive effects center in the brain and spinal cord.

Bieber, an assistant professor of neurology, said evidence of possible transmission of CWD from one species to another is inconclusive. "A study two years ago took prions from deer, manipulated them, and tried to infect human and bovine cells." Bieber said.  "What they came up with was that while it was inefficient, it could happen."

The bottom line, if there is one, is that there are many more questions about CWD and its possible effects on humans than there are answers. Given this lack of information, Bieber and Poland have concerns about  the way Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is responding to the threat.

Currently, the DNR does not plan to kill any deer specifically for athe purpose of CWD testing, but will test road kills and any animals that appear to be showing symptoms. During the 2002 firearms deer season a sample of hunter killed deer from throughout the state will be tested.  "We don't have the disease," said Chris DePerno, deer project leader for the farmland zone in Minnesota. "We haven't found it, and we're going to be looking."

Acting sometime in the future, however isn't sufficient for Poland and Bieber.  "CWD is in South Dakota, it's in Canada, it's in Wisconsin," Poland said. "It's got to be in Minnesota. It would be impossible for me to believe it's not here, and I don't know why we're not doing exactly what Wisconsin is doing, actively sampling and testing deer on a random basis through the state. What we're doing now is like saying "There's a small fire in the Boundary Waters. Let's wait to see if it rains."

"Waiting is reckless, and it is dangerous."  The scientists acknowledge however, that the DNR faces at least one significant obstacle in its attempt to monitor the state's deer herd: Money.  "CWD testing is very expensive," Bieber said. "That's probably one of the biggest issues at the state level. They might need federal help to pay for this."

Dispite their concerns, Bieber and Poland plan to hunt deer in Minnesota this fall, and they see little reason why the state's hunters shouldn't enjoy the 2002 season.  "I don't think people should panic," Bieber said.  "If the animal you shoot appears to be a nice, healthy animal, simply take the necessary precautions when cleaning and processing it, and behave the way you would if this disease didn't exist.  "But be aware, and watch the DNR. It's up to them to help us out."

Safety measures
1) If you see or shoot a deer that appears emaciated or that shows signs of confusion, listlessness and extreme thirst, don't touch it. Inform the DNR immediately.
2) Wear rubber gloves while cleaning and processing deer.
3) Remove all bone and fatty tissure from venison.
4)Avoid consuming or handling material from the brain, spinal cord and lymph nodes.

[Ron Scott]

New Mexico officials have reported the state's first case of CWD in free-ranging deer, prompting emergency regulations that prohibit the importation of deer and elk into the state.

What has officials baffled is how the contagious disease suddenly appeared hundreds of miles from southern Colorado, the furthest south the disease has been previously detected and that case was in a captive elk herd, not in a free-ranging animal.

[Tom]

I wonder if they've discovered something that's been there all along?

[CHARLIE]

Big news in the Rochester Fish Wrapper tonight!

3 men (1 Minnesotan and 2 from Wisconsin) died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. 2 died in 1993 and 1 died in 1999. All 3 hunted and ate deer from the Brule River area in Wisconsin. All 3 also ate elk and deer at wildgame feeds there.

Rochester Post Bulletin:

Sixteen years ago, cattle began dying in England of a brain-wasting disease. The public was told the condition wasn't a threat to people who ate beef.  Nine years later, people began dying of what is now widely known as Mad Cow Disease. Could the same scenario be playing out with chronic wasting disease?

Mayo Clinic Doctor Greg Poland, director of Mayo's Vaccine Research Group and professor of medicine and infectious diseases said, "As physicians with this data in hand, we need to have a high index of suspicion. We need to be looking for this disease in people. And all states, everywhere there's hunting, must now aggressively look for this disease in their elk and deer herds."

The World Health Organization's official position about CWD is  that there has never been a documented case in which a human contracted a brain-wasting disease by eating an infected animal.  Dr. Poland, however, believes the significance of this lack of evidence should not be overestimated. Dr. Poland says, "You can't use the absence of known cases as your safety net. Look at what's happening with the West Nile virus. The more we look, the more cases we're finding. You have to look hard before you can say it's safe."  Despite these concerns Dr. Poland emphasizes that panic is not the answer. Research is.  "These cases really raise the ante in my mind," he said. "We have to put the resources into understanding this disease."

[RobK]

Y'all may think I'm crazy, but I'm going to venture a theory that it's a malnutrition thing. That could easily explain how it just pops up out of no where with no apparent links. It may be that these prions are naturally occuring, and perhaps a symptom, not the cause.

I suspect this because of things like pellegra and ricketts, where poor diet causes diseases. In a region of China where the soil is very poor in selenium, almost 25% of the population developed what they called "raspberry heart syndrome", a form of muscular dystrophy. When the population was supplemented with selenium, the incidence of the syndrome was totally eliminated. You only need a very small amount of selenium, but you do need it or you'll develop these types of diseases. So that's why I suspect it.

[CHARLIE]

Whatever the cause, it's wicked stuff and very infectious. Many butchers in Minnesota are now saying that they are not going to butcher anyones deer this year. They said it isn't worth it. If there equipment gets contaminated, it can't be cleaned. Even heat won't get rid of it. :(

[J Beyer]

The Wisconsin DNR says to "bone out" the deer, which to me means do not cut through any bone of the deer when field dressing and processing.  The ribs probably don't present much of a problem since you shoot through the ribs anyway.

Interesting point on the nutrition aspect of things.  This is one study that I would support, especially since hunting brings many dollars into my state in just hunting licenses.

We also have two short seasons called T-Zone or Zone-T for gun or bow.  At this time any antlerless deer can be taken (less than 3" for a buck to be classified as antlerless).

JB

[CHARLIE]

Since the disease is in the brain, don't go cutting the skull to get the antlers either.  Probably wouldn't hurt to wear those surgical gloves too. They're cheap and found at any drugstore.

[J Beyer]

CDW or no CDW, I would recommend gloves for field dressing any animal.  Friends of mine were shocked to hear taht some protiens were still found two feet down in the pen of affected deer.

JB

[Don P]

When livestock are in an epidemic we wipe them out in the infected area and clean up and restart. I realize we cannot clean up, but to contain the spread of this why are we not eliminating all the deer in positive areas? It seems the kindest thing to do in the long run.
Really anymore you need gloves in the truck. Michelle wrote that she happened upon a rural wreck and called it in then began helping the 4 teens. She didn't even think about it till she looked down afterwards and was covered.

[Don P]

Heard earlier tonight and just saw it on the news that an IL deer in the Roscoe area just tested positive for CWD :(

[Corley5]

That's bad :( :'(  Really, really bad :( :(  Last I heard, and that was back in Sept, 33 had tested positive in Wis. in and around the area where the intial cases were found.

[smwwoody]

I wonder if CWD is what the elk here in Pennsylvania had in the 1970's and 80's?  They called it "Brain worm".  It sounds real close. I know that at that time the Game comission (DCNR) told us that it could not be transfered to our white tails. ???

[Corley5]

Brainworm and CWD are completely different.  Brainworm is actually a parasite.  Deer are the primary host but it normally has no ill effects on them.  We have brainworm in our elk and normally dispatch a couple a year that are afflicted with it.  Who knows how many more the coyotes take care of.  Symptoms are almost identical.    

[Corley5]

I heard today that the deer in Ill. was a free ranging wild deer.  It is believed that it originated from Wis. as it was only fifty miles from the border.  I also learned at an in-service that the prion can be killed.  Extreme heat will work,  direct contact with undiluted bleach for 2 hours or boiling in lye are means to disinfect.  State agencies are doing trace ins and outs on infected game farms.  One such elk ranch in Mt is responsible for infecting ranches in six other states.  There is also an on going investigation into the Midnight Express transportation of deer and elk in this country.  A man who was involved in the illegal transport of animals is working with state and federal officials to track where animals have been transported with out permits, inspections, quarantines etc.  It's going to get even uglier before it is all over.  Here in Mi we are testing 50 free ranging deer from each county that has a captive deer or elk herd.  That's all the lab can handle at this point in time but in the future even more will be tested.  It is also thought that CWD may have evolved from scrapie which is an encephelopathy that affects sheep.  One theory is that scrapie evolved into CWD from contact between range sheep and elk and mule deer.  The way that CWD is spreading in whitetail herds is leading researchers to believe that whitetails are more susceptible to it than elk and mule deer.  I've also heard that license sales in Wis. are down 70%.  With no one hunting deer the herd is going to explode and the disease will more than likely spread even more rapidly.  It is still said that the meat is safe to eat.  Muscle tissue apparently contains no CWD prions.  Avoid eating any other tissues such as spleen, liver, kidneys, bone marrow, eyes etc.  The general consensus among researchers is that this is how Mad Cow Disease made the jump to humans in Britain.  In their culture they commonly eat parts of animals that we in America would never even consider eating.  
  On anther note.  Moose are very susceptible to brainworm.  When we had the moose lift from Ontario to the U.P. back in the 80s the main reason for locating them in the U.P. was because of the lower density deer population and thus the lower occurence of brainworm.  Some of the moose mortality in the U.P. has still been the result of brainworm but it hasn't been as high as it would have been if the animals had been planted in the N.L.P.  

[CHARLIE]

There was an article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press by Sandra Blakeslee of the New York Time titled Infectious prions found in deer meat

I'm not going  to enter the whole article but will paraphrase some of it.

The meat of deer with CWD has beeen found to contain the infectious prion stat spread the disease, according to a study published today in Science.  Until now, state and federal health officials have reassured hunters they would not be exposed to the disease as long as they did not touch or eat an animale's brain, spinal cord or other nervous tissues, where the infectious prions had been known to lodge.

The paper in Science, by Dr. Gleann Telling, a prion expert at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, and his colleagues, reports that the prized haunch and leg meat of infected deer is clearly contaminated.  Other muscle meat may also be infected, Telling said.  States where the disease is found routinely warn hunters to have deer and elk meat frozen while the head is tested for prions, Bruce Morrison said (chairman of the National Chronic Wasting Disease Implementation Team and assistant director of the Wildlife Division at the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission). "If an animal is infected." Morrison said, "no part of it should be eaten."

[Corley5]

The truth comes out.  Even though we were assured it was safe I sure a h*** wouldn't eat one that was infected.  Scary deal

[Wyatt]

Charlie's right, it was just on news here last night. Scientists at UW Madison have found thr prions in deer meat! now what? I guess I don't have to worry. I have not eaten it since it started here. Now I raise simmentals and boy are they delicious! and a lot more meat!

[Ron Scott]

CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE FOUND IN MICHIGAN CERVID RANCH 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Aug. 25, 2008                                   
   
CONTACT:  Bridget Patrick (MDA),  517-241-2669                                     
                     Mary Dettloff (DNR), 517-335-3014
                                                                                       
Michigan's First Case of Chronic Wasting Disease Detected at Kent County Deer Breeding Facility

LANSING - The Michigan departments of Agriculture (MDA) and Natural Resources (DNR) today confirmed the state's first case of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in a three-year old white-tailed deer from a privately owned cervid (POC) facility in Kent County.

The state has quarantined all POC facilities, prohibiting the movement of all - dead or alive - privately-owned deer, elk or moose.  Officials do not yet know how the deer may have contracted the disease. To date, there is no evidence that CWD presents a risk to humans.

DNR and MDA staff are currently reviewing records from the Kent County facility and five others to trace deer that have been purchased, sold or moved by the owners in the last five years for deer and the last seven years for elk. Any deer that may have come in contact with the CWD-positive herd have been traced to their current location and those facilities have been quarantined.

"Michigan's veterinarians and wildlife experts have been working throughout the weekend to complete their investigation," said Don Koivisto, MDA director.  "We take this disease very seriously, and are using every resource available to us to implement response measures and stop the spread of this disease."

CWD is a fatal neurological disease that affects deer, elk and moose. Most cases of the disease have been in western states, but in the past several years, it has spread to some midwestern and eastern states. Infected animals display abnormal behaviors, progressive weight loss and physical debilitation.

Current evidence suggests that the disease is transmitted through infectious, self-multiplying proteins (prions) contained in saliva and other fluids of infected animals. Susceptible animals can acquire CWD by direct exposure to these fluids or also from contaminated environments. Once contaminated, research suggests that soil can remain a source of infection for long periods of time, making CWD a particularly difficult disease to eradicate.

"Currently, one of our top concerns is to confirm that the disease is not in free-ranging deer," said DNR Director Rebecca Humphries. "We are asking hunters this fall to assist us by visiting check stations to allow us to take biological samples from the deer they harvest, so we can perform adequate surveillance of the free-ranging white-tailed deer herd in the area."

Deer hunters this fall who take deer from Tyrone, Soldon, Nelson, Sparta, Algoma, Courtland, Alpine, Plainfield, and Cannon townships will be required to bring their deer to a DNR check station. Deer taken in these townships are subject to mandatory deer check.

The DNR is also asking hunters who are participating in the private land five-day antlerless hunt in September in other parts of Kent County to visit DNR check stations  in Kent County so further biological samples can be taken from free-ranging deer for testing. The DNR is in the process of finding additional locations for check stations in Kent County to make it more convenient for hunters.

The deer that tested positive at the Kent County facility was a doe that had been recently culled by the owner of the facility. Michigan law requires sick deer/or culled deer on a POC facility be tested for disease. The samples from the Kent County deer tested "suspect positive" last week at Michigan State University Diagnostic Center for Population and Animal Health, and were sent to the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa last Thursday for confirmatory testing. The positive results of those tests were communicated to the state of Michigan today.

Audits of the facility by the DNR in 2004 and 2007 showed no escapes of animals from the Kent County facility were reported by the owner. Also, there were no violations of regulations recorded during the audits.

Since 2002, the DNR has tested 248 wild deer in Kent County for CWD. In summer 2005, a number of those deer had displayed neurological symptoms similar to CWD; however, after testing it was determined the deer had contracted Eastern Equine Encephalitis.

More information on CWD is available on Michigan's Emerging Diseases Web site at www.michigan.gov/chronicwastingdisease.

[cheyenne]

It's here in N.Y. as well. Scarey situation. Cheyenne