Chronic Wasting Disease found in wild deer

[dk99358]

Excerpt from the press release:

CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE FOUND IN BLAIR AND BEDFORD COUNTIES
GAME COMMISSION TO HOLD CWD NEWS CONFERENCE MONDAY, MARCH 4

HARRISBURG – The Pennsylvania Game Commission today confirmed three hunter-killed deer taken in the 2012 general firearms deer season have tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). Two were from Blair County; the other was from Bedford County.

“These are the first positive cases of CWD in free-ranging deer in Pennsylvania,” confirmed Pennsylvania Game Commission Executive Director Carl G. Roe. “The disease was first documented in early October, 2012, by the state Department of Agriculture in a captive deer on an Adams County deer farm.”

The three hunter-killed deer tissue samples were collected by Game Commission personnel during annual deer aging field checks during the general firearms season for deer. The samples were tested and identified as suspect positive by the Department of Agriculture as part of an ongoing annual statewide CWD surveillance program. The tissue samples were confirmed to be positive for CWD by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa, as part of an established verification process.

“The three CWD-positives were part of 2,945 deer sampled for the disease statewide,” explained Roe. “To date, we have received test results from 1,500 samples, including these three positive samples. Results from the remaining samples should be available in the next few weeks.”

An additional 2,089 deer were sampled and tested from within the designated Disease Management Area in Adams and York counties; CWD was not detected in any of those deer samples.

Full release here:

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal...e__019_13.html

Dale

[tgriffit]

Hey Dale. Thanks for the info. I've not heard of cwd before. What exactly does cwd do to the deer population and how does it affect those of us that eat what we shoot? Thanks!

Tyler

[Gun Bowanna]

It's a form of mad cow disease in wild deer.
Started or was recognized in Colorado and spread from there to neighboring states, and now across the Mississppi river.

Google Chronic wasting disease.

[ak47fullmag]

Thanks for info. I never heard of this ailment before. ya learn somethin new everyday. all the bestt.

[dk99358]

CWD page maintained by the Game Commission:

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal...1253813&mode=2

Pa. Dept of Ag has some info too, they're responsible for the deer farms, PGC for the wild deer.

CWD is similar to Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis (BSE or mad cow) in that it eventually destroys the brain, the big difference is that CWD is NOT known to be transmissible to humans.

Dale

[rockstrongo]

I wonder if it can be transmitted to dogs, etc.. you know.. the ones that love to roll in and eat poo.

CWD.. now I know why Hornady makes the "Zombie Max" labeled ammo..

[ak47fullmag]

I wonder if it can be transmitted to dogs, etc.. you know.. the ones that love to roll in and eat poo.

CWD.. now I know why Hornady makes the "Zombie Max" labeled ammo..

I`d imagine yes. even if im wrong not worth taking any chances.

soo the symptoms are like mad cow disease? hell no, that aint good.

[CL3]

Regulation of deer farms needs to be given to the PGC and not the Dept. of Agriculture. Deer farms should actually just be shut down. You want to pay for a trophy hunt, go somewhere else.

Deer scents & urine need to be banned.

Proposed bills to allow baiting piles, and hunting over them, need to die.

Legislators need to stop trying to be wildlife biologists.

The common thread here on the east coast, when CWD shows up, is deer farms. The PA Deer Farmers Association actually has a "CWD Policy & Protocol." Come on! They are useless.

I don't care if getting rid of deer farms "hurts business." See the forest through the trees people! We don't have wild cows!

[hshields]

Hey Dale. Thanks for the info. I've not heard of cwd before. What exactly does cwd do to the deer population and how does it affect those of us that eat what we shoot? Thanks!

Tyler

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a sister disease to mad cow (bovine spongiform encephalopathy-BSE) -- just as Alzheimer's and CJD (Creutzfeldt Jakob) are similar human prion diseases.
Six million US Alzheimer's victims shed infectious prions to public sewers in their urine and feces. Meat packers and renderers discharge animal prion wastes to public sewers. Prions are found in human and animal mucus, blood, saliva, urine and feces. University of Wisconsin prion expert, Dr. Joel Pedersen, found that the wastewater treatment process does not inactivate prions - it reconcentrates them in the sludge.

http://www.alzheimers-prions.com/

Pennsylvania should reevaluate its enthusiasm for sewer sludge spreading: The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified infectious human and animal prions as emerging pathogenic contaminants of concern in sewage sludge "biosolids".:
http://www.sludgevictims.com/prions/...NSLUDGEBIO.pdf





Pennsylvania sewage sludge is spread on cropland and grazing fields shared by deer and livestock.

The so-called 'species barrier' between deer and livestock and deer and humans, is NOT foolproof:

USDA/Agricultural Research Service (ARS) found that 86% of livestock
IC inoculated with CWD prions from infected white-tailed deer went on to
develop prion disease.

http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/pub..._no_115=277212




CDC article on the many hunters and game eaters who have developed prion diseases:
http://www.alzheimers-prions.com/pdf...SEVICTIMS-.pdf

Dr. Pedersen found prions can become 680 times more infectious when bound to certain soil minerals and survive for years. Human prions are 100,000 times more infectious than animal prions.

" . . . the species barrier from cervid to humans is prion
strain-dependent and humans can be vulnerable to novel cervid prion strains"

www.jbc.org/cgi/doi/10.1074/jbc.M110.198465

"Our results have far-reaching implications for human health, since they indicate that cervid PrPSc can trigger the conversion of human PrPC into PrPSc, suggesting that CWD might be infectious to humans."
www.jbc.org/content/286/9/7490.full

Scientists identify the human strain as "CWD-huPrPSc".




In the July 3, 2010 issue of VETERINARY RECORD, Dr. Pedersen stated: “Finally, the disposal of sludge was considered to represent the greatest risk of spreading (prion) infectivity to other premises.”


Helane Shields, Alton, NH hshields@tds.net www.alzheimers-prions.com/

[Qtrborecrazy]

Now what leads you to believe CWD came from a deer farm?