Absolutely! There is an epidemic of TSE [the equivalent of BSE or mad cow dies ease] among deer, sheep [scapie], goats, elk, and moose along the US-Canadian border. It has gone on for a number of years and scientists have assumed that it is not transferrable to humans until recently when three members of a family all came down with it. They have been heavy hunters. The probability of this happening by accident is like three brothers getting Lou Gehrig's disease. My guess is that this is going to be an interesting story before it is over.
Here is where I get my info: Visit ProMED-mail's web site at <http://www.promedmail.org>. Send all items for posting to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (NOT to an individual moderator). If you do not give your full name and affiliation, it may not be posted. Send commands to subscribe/unsubscribe, get archives, help, etc. to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For assistance from a human being send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Bill Ward On Mon, 12 Aug 2002 09:42:08 -0400 "Ray Evans Harrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Has anyone heard anything about this? > > Ray Evans Harrell > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > Who's to Blame for Mad Deer? > Brian McCombie, The Progressive > August 1, 2002 > Viewed on August 12, 2002 > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > The helicopter rises up over the ridge line, the noise of the > rotors > scattering the targets below. But the snipers in the doorway already > have > their scoped, high-powered rifles locked in, and the bullets fly > until the > targets pitch forward, kicking and writhing in their death throes. > The latest battlefield description from Afghanistan? No. It's the > next > battlefield from the rolling, wooded hills near Madison, Wisconsin. > The > snipers are employees of the Wisconsin Department of Natural > Resources. The > targets? White-tailed deer, potential carriers of a deadly disease > that may > also infect people. It's called Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), and > it's > steadily spreading across North America. > "CWD clearly originated in northeastern Colorado and now has ended > up > spreading far and wide into many states and two Canadian provinces," > writes > John Stauber, a Madison, Wisconsin, activist and co-author of Mad > Cow U.S.A. > (Common Courage, 1997), which examines England's Mad Cow nightmare > and > whether it could happen here. > The disease, he claims, is traveling faster and more effectively > than nature > could ever accomplish. He suspects this is due to the interstate > transportation of game farm animals. And he blames the expansion of > the > disease on the game farm industry and state agricultural agencies > that act > more as game farm patrons than as regulators. > The outbreak is causing near hysteria in rural Wisconsin. The state > plans to > kill as many as 50,000 deer in the southcentral part of the state, > and deer > hunters everywhere are left to wonder whether their venison is safe > to eat. > Research and anecdotal evidence suggests it is not. And that's scary > news > for the 14 million deer hunters around the country. > Both Mad Cow and Chronic Wasting Disease are kinds of Transmissible > Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE). These diseases aren't viral or > bacterial, > yet somehow they transform or "fold" proteins in brain cells called > prions. > When enough infected prions deposit themselves in the brain, > microscopic > ruptures form in the brain cells. Prior to death, behavioral changes > become > apparent. > As the disease progresses, infected cattle become very agitated, > kicking > violently with no provocation. They also have trouble eating and > swallowing, > and usually lose weight. Similarly, deer with Chronic Wasting > Disease stop > eating. Their resulting emaciated state gives the disease its name. > They > also shy away from fellow animals, begin to slobber uncontrollably, > and walk > in circles. > As with all TSEs, Chronic Wasting Disease has no cure and is always > fatal. > The only way to test for it in elk and cattle is to kill them and > examine > brain samples under a microscope. A live test for deer was recently > developed using a tonsil biopsy, but it's not yet clear how accurate > this > is. > The human version of TSE is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease > (pronounced > Croytz-feld Yawkob). People with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease > experience > symptoms similar to Alzheimer's, including memory loss and > depression, > followed by rapidly progressive dementia and death usually within a > year. > While Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease is rare (humans literally have a > one-in-a-million chance of getting it), over the last few years > three young > deer hunters (from Utah, Oklahoma, and Maine) died of the illness. > Those deaths sparked an investigation by the Centers for Disease > Control and > Prevention, largely because the three hunters were younger than 30, > which is > extremely rare for Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (68 is the median age > for > deaths resulting from the illness). While it found no connection to > Chronic > Wasting Disease-infected venison, the Centers for Disease Control > and > Prevention also had no way to test deer these hunters had already > consumed. > The agency did kill and test some deer where the victims of the > disease had > hunted. All the animals tested negative. There was evidence, though, > that > all the hunters were exposed to elk from Colorado or Wyoming, > possibly from > areas where Chronic Wasting Disease is prevalent. However, it was > impossible > for center investigators to know if those particular elk were > infected. > Dr. Thomas Pringle thinks it's very likely that Chronic Wasting > Disease can > harm people. A molecular biologist who for five years covered TSE > diseases > for Sperling Biomedical Foundation in Oregon, Pringle notes that > game > agencies in Colorado and Wyoming have spent the last two decades > assuring > hunters there was no scientific proof that anyone had ever died from > eating > Chronic Wasting Disease-tainted venison. Yet, Pringle says, the > research on > Chronic Wasting Disease's potential human health risks is virtually > nonexistent. He contends these agencies took their position to > protect a > multibillion dollar industry that revolves around deer and elk > hunting. > The research that does exist isn't encouraging. In September 2000, > the > European Molecular Biology Organization published a study that found > that > deer prion materials infected with Chronic Wasting Disease converted > human > prion materials in test tubes at very low rates. "Chronic Wasting > Disease > and [Mad Cow conversions happened] at about the same rate, in this > proxy > test, for humans," Pringle observes, and says similar tests alerted > British > scientists that Mad Cow beef could potentially infect people. To > date, more > than 100 people have died from a Mad Cow-derived form of > Creutzfeldt-Jakob > Disease. > In early April 2002, Byron Caughey, who directed the European > Molecular > Biology Organization research, told a Wisconsin newspaper that while > the > risk of people contracting infection from a Chronic Wasting Disease > deer is > probably low, "it's not a risk I'd want to take." The head of the > Wisconsin > Department of Natural Resources, Darrell Bazzell, publicly admitted > his > agency couldn't guarantee that meat from deer infected with Chronic > Wasting > Disease was 100 percent safe to eat, leading one Milwaukee food bank > to stop > accepting venison. > The epicenter of Chronic Wasting Disease is the Foothills Wildlife > Research > Facility in Fort Collins, Colorado, operated by the state's > Department of > Wildlife. In the mid-1960s, the Department of Wildlife ran a series > of > nutritional studies on wild deer and elk, releasing them when > various > projects were completed. Soon after the studies began, however, > Foothills > deer and elk began dying from a mysterious disease. It was not > identified as > Chronic Wasting Disease until 1980. > The Foothills facility also held a number of sheep with scrapie, the > sheep > form of TSE, which has existed in North America since 1947, and > which > Pringle thinks was transferred into the deer and elk from contact > with the > sheep. He believes Chronic Wasting Disease "must be an extremely > virulent > strain" to jump the species barrier. > "That's the theory," says Michael Miller, a veterinarian and Chronic > Wasting > Disease expert at the Foothills facility. Yet he also says it's > possible the > disease existed naturally in wild deer and elk, and infected animals > were > brought into Foothills for nutritional studies and began spreading > the > illness among the closely confined animals. > In 1981, the first wild animal (an elk) with Chronic Wasting Disease > was > found in Larimer County, Colorado, near the Foothills facility, and > the > disease moved out into northeastern Colorado and southeastern > Wyoming. > Today, the disease is found in more than 15,000 square miles of > Colorado > alone. However, testing by the Colorado Department of Wildlife in > the 1980s > found Chronic Wasting Disease at under 1 percent in elk and 2 > percent or > less for deer. But the rate of infection picked up speed in the > mid-1990s. > Pockets in Colorado today have deer at 7 to 8 percent infection > rates, while > 15 percent of the deer in Larimer County have tested positive for > Chronic > Wasting Disease. > In 1996, an elk at a Saskatchewan game farm was found to have the > disease. > By 2001, the province had 29 game farms under quarantine, and > eventually > nearly 8,000 elk were slaughtered, with more than 100 testing > positive for > Chronic Wasting Disease. > "We traced back all the Chronic Wasting Disease exposures to a > single elk > from South Dakota," says Dr. George Luterbach, chief veterinarian > for the > Canadian Food Inspection Agency. That elk arrived in the province in > 1989 > and died in 1990. Chronic Wasting Disease was eventually found on > the South > Dakota farm, and Luterbach thinks an animal from there infected the > Saskatchewan game farm, which then bought and sold elk, seeding the > disease > into other operations. Citing Canada's privacy act, Luterbach won't > release > the name of the South Dakota farm. > The year 2000 also saw Saskatchewan record its first wild deer with > Chronic > Wasting Disease, followed the next year by two more. Darrel > Rowledge, > director of the Alliance for Public Wildlife, a conservation group > based in > Calgary, says, given that Chronic Wasting Disease is virtually > indestructible (disinfectants and ultra-high temperatures don't > prevent > transmission) and always fatal, historical and scientific records > should > reveal its presence in North America before the 1960s. They don't, > so > Rowledge, like Stauber, blames game farms for transporting the > disease. > "Scientists knew that privatization, domestication, and > commercialization of > wildlife was going to cause horrendous disease problems," he says. > But in > many state legislatures and agricultural agencies, "There was this > presumption that [game farmers] should be allowed to exist until it > was > proven that they were doing something wrong." > Chronic Wasting Disease was also discovered on game farms in > Alberta, > Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and South Dakota from > 1997 to > 2001. By the time Wisconsin announced its problem, Nebraska and > South Dakota > had infected wild deer, too. > But Wisconsin is arguably in the most dire straits. Elk appear the > least > susceptible to Chronic Wasting Disease, with mule deer (a western > cousin of > white-tails) next in line. All the evidence suggests that > white-tailed deer > most easily contract and spread the illness. The exact route of > infection > between animals isn't known, but Miller says casual contact passes > the > disease. This could include deer feeding together, touching noses, > or > stepping in each others' feces and urine. > Most deer in Colorado and Wyoming are mule deer, very thinly > dispersed > (usually fewer than 10 animals per square mile), and much less > sociable than > white-tails. But Wisconsin has an estimated 1.6 million white-tails, > often > at 70 or more per square mile, and in frequent contact. Pringle > thinks > Chronic Wasting Disease could rip through the deer population east > of the > Mississippi with virtually nothing to stop it. > In February, Wisconsin reported that three deer killed by hunters > the > previous fall had Chronic Wasting Disease, its first appearance east > of the > Mississippi River. After further testing found another fifteen deer > with > Chronic Wasting Disease approximately 20 miles west of Madison, the > Department of Natural Resources announced it would try to eradicate > all the > deer (estimated at more than 25,000) in the 360-square-mile area, > figuring > fewer deer will slow the spread of the disease. The Department of > Natural > Resources began giving away free hunting permits this June, vowing > a > near-continuous hunt in the fall. The state legislature and the > governor > also gave the agency the legal right to shoot deer from roads and, > if > necessary, from helicopters. > The Resources Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives held > Chronic > Wasting Disease hearings in mid-May, and Wisconsin Governor Scott > McCallum, > who had asked the federal government for $18.5 million to fight the > disease, > testified that Chronic Wasting Disease could destroy Wisconsin's > wildlife > and hunting heritage. While Wisconsin Congressmen chimed in > supportively, > not everyone was a booster. > Representative Jay Inslee, Democrat of Washington, asked McCallum > about a > 1998 Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources memo on Chronic > Wasting > Disease-exposed elk coming onto Wisconsin game farms. Why hadn't > Wisconsin > taken more precautions to keep out the disease? he asked. McCallum > insisted > state agencies had taken the appropriate steps, but Inslee doesn't > buy it. > "There were at least two specific instances where other states had > informed > Wisconsin that Chronic Wasting Disease-infected [or exposed] herds > had sent > elk to Wisconsin," Inslee says. "Even in light of this, Wisconsin > didn't > require mandatory testing and inspection of game farms." > "It's important to note that there's never been a case in Wisconsin > of > Chronic Wasting Disease in an elk ranch or game farm," says Henry > Kriegel of > a Montana public relations firm that represents a large game farm > association. Wisconsin's discovery of Chronic Wasting Disease in > wild deer, > he argues, has "become an opportunity for those who oppose game > farming to > get media attention and create leverage for their position against > game > farming." > The first part of Kriegel's statement is true. Yet he doesn't reveal > the > whole picture. > For example, the voluntary monitoring plan had only 40 of the > state's 272 > elk farmers signed up by the summer of 2000, and just 80 by May > 2002. > Wisconsin's 570 deer farmers ignored the voluntary program almost > entirely. > Flaws with no mandatory testing were apparent in October 2001, > after > Colorado discovered a Chronic Wasting Disease outbreak on a number > of game > farms. At that point, 450 elk had been shipped to game farms in > other > including 19 to Wisconsin. The Department of Agriculture, Trade, > and > Consumer Protection either quarantined or killed and tested these > elk, > except for two elk which the department wasn't able to locate. They > had died > before the investigation, and no one is sure where the carcasses > are. A > third carcass was recovered, but it was so decomposed that a brain > sample > couldn't be taken. > Game farm regulations concerning Chronic Wasting Disease vary by > state, but > in the past someone could import nearly any animal as long as it had > a > health certificate. That process could find detectable diseases like > bovine > tuberculosis, but did little for the nontestable Chronic Wasting > Disease. > Once a state finds Chronic Wasting Disease, though, the whole game > changes. > South Dakota and Nebraska, for example, now require game farms to > import > animals only from operations certified as Chronic Wasting > Disease-free for > at least five years. Wisconsin put such a regulation into effect > following > its discovery of the outbreak. > Many states recently closed their borders to elk or deer from states > with > Chronic Wasting Disease. But, as with much of the regulatory > framework > surrounding game farms, this was done only after years of interstate > trade > in game farm animals. > The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in September 2001, declared a > Chronic > Wasting Disease emergency nationwide and announced its intention to > wipe out > the disease. With agriculture its regulatory focus, though, the > department's > efforts are concentrated on the game farm industry, not the spread > of the > disease in the wild. Among its initiatives is to provide indemnity > monies > (about $3,000 per elk) to game farms found with Chronic Wasting > Disease > where the standard management procedure is euphemistically called > "depopulation." That is, slaughtering all the animals. > The U.S. Department of Agriculture took a more proactive approach > this > spring, actually buying up the stock of fifteen game farms in > Colorado, even > though no Chronic Wasting Disease was ever found in these > facilities. The > department then "depopulated" them to the tune of approximately > 1,200 elk. > No word yet if game farms in other places with Chronic Wasting > Disease, like > Wisconsin, will now be bought up, too, or if the Department of > Agriculture > will also try to eradicate Chronic Wasting Disease in the wild -- or > if it > can. > In most states, game farms are regulated by agriculture departments, > though > that wasn't always the case. In Wisconsin, for example, the > Department of > Natural Resources oversaw game farms until the mid-1990s, when the > state > legislature and then-Governor Tommy Thompson shifted responsibility > to the > Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection, a move > the game > farmers applauded. > Rowledge says these regulatory shifts across the United States > weren't > accidental. In the 1970s, more and more potential game farmers > wanted to set > up operations so they could sell elk velvet (the soft material that > peels > off newly formed antlers, which is marketed as a nutritional > supplement and > aphrodisiac), host "canned" hunts where animals are shot inside > these farms, > and market elk meat. > Despite tall fences, game farms have a well-documented history of > captive > and wild animals intermingling. For state wildlife biologists, the > big > concern was game farms bringing in diseases. "Whenever you move an > animal," > Rowledge says, "you're moving all the diseases and parasites the > animal has > in it and on it. You have no choice." > So state wildlife agencies generally opposed these farms. "When > there was > resistance," Rowledge says, "the game farmers sought to put > themselves under > the jurisdiction of bureaucracies that were friendly to their > ideas." > Stauber thinks the federal government must step in with an > eradication > program or Chronic Wasting Disease will expand even further across > the > continent. > "If I'm right, we've got a hell of a crisis on our hands," he says. > "My hope > is that growing public outrage over Chronic Wasting may light a fire > under > the feds to address a problem they've ignore ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.
