From: "ian glendinning" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [MD] dualism
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2007 17:04:14 -0600
Dan, you said
"Here a good percentage (well over half) of deer are infected with prion
disease (mad cow) ..."
Huh ? what ? how ?
I sincerely doubt it. I'm hard pushed to think of any possible mechanism.
Do you have any evidence or reference to that remark ?
(Or are we just talking the generic concept of a prion disease, and if
so in what sense are we using the word "infected" ?)
Hi Ian
You may (or may not) know that "mad cow" disease (bovine spongiform
encephalopathy) and the human variant (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) are both
(possibly) related to chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer and elk. These
as a group are known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy. It is
speculated that these diseases are the result of an infectious agent made of
mis-folded protein or a prion (short for proteinaceous infectious particle).
This came from a study done in 2002:
"Wildlife disease experts concluded that in the absence of management
intervention, CWD will most likely increase in prevalence and distribution.
There is no evidence that CWD will "burn itself out" if left alone. Further
there is no evidence of genetic resistance to CWD in white-tailed deer or
mule deer. A simulation model suggests that if left unmanaged CWD will
spread widely throughout Wisconsin and will substantially increase in
prevalence to more than 40 percent of adult deer. The model simulations are
consistent with recent findings from Colorado that have shown increases in
prevalence over the past few years in numerous local populations. Prevalence
on some of their local winter ranges now exceeds 25-30 percent. To put this
in perspective, in some sections of Wisconsins core area prevalence is as
high as 8-12 percent. In addition, the known affected area in both Colorado
and Wyoming has expanded to the west and northwest more than 100 miles
during the past five years."
Since then the situation has (supposedly) grown progressively worse. The
disease appears to be spread by animal to animal contact via saliva and
other bodily fluids.
I don't eat deer or elk meat so I have no worries but when I saw SA mention
he planned on harvesting some meat I just threw it out there. Actually I've
read some newspaper articles recently that claimed the "over 50%" figure I
gave but that may or may not be correct. I'm not sure any definitive studies
have been done on the wild deer and elk population.
Better safe than sorry though, right? For more information just Google prion
or chronic wasting disease and you'll find much info.
Thank you for your comments,
Dan
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