Hi Dan, Thanks for that. I hadn't heard of CWD in natural populations of deer and elk. I learn something new every day.
A bit casual of you to suggest equating it with mad cow - BSE and HVCJD - and over 50% population, but you're right these are a scary class of diseases. Natural mutations of proteins to prion - virus like - fragments that make them transmissible even if their original arising, their disease causing effects and their transmissibility are relatively rare and random. I won't say any more until I know a little more about it, but I suspect this is a balance of risks question - the risk of alternatives to the original risk .... but no point taking a risk there is no need to take, as you say. Thanks again. Ian On 2/13/07, Dan Glover <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >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 Wisconsin's 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 > > > > moq_discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ > moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
