- Hello, Jeff - Chronic Wasting Disease - which is simply
Mad Cow disease in deer - is spreading as this post and previous posts
have shown.
-
- Note that 2 mule deer identified to be infected in 2002
were ones that were shot by hunters. I wonder how many deer taken by hunters
have been CWD positive but not identified?
-
- It would be interesting to compare increase in human
CJD cases in areas where CWD is infecting deer, elk and moose. I believe
that some CJD (sporadic) cases might be directly caused by eating deer
meat. I think that people need to consider this possibility this coming
hunting season. Consider this well before feeding deer meat to your family
and friends.
-
- Patricia
-
- Chronic Wasting Disease Found In Black Hills
-
- From ProMED-mail Source MSN news/ ESPN outdoors [edited]
10-2-2
-
- Chronic wasting disease -- long endemic to southeastern
Wyoming and northeastern Colorado -- has been found in the Black Hills
region of Wyoming for the first time, wildlife biologists say.
-
- 2 mule deer and 2 white-tailed deer in 4 northeastern
Wyoming hunt areas tested positive for the fatal brain malady during recent
sampling efforts. Wasting disease was also found in the Black Hills of
South Dakota and in northwestern Nebraska in 2001.
-
- Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologists were not
surprised by the new findings and said it was only a matter of time before
the disease spread further north. "We have verified the disease in
(Wyoming's) Black Hills ... and we are actually surprised it took so long,"
said Joe Sandrini, Game and Fish wildlife biologist in Newcastle. "We
know there is a lot of interchange among deer from Wyoming, South Dakota,
and Nebraska."
-
- The deer collected in the hunt areas were initially suspected
of another disease known as bluetongue, a fatal illness spread by gnats
that does not affect humans. A bluetongue outbreak was expected in 2003
because of ideal conditions for mud-loving insects, Sandrini said. Game
and Fish is considering collecting more deer for CWD testing in the Black
Hills to learn how the disease spreads, he said.
-
- A similar effort is already underway statewide following
a Game and Fish Commission decision in September 2003 to expand CWD surveillance.
The department on Wednesday began taking samples from about 6000 deer and
elk killed by hunters across the state. "We're disappointed to find
those positives (in the Black Hills), but it's not a surprise," said
Gregg Arthur, acting Game and Fish Department director. "That's one
of the reasons -- based on the Colorado experience in 2002, when the state
really started to look for CWD on the West Slope and found it there --
that we wanted to go statewide on our surveillance."
-
- Chronic wasting disease attacks the brains of infected
animals, causing them to display abnormal behavior and eventually become
emaciated and die. There is no evidence that the disease can harm people.
Researchers have yet to discover how it is spread.
-
- The malady has been found in wild deer or elk in Wyoming,
Colorado, Illinois, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Utah, and Wisconsin.
It has also been found in captive herds in several other states.
-
- http://espn.go.com/outdoors/conservation/news/2003/1002/1629068.html
- _____
-
- ProMED-mail
-
- See last year's postings on CWD in Wyoming: 20 Nov 2002;
"Chronic wasting disease has been found in 2 mule deer shot by hunters
in the Medicine Bow Mountains and Sierra Madre, marking the 1st time the
disease has been found west of the Continental Divide in Wyoming."
And on 28 Dec 2002: "In Carbon County, a 3rd case of chronic wasting
disease (CWD) has been confirmed, a sign the wildlife malady may be spreading.
The latest case involved a mule deer shot by a hunter this fall between
Laramie and Arlington, and south of Interstate 80." - Mod.MHJ
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD Please visit my "Emerging
Diseases" message board at: http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa Go with God and in Good Health
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