CWD news

[Topgun 30-06]

I'm a lot more concerned about the ramifications it can have on mule deer, elk, moose and the future of hunting than I am about it jumping to humans.

Its much easier to brush this issue off when you only think of yourself, and care nothing about future generations of game and hunters.

CWD, and the research going on, should be on our radar, at the very least.

The light-hearted comment about my age that was similar to our other member Schmalts was just that and not made to "brush off the issue", as it is a serious issue and pretty hard to do when I hunt two states every year that have CWD positive animals being tested and it's in the news pretty much all the time now from here to the Rockies! Your comment/assumption implying I care nothing about future generations of game and hunters is also way off base since you have absolutely no idea of all the mentoring of youngsters I do, as well as helping the disabled and Vets go on hunts and opening my property to them so they have a place to hunt. In fact, at this stage in my life with over 60 years of hunting behind me I get much more out of helping others than squeezing the trigger myself most of the time.

 

[belly-deep]

Top Goon, you said in this very same thread that it doesn't bother you much. Hard to believe you are being sincere now.

 

[schmalts]

I remember reading that some states were watching WI closely to see what they can learn from Wi's efforts to contain it. In the end it was all a big fail. Nothing contained by trying to slaughter the herd. Last winter it was found in the county I hunt and it was far away from any known case.
In fact WI even went to an E-register system for deer for the first time this year. This shows me that they don't care as much because they used to get samples at registration sites and now they are just sitting back compared to what they used to do, Just thinking out loud but I have a hard time believing that they will come up with any vaccine or cure for CWD as it must be a low priority compared to the human version and Mad cow. Am I wrong?
Another point about consumption, in WI we kill hundreds of thousands of deer each year. Many of those deer are taken to places that make sausage and CWD deer meat is mixed in with lots of other meat and then shared between many customers at sausage pick up time. But still, no spikes in cases of any humans with the human from of CWD. I know it was already said that it may take many years for this to show up but it has been many years already here in WI. Would I eat deer that looked sick or tested positive? hell no, but you know many have already eaten CDW meat.

 

[shootbrownelk]

Hey, we're leaving Blue Tongue out of the argument aren't we?

 

[thomas89]

Concerning, yes. But what can you do? I lived in Wisconsin when CWD was initially found and their response was laughable. The DNR contacted both Wyoming and Colorado and requested advice. Wisconsin chose to create an eradication zone around where the disease was found and accomplished nothing but decimate a deer herd. On top of tens of thousands of deer, I'm sure they also turned off more than a few people to hunting. CWD is now spreading all over the state, as well as region.

It is true that vCJD takes a longer time to develop in humans, however, Wyoming has a lower occurrence of vCJD than the national average. With CWD being in the herd for decades, we should be seeing the numbers beginning to uptick if there is a link between humans and CWD. I read a while back that Wyoming injected prions directly into primates brains (a much more direct infection than eating contaminated meat) and after years they show no symptoms.

I feel Wyoming has done the best research on the issue in the country. It is a very fascinating thing, those prions. Can't cook them to kill them, can't remove them from the landscape. Very interesting.

 

[Hunting Wife]

I'm a lot more concerned about the ramifications it can have on mule deer, elk, moose and the future of hunting than I am about it jumping to humans.

Buzz is spot on here. Despite Wyoming's insistence on rose-colored glasses, there will be significant impacts. They likely won't be fully realized while we are still roaming the hills, but the kids will see it.

So far CWD is progressing just the way early models predicted it would. Prevalence is increasing (used to be 1-2% in most places, now up around 18-19% or higher), starting to see some local population-level declines. If things continue to go as predicted, we should start seeing some serious changes to age structures, and from there it cascades into a bunch of resultant problems for population dynamics. WHEN it reaches the feedgrounds, the general consensus (outside the Cowboy State) is we're screwed. Control measures are not likely to be very effective for a pathogen that persists in the environment and remains infectious for a very long time.

Schmalts, I would bet you aren't seeing decreased surveillance effort because Wisconsin "doesn't care as much". Most funding for surveillance has been pulled (it was largely funded by the feds). Those are the first pots of money to disappear when the public asks for smaller government. That's why Montana no longer conducts active surveillance across the state.

 

[Slam]

Thanks to those that have given educated (or attempted to educate) those of us without a scientific background on this subject. Much appreciated.

 

[Oak]

I understand the lack of concern many have about CWD. Since I learned more about it a decade ago I have not been too concerned. However, studies like this one out of Wyoming should make us concerned about the impacts the disease may have on herds, at least at a local scale with the right environmental conditions.

Schmalts, I would bet you aren't seeing decreased surveillance effort because Wisconsin "doesn't care as much". Most funding for surveillance has been pulled (it was largely funded by the feds). Those are the first pots of money to disappear when the public asks for smaller government. That's why Montana no longer conducts active surveillance across the state.

Spot on. In my conversation earlier this week I learned that CWD has become a lower priority to hunters, hence it is a lower priority for the state. The CO Dept. of Agriculture used to get federal funding for CWD testing, but it is no longer a priority so the federal funding is gone. Of course, the Dept. of Ag. oversees the game farms in the state, so the less testing and public concern there is, the better they like it.

 

[hank4elk]

I'm more concerned for the critters too,it is out in east NM............IMHO there are TOO many people.
Sorry I'm an equal opportunity bigot,I dislike most people. Critters get a pass.Nothing personal.
Carry on

 

[VAspeedgoat]

Is it correct that here in the east it is not likely to have as much impact as in the west. This due to a much younger age structure and higher kill percentages. We had mandatory testing in gun season this year for my county and the game official acted like they rarely see a developed case, that the positive animals were killed before they were old enough to develop symptoms.

If that is true how does that affect the spread of the disease in a population.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Infected deer begin shedding detectable amounts of prion within a couple of months of infection, long before obvious outward symptoms are apparent. So dying before clinical signs develop probably doesn't reduce exposure enough to make a difference.

Even in the west, most animals die before they get to the classic symptomatic stage. There is some evidence that as the prions accumulate and start to result in diminished neurologic function, the animals become more susceptible to external sources of mortality like predation, vehicle collisions, etc. My guess would be that population level impacts in the two types of environment (east vs west) might look different, mainly because of the different types of pressures animals living in those environments are under, but I haven't seen any research to support that.

 

[VAspeedgoat]

Infected deer begin shedding detectable amounts of prion within a couple of months of infection, long before obvious outward symptoms are apparent. So dying before clinical signs develop probably doesn't reduce exposure enough to make a difference.

Even in the west, most animals die before they get to the classic symptomatic stage. There is some evidence that as the prions accumulate and start to result in diminished neurologic function, the animals become more susceptible to external sources of mortality like predation, vehicle collisions, etc. My guess would be that population level impacts in the two types of environment (east vs west) might look different, mainly because of the different types of pressures animals living in those environments are under, but I haven't seen any research to support that.

Makes sense, thanks for the explanation.

 

[O C Hunter]

Missouri's CWD containment efforts have completely failed. It will be everywhere soon. The game farms should have been shut down, depopulated, and quarantined a lot sooner.

 

[shootbrownelk]

Missouri's CWD containment efforts have completely failed. It will be everywhere soon. The game farms should have been shut down, depopulated, and quarantined a lot sooner.

Amen to that hunter, that's where the disease was first discovered. In a game farm in northern Colorado. Animals escaped, as they always do and infected the wild population. It spread to Wyoming and is now present all over the US.

 

[Topgun 30-06]

Amen to that hunter, that's where the disease was first discovered. In a game farm in northern Colorado. Animals escaped, as they always do and infected the wild population. It spread to Wyoming and is now present all over the US.

Actually it was first found in a wildlife research facility in CO, not a game farm, and I believe that facility was run by the state of CO itself. Anyway, mule deer from there that were either released or got out was how everyone figures it spread.

 

[shootbrownelk]

I must have gotten the wrong information, I read that it was a deer/elk breeding operation in Colorado.

 

[Topgun 30-06]

I must have gotten the wrong information, I read that it was a deer/elk breeding operation in Colorado.

Here is a link with an excellent chronology of CWD showing what I mentioned where it was first found in 1967.

http://cwd-info.org/index.php/fuseaction/about.timeline

 

[katqanna]

Yesterday I was checking to see if a paper mentioned this July at a prion convention, due to be published this winter, was out yet - Zoonotic Potential of CWD, but I havent been able to find it in two days. The abstract says that there is potential of humans getting it and being asymptomatic (meaning the wont show signs).

hronic wasting disease (CWD) is a widespread and expanding prion disease in free-ranging and captive cervid species in North America. The zoonotic potential of CWD prions is a serious public health concern. Current literature generated with in vitro methods and in vivo animal models (transgenic mice, macaques and squirrel monkeys) reports conflicting results. The susceptibility of human CNS and peripheral organs to CWD prions remains largely unresolved. In our earlier bioassay experiments using several humanized transgenic mouse lines, we detected protease-resistant PrPSc in the spleen of two out of 140 mice that were intracerebrally inoculated with natural CWD isolates, but PrPSc was not detected in the brain of the same mice. Secondary passages with such PrPSc-positive CWD-inoculated humanized mouse spleen tissues led to efficient prion transmission with clear clinical and pathological signs in both humanized and cervidized transgenic mice. Furthermore, a recent bioassay with natural CWD isolates in a new humanized transgenic mouse line led to clinical prion infection in 2 out of 20 mice. These results indicate that the CWD prion has the potential to infect human CNS and peripheral lymphoid tissues and that there might be asymptomatic human carriers of CWD infection.

I did find CWD Prions Remain Infectious after Passage Through the Digestive System of Coyotes (Dec. 2015) with some of the same scientists that are looking into cross species transmission.

 

[beginnerhunter]

So after CWD was found in AR I started researching the topic and am now even more confused. I used to think the places with CWD would just have a huge cull, the population would then rebound, and just repeat as necessary. Well, it doesn't seem that simple now. Here is what I've found now:

1) It can be transmitted by bodily fluids and plants binding the prion.
2) It stays in the soil for years.
3) There is a long incubation period where an infected animal can spread it throughout its range.
4) Some deer/elk have a genetic resistance to the illness but can still spread the infection.
5) Many hunters aren't concerned because the incubation period is so long that animals still reach maturity and are still able to be hunted.
6) There have been no proposed methods for humans to contract the illness (yet).

So basically it will continue to spread until most of the soil in North America contains it and all the deer species have it while natural selection slowly culls the more genetically susceptible hosts and resistant ones survive longer. All the while hunters hope it is never found to infect humans. Do I have this right?? Cause it doesn't exactly sound great!

 

[Hunting Wife]

So basically it will continue to spread until most of the soil in North America contains it and all the deer species have it while natural selection slowly culls the more genetically susceptible hosts and resistant ones survive longer. All the while hunters hope it is never found to infect humans. Do I have this right?? Cause it doesn't exactly sound great!

Yep, you have basically summed up the main points right here.