406LIFE
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Rocky Mountain Labs will be talking about CWD along with FWP. April 11, 7pm at Performing Arts Center at Hamilton High School.
Missoula/Bitterroot Crowd: CWD presentation
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Schaaf
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I would love to hear a synopsis from anyone that can make it.
406LIFE
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Update:
There were three presenters, two from Rocky Mountain Labs and one from FWP, Emily Almberg.
There was a general overview given about the disease that I thought filled in some gaps from the videos that RMEF and FWP have put out. Nothing really new, but helpful with understanding prions and how they affect animals.
Then the next presentation was how they test animals. This was the most informative part. Squirrel monkeys are used first because they basically catch anything given to them; they wanted a predictable model to see if CWD could cross the species barrier. Then they tested them on macaque monkeys which are fare more resistant, and none were affected.
Where it got really interesting was when they use transgenic mice (mice genetically engineered to have a human prion, and 2-16 times the amount we normally have) and then gave the mice one million lethal doses (what it should take to infect one mouse with CWD) and then they ran three different tests to see if they mice returned as positive. There were 88 mice tested; the first two tests showed all negative for CWD. The third test returned four mice as positive. This is when I perked up. Its definitely not definitive, but it absolutely requires more testing and research.
Also of note:
-Not all prion diseases cross species barriers (scrapie does not to humans from sheep), and not all go to all species (CWD does not appear to cross into canines based on anecdotal research).
-There are possibly different strains of CWD that might have impacts we don't know of yet.
-And based on comments and questions last night, there seem to be a lot of people who don't know very much about CWD but are concerned. I think if they had visited FWP's website on CWD, the majority of their questions could have been answered.
Still so much to learn about this and it will take a long time to answer questions based on the incubation period of the disease.
There were three presenters, two from Rocky Mountain Labs and one from FWP, Emily Almberg.
There was a general overview given about the disease that I thought filled in some gaps from the videos that RMEF and FWP have put out. Nothing really new, but helpful with understanding prions and how they affect animals.
Then the next presentation was how they test animals. This was the most informative part. Squirrel monkeys are used first because they basically catch anything given to them; they wanted a predictable model to see if CWD could cross the species barrier. Then they tested them on macaque monkeys which are fare more resistant, and none were affected.
Where it got really interesting was when they use transgenic mice (mice genetically engineered to have a human prion, and 2-16 times the amount we normally have) and then gave the mice one million lethal doses (what it should take to infect one mouse with CWD) and then they ran three different tests to see if they mice returned as positive. There were 88 mice tested; the first two tests showed all negative for CWD. The third test returned four mice as positive. This is when I perked up. Its definitely not definitive, but it absolutely requires more testing and research.
Also of note:
-Not all prion diseases cross species barriers (scrapie does not to humans from sheep), and not all go to all species (CWD does not appear to cross into canines based on anecdotal research).
-There are possibly different strains of CWD that might have impacts we don't know of yet.
-And based on comments and questions last night, there seem to be a lot of people who don't know very much about CWD but are concerned. I think if they had visited FWP's website on CWD, the majority of their questions could have been answered.
Still so much to learn about this and it will take a long time to answer questions based on the incubation period of the disease.
Hunting Wife
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Was there decent attendance? Went to an FWP CWD presentation in R6 last year. There were about 20 wildlife/management types from various agencies that showed up, and exactly 1 member of the public.
406LIFE
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They were probably about 250 people there.
Hunting Wife
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Nice!
shoots-straight
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A lot of the people there were scientists from the lab, and people associated with the Fish & Game. There were 4 members of Ravalli Country Fish & Wildlife in attendance and we have 150 members that were notified.
Brent Race is a young man I've been hunting lions with for quite awhile. He never really imposed upon me what he did at the Rocky Mountain Lab. I was impressed by his knowledge.
Brent Race is a young man I've been hunting lions with for quite awhile. He never really imposed upon me what he did at the Rocky Mountain Lab. I was impressed by his knowledge.
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